Labor Day Holiday Weekend
As Americans drift into end of summer celebrations—cookouts, last trips to the beaches, back to school, start of college football season, shopping—the traditions marking the seasonal change from Summer to Fall has changed too. What is influencing our way of life today?
Changes to Traditions
The rate of change. Think of it as a rhythm. Going from classical instrumental music to electronic synthesized music. The sounds we are listening to are no longer crickets and rustling of tree branches like our ancestors. They sat on their porches at night because they did not have AC and lived in more rural environments. Now, the sounds are rich and enticing coming from state-of-the-art screens and sound systems. Most people no longer live in farming areas but in urban or suburban areas.
Rhythms
In the software development life cycle, it is like the change from the Waterfall method to the Agile method. The waterfall method is longer, has more requirements up-front before going to the next stage. It could take years to build a product. Industry used this method to build cars, rockets, homes in our previous generation. Today, we want things fast, so we build fast or is it vice versa? Anyhow, so we work with smaller teams, communicate expectations sooner, build prototypes sooner so we can see the end product sooner. Why? It is more efficient and waste less time to get a better product. The cadence or rhythm of communication has changed from waiting lengthy periods for feedback to interacting sooner and being nimble to change and accomplish the task.
Energy Efficiency
The race for resources started since humans have been on earth—progressing from dung to wood to coal to oil to natural gas to nuclear. Efficiency in energy usage going up with each type of resource available and used. Human ingenuity and knowledge also led to better efficiency. Stickers on our appliances now rate the Energy Efficiency. Some of our big-ticket purchases like cars, homes and appliances are based on efficiency. Why? We do not want to pay more for utility bills and gas. If you have money, you may not care as much.
Technological Changes
So, now that we are in this fast rhythm and with so many distractions, we may have missed the biggest change of all. The movement from the natural environment and human being centered world to the artificial-digital world and artificial intelligence dominance. It has been slow in some respects since the advent of the computer, internet, and iPhone—the span of my lifetime.
Robots
Some say it is because of the declining birth rates in the western world that we need these robots to fill labor positions. Some say we need migrants to fill labor positions. How many yards could be manicured, homes could be built, agricultural produce picked without human labor? Well, we now have robotic vacuum cleaners, John Deer has robotic tractors, we have robotic warehouse workers, we have drones, the list goes on and on. We also have artificial intelligence guiding us on how to be more efficient. Just remember, we are creating this intelligence by feeding it our knowledge and teaching it how to do things. It is a choice.
Artificial Intelligence and Human Labor
Some say soon there will be no turning back and that artificial intelligence will take over human labor. Well, it is like the horse and buggy days to the car, or the horse drawn plow to the tractor. It also ushered in a new era and way of working. With that came displacement of workers who did not know how to drive or want to know how to drive. Same as today—we are coming into a new era—the difference—do we have the resources to sustain it?
AI Energy Consumption
Some experts are now realizing that on planet Earth we may not have the resources to keep energy guzzling AI going. Why does Musk explore Mars? When you look at the energy consumption of ChatGPT (just one type of AI) and the data centers that house the computer servers that service AI—it is astounding—comparable to the energy consumption of entire countries like Argentina and Ireland. Yet, we have decided to go forth and promote and build these data centers. Massive data centers are currently being built in Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia.
AI Race is On
Why? Some say it is a race to AI dominance and therefore military dominance against China—like the race to the moon. The government is also turning agile and done away with mining permits that use to take 10 years to pass before actual mining could start. It has torn down regulatory barriers to drill on federal lands and passed Executive Orders—- Unleashing this AI resource rush for critical minerals and other energy needs in the USA. Our government has also bought out private companies or owned shares of private companies like MP and Intel—something unheard of before in the USA. Major reason–China has or controls the majority of rare earth minerals needed for computer chips.
Choices
Yes, for now, AI is a tool, and humans are in control to use it to make our lives better. It can process through the Big Data (all data written, video, photos, etc.,) in seconds that would take us hours, days, weeks or even years to process. It sees patterns that we are unable to grasp. What are we giving up? Our freedom to have a choice to work to earn a living whatever that may be. Something to mull over as you eat that hotdog, mow your lawn, enjoy the beach or lake, or come back from your Monday off…what will our next Labor Day look like?
