A Labor: From Past Into The Future

It is not a secret that nowadays, labor and time are the most expensive parts of almost any production process. Material resources are still significant, but many companies start optimization from the human resources side — e.g., by simplifying processes and decreasing the required amount of work. Let us check the history of physical and intellectual labor and try to predict what is waiting for us in the future.

The Past

In the times before the technological revolution (before 1870), the material resources were hard to get and produce. The price of the product was mostly defined by the price of materials used to produce it, and labor was quite cheap. Urbanization was not an issue, the level of education was low, and it was easy to find a cheap worker. People often work 12 hours a day and more. Automation of work was still a concept, and lots of work was performed manually.

This situation was evident in the physical labor area. Farmers, sailors, general workers — all these professions were low-paid, and it was hard to maintain at least an average level of life for these people. Possibilities for education and improving salary and quality of life were minimal, and a person can be a dock worker for his whole life getting the same salary.

An intellectual labor area was a little better — salaries were higher, and the average quality of life was better too. Possibilities for education and promotion were better compared to manual labor workers but still limited because of logistic and financial issues. However, the number of people involved in this area was minimal (less than 5%), so they did not affect the global situation a lot.

The Present

The technological revolution period (from 1870 till now) introduced lots of changes to the way people live and work. Technical progress became a trigger for the automation of work. People start spending less time to produce more products. Automation of work became a trigger for improving transport and communication. People start to travel for long distances regularly, and improved communication connected people over far distances. Transport and communication became a trigger for urbanization. People start coming to big cities to find a better job and get a better quality of life. Urbanization became a trigger for better education available for regular people. So these people can learn mathematics, physics, and so optimize and automate their work even further. We had come full circle, and we were doing it again and again till now.

This progress leads to a shorter working day — now, people work about 8 hours a day instead of 12. Material resources became much cheaper, so employers started to pay much attention to human resources. Less and less work performed manually, which lead to the disappearing of some professions and the creation of new ones.

Physical workers can now use very sophisticated tools to speed up and improve the performance of their work. In many cases, regular physical labor became combined physical-intellectual labor, as workers have to have in-depth knowledge in many areas to use the tools properly. As a consequence, their salary because significantly higher, and now they can live in better conditions.

Intellectual workers evolved as well. Like physical workers, they are using new tools (calculators, computers) to improve performance. A number of intellectual workers significantly raised, which lead to a situation when people start avoiding doing physical work. In some areas, a lack of physical workers became such an issue. Some employers even had to raise salaries several times to find an excellent physical worker or motivate an intellectual worker to return to physical work. The average salary of an intellectual worker a little higher than the physical worker, but this gap became significantly shorter compared to the pre-revolution period.

So, what is waiting for us in the future if this process is going to continue?

The Future

It is reasonable to assume that the automation process is going to continue up to the moment, then almost all physical labor is done by machines. Combined physical-intellectual labor will remain, but going to be significantly decreased. People will be only controlling, adjusting, and fixing the machines. A similar change may happen in the intellectual labor area too. People are going to use computers more and more, to reduce the amount of needed work to the minimum. And the difference between the types of labor may completely disappear.

However, there are two areas which will remain almost unchanged — art and science. Art was always a mix of different types of activities, and somebody may not even call it labor. A science though still going to concentrate on the new problems, and lots of intellectual workers will work there. Both art and science may evolve and give birth to a new branch. Tools may be changed, but both art and science as concepts are going to remain intact.

People are going to spend less time on work — perhaps 4 hours a day or less. Alternatively, if automation will go very far, then each person may have multiple professions. For example, a person may have five professions, five places of work, and work every day of the week in a new place. Communication will be improved as well, so most of the work will be done remotely.

Quality of life may rise, but not significantly, mostly because natural resources are limited. Because people are going to start spending less time on work they are going to do something else instead — learn, share experience, travel, relax. And new professions will appear to adapt to these changes in people's lifestyles.

This may be the future we will face, but nobody can guarantee that. We may only live our lives, and do everything possible to make the future better than the present. Let the future surprise us!