Indy Johar: Beyond Labour - where citizens care, create and discover
From Bees and Bombs
A "provocation" indeed from a great friend of The Alternative UK, the social entrepreneur and radical architect Indy Johar. In Beyond Labour, Indy continues his theme (pursued often here) of the social, economic and technological structures that could support a genuinely flourishing humanity. An excerpt:
This industrial human economy is coming to an end; we have begun a transformation which is massively signalled by a confluence of drivers and trends, witnessed by the rise of innovation labs & start up culture – all seeking to grow the innovation pie of cities.
Also, the arrival of platform corporates, driving the disintermediation of middle management. And the growing capability of AI, automation and algorithms to manifest the reality of a post managerial city.
In fact, it could be argued that our current paranoia of Brexit and Trump extends from a deep worry for the growing redundancy of human value and labour. And our perceived future as an overhead and liability to the capital class.
The above list could go on, but what is becoming apparent is that process-driven, codifiable labour – “jobs for bad robots” - will be automated and commodified. It is only a matter of time - and it's also time to say, good riddance.
We need to liberate Humans from having to be “bad robots”, in the same way as the industrial revolution liberated us from being bad domestic animals.