While South African trade unions tear themselves apart, toyi-toyi against toll roads and believe in an archaic form of economic thinking, human ingenuity is busy changing the way things are made – with enormous social, political and economic implications that Karl Marx and his acolytes never could have imagined.
The cause of this prediction is a worker that can be bought for life for a one-off payment of R220 000 (the robots we are used to can cost R10 million).
This worker will work 24 hours a day, has no ambition to be a shop steward, and could not care less about socialism – or capitalism.
This worker can be trained in any language to do any number of different unskilled jobs, and does not demand housing, medical aid, a pension or any benefits at all.
Actually, that is not quite true. A regular oiling, and occasionally a replacement of a worn organ are needed.
Yes, you guessed it, this worker is a robot. Not like the monsters that assemble bits of motor cars, this is a human-sized mechanical marvel. It has a “head”, two arms and one leg with castors like a secretary’s chair. It is less than 2m tall.
Let us call these new robots “Freds”. Now we can speak of one “Fred”.
Fred is nimble and agile. Rather like an owl, Fred’s built-in camera allows him to see right round the compass – all 360 degrees. He needs this kind of vision because there will be humans around at some time so Fred must know how to avoid hitting them by accident.
Just so humans know he is there, Fred can turn his “face” towards them – just as you or I would, so he is quite safe working next to a National Union of Metalworkers of SA member – for example.
Because Fred is so easily programmable he can not only perform the tasks he is programmed with, when he is taken out of the box, so to speak, he can move between different jobs.
Fred can be trained so maybe it is goodbye to human resources departments. What a shame that would be.
Programming Fred is as simple as showing him what you want him to do. He follows you carefully and then does it himself. It is early days for Freds but already they are being used in small businesses in the US such as making plastic toys and assembling them, making ceramic shells, spray painting, and assembling agricultural machinery.
Panasonic uses them in making plasma television sets. The company makes 2 million television sets a month with only 15 humans supervising their assembly.
Of course, all this could be like the hype of any new invention. But, what if it is not? What if the industrial world (and our tiny section of it) turns away from using human workers with all their foibles, and instead uses thousands of Freds? It used to be the stuff of science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov. Now it seems closer to a reality that humans will have to face in the 21st century.
Think of it; no more sweat shops in China, Bangladesh and Indonesia, just thousands upon thousands of people with no hope of ever climbing out of poverty. Will this provoke a new wave of Luddites? Probably.
Will trade unions rigorously oppose the use of these new, scarily smart robots? Will attempts to put the clock back fail, as did the efforts to ban weaving machines in Britain 200 years ago?
It is, as they say, a $64 000 question and is one that our trade union leaders should begin thinking about very, very seriously. Our politicians would benefit from bending their minds to the implications the Freds pose to our society, poised as we are between the First and Third World (sorry, “developing world”).
Give Fred powerful arms and caterpillar tracks for legs and it is not inconceivable that he could work in the deepest of our mines. Put rails between our rows of vines and Fred could probably pick grapes. Training him to pick potatoes, or cabbages, or tomatoes may be possible before this century ends.
Here’s another thought: outsourcing repetitive factory work by the richer countries to “cheap” labour in the Far East could dry up as Freds train up to do it at home.
That old cliché “hold on to your hats!” comes to mind. It is going to be a strong wind.
* Keith Bryer is an independent communications consultant.