AI and Disappearing Jobs! (a.k.a. Roti Kapada aur Makhan)
Sometimes, I like to scan through the Net for the craziest things. Trust me as crazy as 10 things that you can do with a coin! And the most useful thing I found that one can do with a coin, is to save it till it becomes a dollar and then save more till you get more dollars and then buy an ice cream cone!
One such crazy search was jobs that disappeared over time and here is a short list:
1. Bowling Alley Pinsetter - apparently before it was mechanised, human beings manually set the pins back each time a bowler throws a ball.
2. Knocker Uppers (aka human alarm clocks, trust me, the first time I read those words, I thought of something else 😤) - it seems these were the folks who woke people up those days. A close resemblance in the 1990s was the hotel receptionist who would give wake up call, as long as you book it the night before!
3. Ice cutter - up till the time I left my hometown in late 1980s, these jobs were still there as I remember it. Roadside stalls which sold drinks, in my sleepy hollow, usually stock these ice blocks, covered in saw dust to prevent melting and a small ice block would just cost RM0.05 (those days, folks!)
4. Lamp lighters - my late grandpa used to talk about this job, during the times when some estates were lit by lamps (electricity did not arrive till early 1990s in many estates then). The lamp lighters walked around and lit lamps located along the main roads of the estate for the benefit of the dwellers.
5. Switchboard operators - I still remember a few of the ladies in my hometown worked as switch board operators for the Telecoms Department (a.k.a as TM today). If you need to make a call, you have to call them to connect you through. Today, we can just call - for free - over apps like Whatsapp, Viber and you name it.
6. Lift Operators - while it no longer exist as a vocation, in some hotels, Lift Operators are guests novelty. Haven't seen one in ages though, probably because I have not been to such six star hotels!😃
As technological advances grow, there are fears that more and more jobs will disappear, like what happened to the receptionist, the stenographer, the secretary, soon may be bank tellers. But, now let us look at some of the jobs that may not disappear after all. I remember, again late grandpa, saying that throughout his life time, a few jobs never ceased, be it during his glory days in Tanjore, in his small village or in Malaya, after he arrived by boat in early 1990s. Yes, the basics folks - roti, kapada aur makhan (there was even a Hindi movie by this name!) - food, clothing and home. Can AI replace a tailor, or a cook or the carpenter? Well, one can feed all the information about design, fabric and what not into a computer which would then instruct the actual machines to do the measuring, cutting and sewing, which is not rocket science, then again, the design has to be thought of by a human mind, right? And the saving grace is that God has built human beings in multiple sizes, looks, proportions and preferences that custom tailoring can only be done with human leading the way. The same perhaps with food? All info can be entered into a machine that cooks the food but authenticity can only come from the human hands - somehow, I think a bit of sweat and grime from human hands do add to the flavour 😂. As for home, a machine can only predict, suggest but it is the human design preference that determines the final outcome. So, folks, I am very convinced that the roti, kapda and makhan wisdom is alive and well! Three cheers to late grandpa!!!
One such crazy search was jobs that disappeared over time and here is a short list:
1. Bowling Alley Pinsetter - apparently before it was mechanised, human beings manually set the pins back each time a bowler throws a ball.
2. Knocker Uppers (aka human alarm clocks, trust me, the first time I read those words, I thought of something else 😤) - it seems these were the folks who woke people up those days. A close resemblance in the 1990s was the hotel receptionist who would give wake up call, as long as you book it the night before!
3. Ice cutter - up till the time I left my hometown in late 1980s, these jobs were still there as I remember it. Roadside stalls which sold drinks, in my sleepy hollow, usually stock these ice blocks, covered in saw dust to prevent melting and a small ice block would just cost RM0.05 (those days, folks!)
4. Lamp lighters - my late grandpa used to talk about this job, during the times when some estates were lit by lamps (electricity did not arrive till early 1990s in many estates then). The lamp lighters walked around and lit lamps located along the main roads of the estate for the benefit of the dwellers.
5. Switchboard operators - I still remember a few of the ladies in my hometown worked as switch board operators for the Telecoms Department (a.k.a as TM today). If you need to make a call, you have to call them to connect you through. Today, we can just call - for free - over apps like Whatsapp, Viber and you name it.
6. Lift Operators - while it no longer exist as a vocation, in some hotels, Lift Operators are guests novelty. Haven't seen one in ages though, probably because I have not been to such six star hotels!😃
As technological advances grow, there are fears that more and more jobs will disappear, like what happened to the receptionist, the stenographer, the secretary, soon may be bank tellers. But, now let us look at some of the jobs that may not disappear after all. I remember, again late grandpa, saying that throughout his life time, a few jobs never ceased, be it during his glory days in Tanjore, in his small village or in Malaya, after he arrived by boat in early 1990s. Yes, the basics folks - roti, kapada aur makhan (there was even a Hindi movie by this name!) - food, clothing and home. Can AI replace a tailor, or a cook or the carpenter? Well, one can feed all the information about design, fabric and what not into a computer which would then instruct the actual machines to do the measuring, cutting and sewing, which is not rocket science, then again, the design has to be thought of by a human mind, right? And the saving grace is that God has built human beings in multiple sizes, looks, proportions and preferences that custom tailoring can only be done with human leading the way. The same perhaps with food? All info can be entered into a machine that cooks the food but authenticity can only come from the human hands - somehow, I think a bit of sweat and grime from human hands do add to the flavour 😂. As for home, a machine can only predict, suggest but it is the human design preference that determines the final outcome. So, folks, I am very convinced that the roti, kapda and makhan wisdom is alive and well! Three cheers to late grandpa!!!
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