The Great Depression marked a time of widespread hysteria about how automation would lead to mass unemployment. Uhh, sound similar to the headlines today?
In the 1930s, American newspapers started publishing about robots and automation. Mass hysteria spread when papers like the Ogden Standard Examiner spread mis/disinformation about a robot named Alpha shooting his inventor with the sensationalist headline: “Shot by the Monster of His Own Creation.” According to the paper, the two-ton robot developed a “mind of its own” and wounded the inventor who feared it would “get him” someday.
Even the 1934 issue of Time magazine described Alpha as a “monster” to be feared:
“Last week Alpha, the robot, made its first public appearance in the U. S.. One of the most ingenious automatons ever contrived by man, a grim and gleaming monster 6 ft. 4 in. tall, the robot was brought to Manhattan by its owner-inventor-impresario, Professor Harry May of London, and installed on the fifth floor of R. H. Macy & Co.’s department store. Encased from head to foot in chromium-plated steel armor, Alpha sat on a specially constructed dais with its cumbrous feet securely bolted to the floor, stared impassively over the knot of newshawks and store officials waiting for the first demonstration. The creature had a great sullen slit of a mouth, vast protuberant eyes, shaggy curls of rolled metal. In one mailed fist Alpha clutched a revolver. Once it fired its pistol without warning, blasting the skin off the professor’s arm from wrist to elbow. Another time it lowered its arm unexpectedly, struck an assistant on the shoulder, bruised him so badly that he was hospitalized.”
Of course, the series of events did not quite play out that way, and a more accurate story was published in (very) few papers about the pistol having accidentally discharged, simply burning the inventor’s hand. As wildly exaggerated stories spread, so did mass hysteria. Clearly, the bold new world of automation was to be feared – robots of our own creation were going to destroy us all.
When it came to idea of robots taking our jobs, economist John Maynard Keynes coined the term “technological unemployment.” According to his definition it is: “…unemployment due to our discovery of means of economizing the use of labor outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labor” (Keynes, 1933).
So, we cycle back to the idea of automation putting millions out of work. But I want to stretch your neurons today and take this one step further. While automation may in fact be leading to mass unemployment in some sectors, every day, organizations fill the gaps with caulk of a special sort – of meaningless jobs. Yes, these jobs – titles, and all – are completely made up.
They are filled with useless administrative tasks, wasteful meetings, presentations, and so on. For instance, in the 2016-2017 U.S. State of Enterprise Work Report, the amount of time office workers had to spend doing their primary job duties decreased in 2016, from 46% to 39%, and when asked what gets in the way of work the most, workers said wasteful meetings (59%) and excessive emails (43%) are the biggest offenders.
It would seem then, to the contrary, it is not mechanization or automation that will harm society, it is instead a “category of jobs” harming society and moreover, are psychologically destructive to the individual. If one accounts for this category of jobs, then they did in fact have it right in the 30s – around half of the population, give or take, is “without work.” In reality, they, of course, hold jobs, but their jobs are absolutely unnecessary. A lot of people in these jobs are even aware that their positions are completely useless and if their position were to one day disappear, no one would even notice and society would not be impacted.