Pitch
Job automation pitches the entrenched unemployed against the tech-savvy employed, resulting in the new social divide.
Description
Make life easier/more difficult for Singapore?
More difficult
Describe the change
Progress in technological field such as deep learning and robotics made humans increasingly redundant. At the top, professional jobs such as medicine and law are replaced by machines that can make better and more rational decisions. Unlike humans, machines do not have to undergo years of training (while making tons of mistakes) to acquire sufficient experience and do well in their jobs.
At the bottom, machines are able to handle manual tasks better with less demand for rest (maintenance). Companies in high-risk industrial sectors replaced humans with machines in order to reduce workman compensation during accidents.
As the unemployment rate continues to rise, especially among the highly-educated ex-professionals, the unemployed group became large enough to form a political force to fight for their benefits. They saw themselves as being taken disadvantaged of by those new technology elites.
How will this change impact Smart Nation Singapore in 2030?
While the rise of new technology could resolve the issue of manpower in various industrial sectors in Singapore, it could led to the long-term problem of entrenched unemployment in 2030.
Once this group of unemployed citizens reach a critical mass, they would have sufficient social and political resources to overcome traditional stigma associated with unemployment and establish themselves as a political force.
This could create a new form of social divide within the society, beyond traditional demographic differences such as race and religion.
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