2030
Can AI therapy help ease America’s mental health crisis? 12/20/23
'Eye Opening': Chatbot Outperforms Ophthalmologists
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diploma. 2030 Contents
Predicted and scheduled events The world will need at least 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent more water than it did in 2012, according to United Nations High Level Panel on Global Sustainability estimates.[1] India will surpass China as the most populous country this year or earlier.[2] According to projections by the United Nations, the world population of humans is estimated to be between approximately 7,800,000,000 (7.8 billion) and 8,500,000,000 (8.5 billion) people. A study estimated that due to continued economic growth in Africa, most impoverished Sub-Saharan African countries will graduate from low to middle-income status by 2030.[3] It is estimated that the global middle class will number about 4.9 billion people, about 66% of whom will live in Asia,[4] and 80% living in what in 2015 is considered the developing world.[5] Overall, middle classes will be the most important economic and social sector, and a majority of the world's population will be out of poverty.[6] Due to low birth rates, developed countries will begin suffering from labor shortages, while aging populations will create a greater burden on workforces to support them. As a result, by 2030, developed countries will be competing for immigrants.[7] Of the world's population, 60% will live in urban areas due to rapid urbanization.[8] It is also estimated that there will be 41 megacities that will collectively contain 9% of the world's population.[9] All but one will be in Asia or Africa due to rapid urbanization on those continents.[10] The international community, including the United Nations, World Bank, and United States, have set the goal of completely eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.[11] Noting a significant decline in extreme poverty since 1990, the World Bank has noted that the end of extreme poverty is in sight and pledged to cut it down to at most 3% of the world's population by this time.[12] The World Health Organization and UNICEF have set a goal for universal access to basic sanitation by 2030.[13] The United Nations has made it a goal that Internet access and literacy will be universal by 2030.[14][15] French demographist Emmanuel Todd forecasted that the global literacy rates will be almost 100% by this year.[16] The World Bank has called for all countries to implement universal health care by this time.[17] According to a report by all 16 US intelligence agencies done in cooperation with academics, research institutes, corporations, and politicians from the European Union and 14 individual countries, the unipolar world order in which the United States dominates will have declined, as China will have surpassed the United States economically and regional powers will have grown in strength, although the United States will probably remain a "first among equals".[18] Desalination will have greatly increased in use.[19] Tidal power may provide 15% of the United States' electricity.[20] Architectural advances will see taller and taller skyscrapers appear, including new "megatall" buildings, with the possibility of a kilometer-tall tower by this time.[21] 3D printing will have grown dramatically in usage, and even buildings and human organs will be printed.[22][23] Healthcare will become largely automated, with machines replacing 80% of doctors.[24] In addition, new advances in medical technology will greatly improve human health, particularly nanobots, which will be implanted in the human body to augment the immune system. Ray Kurzweil argues that most diseases will have been wiped out by this time.[25] Some researchers are aiming for the ability to regenerate human limbs to be achieved by this time.[26] Self-driving vehicles will dominate the roads, and Elon Musk has projected that operating a non-self-driving vehicle on public roads may even be illegal by this time.[27][28] Cars being built during this time, which will be smaller than the vehicles of previous decades, will all be plug-in electrics or hybrids.[19] Due to the ability to order products on the Internet and a massive growth in 3D printing, about half of the shopping malls in the United States will have closed down.[29] Hypersonic passenger airliners may be in use.[30] Ships may be fully capable of running themselves and running on different types of fuel, will require less maintenance due to sensors and robots locating and repairing problems, while construction using advanced materials will make them lighter.[31] Commercial delivery drones will be in widespread use, and the Federal Aviation Administration has estimated that there may be as many as 30,000 of them regularly operating in American airspace by 2030.[32] Advances in robotics will replace many jobs done by humans, and the growing capabilities of artificial intelligence will mean that white-collar jobs will also be increasingly automated.[33] In particular, Ray Kurzweil estimates that artificial intelligence will match human intelligence by this time, and that furthermore, humans will become hybrids with technology by 2030, due to human brains being able connect with computers and being fed information.[34][35] According to US Army General Robert W. Cone, robots may replace one-fourth of US soldiers by 2030.[36] A Quantum computer trillions of times faster than a supercomputer may have been developed.[37] Smart cities will be increasingly common, with over a trillion sensors installed worldwide.[38] A Japanese construction firm, the Shimizu Corporation, in concert with many research firms and government agencies, has plans for an underwater city of 5,000 people called the "ocean spiral" 2.8 miles off the Japanese coast, which will consist of a giant sphere containing homes and businesses situated just below the surface, held up by a nine-mile spiral descending to the seabed, where there will be a submarine port and a factory powering the city by using microorganisms that turn carbon dioxide into methane. The Shimizu Corporation plans to start construction in 2025.[39][40][41] DNA profiling technology will have advanced to the point where the equivalent of the entire Human Genome Project can be performed in seconds using special touch-sensitive gloves.[42] Integrated smart grids, or grids which will use sensors and monitoring devices to determine how much energy to direct to any particular building, based on its individual need, will be in widespread use throughout the developed world. Furthermore, energy production will become more decentralized due to widespread use of solar panels and fuel cells by individual businesses and residences, and these grids will be able redirect surplus electricity to other buildings their area through power lines.[43] China is expected to have the world's largest population of Christians surpassing the United States. Masdar City is expected to be completed by 2030.[44] 2030: A Day in The Life of Tomorrow's Kids (Amy Zuckerman and James Daly; Dutton Children's Books; 2009) 2030 : The Real Story of What Happens to America, a 2011 novel by Albert Brooks[45] Eternal Champions (1993): A mad scientist's doomsday virus is released as agent Jonathan Blade, sent to capture it, is doublecrossed by his government. Metal Slug 3D (2006) Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2004) Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005) Razing Storm/Time Crisis: Razing Storm (2009/2010) Theodore Rex (1995) The Kid (2000): At the end of the movie where the main character finds his 70-year-old self, but – differing from other movies – there were no changes in anything that was seen (planes, dinners and clothing). The Time Machine (2002): Time traveller Alexander Hartdegen stops on 24 May 2030 where he talks to a holographic, artificial-intelligence librarian called Vox. Also in this year, mining is occurring on the Moon for the development of lunar homes. Click (2006): Michael arrives at his son's wedding. Death Racers (2008): The film begins in 2030 (with the outbreak of a second American civil war) and progresses into the year 2033 Repo! The Genetic Opera: The mass organ failures depicted in the film occur in this year. Race to Mars: Humans from the United States, Canada, Japan, France, and Russia embark on a mission to Mars Super: A Kannada-language movie directed by Upendra set in a utopian India in the year 2030. It begins in 2030, regresses back to the current (2010), and ends in 2030. Neo-Tokyo in Akira (1988) 2030 (2014): A science fiction film on the disastrous effects of global climate change. I Do (Young Jeezy song) Andre 3000 mentions in a lyric 'And maybe 2030 our baby, she’ll be nerdy make the whole club swoon' In the futuristic music video for Katy Perry's song E.T., there's a scene at a dump site where a dead bird is in a case, and the case says "Pigeon. Common bird, extinct in 2030." Astro Boy (1980) The Simpsons episode "Bart to the Future" (2000) 2030 CE (2002–2003) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002–2003) Century City (2004) How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014): The framing sequences with Future Ted talking to his children are set in 2030. Phil of the Future episode: The Giggle—Keely is seen twice as a beautiful news reporter and then as an overweight woman who is obsessed with cats. Casi Angeles Series 3 (2009) take place in this year, after at end of season 2, the main characters travel to future Outcast (2011): Forthaven is first established on the planet Carpathia. Melbourne 2030 1 Chestney, Nina (January 30, 2012). "World lacks enough food, fuel as population soars: U.N.". Reuters. Retrieved March 5, 2012. 2 Pflanz, Mike (12 Sep 2013). "Africa's population to double to 2.4 billion by 2050". The Telegraph. 3 "Most African countries achieve middle income status by 2030: Report". Ena.gov.et. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 4 "By 2030 two-thirds of global middle class will be in Asia-Pacific - EY - Global". EY. 2013-04-25. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 5"UN predicts huge expansion of wealth in developing world that will shift power". mcclatchydc. Retrieved December 1, 2015. 6 Tom Gjelten (2012-12-10). "The World In 2030: Asia Rises, The West Declines". NPR. Retrieved 2016-04-16. 7 Friedman, George: The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century, pg. 133-134 8 "Megacities Of The Future". Forbes. 2007-11-06. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 9 "Bright lights, big cities". The Economist. 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 10 "Almost all of the world's biggest cities will be in Asia and Africa by 2030 - Quartz". Qz.com. 2014-07-11. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 11 Mark Tran. "New UN goals call for end to extreme poverty by 2030 | Global development". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 12 "World Bank chief tells Stanford audience that ending extreme poverty is possible". Stanford University. Retrieved December 1, 2015. 13 "How and Why Countries are Changing to Reach Universal Access in Rural Sanitation by 2030 | The Water Blog". Blogs.worldbank.org. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 14 "IFLA Welcomes the UN 2030 Agenda". Ifla.org. 2015-08-04. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 15 "United Nations pledges to get everyone online… by 2030". Thergister.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 16 Todd, Emmanuel (2003). After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13102-X. 17 "UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 « International Literacy and Reading Blog". Blogs.ifla.org. 2015-08-10. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 18 "U.S. Intelligence Agencies See a Different World in 2030". Bloomberg.com. December 10, 2012. Retrieved December 1, 2015. 19 a b Will Fox. "2030 Future Technology | 2030 Urban Population | 2030 Timeline | 2030 Desalination | Jupiter 2030 Mission | Future Timeline | Humanity | Technology | Singularity | 2030 | 2030s | World Tin Reserves | 21st century | Bangkok 2030 | Kidney Cancer Five Year Survival Rate | Leukemia Five Year Survival Rate". Future Timeline. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 20 "Tapping into Wave and Tidal Ocean Power: 15% Water Power by 2030". Energy.gov. 21 Life (2014-12-01). "Tallest Buildings Of The Future". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 22 Kuang, Cliff (2009-08-18). "Food in 2030: Printed on Demand, Crafted to Your Diet". Fastcompany.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 23 "Printable Houses and the Massive Wave of Opportunity it will bring to Our Future | Futurist Thomas Frey". Futuristspeaker.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 24 "Technology will replace 80% of doctors: Vinod Khosla". Impact Lab. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 25 Robbins, Gary (2015-11-08). "Will scientists wipe out disease by 2030?". SanDiegoUnionTribune.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 26 "Researchers Aim to Regenerate Human Limbs by 2030 | UConn Today". Today.uconn.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-14. 27 Stein, Scott. "Self-driving cars will rule the roads in 2030, says Internet of Things visionary". CNET. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 28 "Driving Your Car Will Soon Be Illegal". TechCrunch. 2015-08-11. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 29 Will Fox. "2030 Future Technology - 2030 Urban Population - 2030 Timeline - 2030 Desalination - Jupiter 2030 Mission - Future Timeline - Humanity - Technology - Singularity - 2030 - 2030s - World Tin Reserves - 21st century - Bangkok 2030 - Kidney Cancer Five Year Survival Rate - Leukemia Five Year Survival Rate". Retrieved December 7, 2015. 30 Giordani, Adrian (2015-09-15). "Future - The challenges of building a hypersonic airliner". BBC. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 31 "Ships by 2030 could run by themselves, study finds". Marasi News. 2011-01-11. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 32 "Commercial drone invasion may not be far off". NY Daily News. 2013-12-08. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 33 "Experts predict that one third of jobs will be replaced by robots". Business Insider. 2015-05-01. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 34 Eugenios, Jillian (2015-06-04). "Ray Kurzweil: Humans will be hybrids by 2030 - Jun. 3, 2015". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 35 Connor, Steve. "Computers 'to match human brains by 2030' | News | Lifestyle". The Independent. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 36 Atherton, Kelsey D. (2014-01-22). "Robots May Replace One-Fourth Of U.S. Combat Soldiers By 2030, Says General | Popular Science". Popsci.com. Retrieved 2016-04-16. 37 "CAS, Alibaba team up on ...|Culture|WCT". Wantchinatimes.com. 2015-08-01. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 38 McClelland, Jim (2015-06-28). "All you need to know about the future of smart cities". raconteur.net. Retrieved 2015-11-16. 39 "Underwater Cities Could Be A Reality By 2030 | HUH". Huhmagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-16. 40 Katharine J. Tobal. "Japan Releases Plans For Futuristic Underwater Cities By 2030". Collective-Evolution. Retrieved 2016-04-16. 41 "Insane Ocean Spiral proposed as giant underwater city". CNN.com. 2015-01-03. Retrieved 2016-04-16. 42 Will Fox. "2030 Future Technology | 2030 Urban Population | 2030 Timeline | 2030 Desalination | Jupiter 2030 Mission | Future Timeline | Humanity | Technology | Singularity | 2030 | 2030s | World Tin Reserves | 21st century | Bangkok 2030 | Kidney Cancer Five Year Survival Rate | Leukemia Five Year Survival Rate". Future Timeline. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 43 Will Fox. "2030 Future Technology | 2030 Urban Population | 2030 Timeline | 2030 Desalination | Jupiter 2030 Mission | Future Timeline | Humanity | Technology | Singularity | 2030 | 2030s | World Tin Reserves | 21st century | Bangkok 2030 | Kidney Cancer Five Year Survival Rate | Leukemia Five Year Survival Rate". Future Timeline. Retrieved 2015-11-12. 44 "Lessons From a City Built Without Light Switches and Water Taps". TakePart. 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2016-10-23. 45 Maslin, Janet (May 1, 2011). "A Wry
Eye on Problems of the Future". The New York Times.
Retrieved March 5, 2012. 8 predictions for the
world in 2030 We asked experts from our Global Future Councils for their take on the world in 2030, and these are the results, from the death of shopping to the resurgence of the nation state. 1. All products will have become services. “I don't own anything. I don't own a car. I don't own a house. I don't own any appliances or any clothes,” writes Danish MP Ida Auken. Shopping is a distant memory in the city of 2030, whose inhabitants have cracked clean energy and borrow what they need on demand. It sounds utopian, until she mentions that her every move is tracked and outside the city live swathes of discontents, the ultimate depiction of a society split in two. 2. There is a global price on carbon. China took the lead in 2017 with a market for trading the right to emit a tonne of CO2, setting the world on a path towards a single carbon price and a powerful incentive to ditch fossil fuels, predicts Jane Burston, Head of Climate and Environment at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory. Europe, meanwhile, found itself at the centre of the trade in cheap, efficient solar panels, as prices for renewables fell sharply. 3. US dominance is over. We have a handful of global powers. Nation states will have staged a comeback, writes Robert Muggah, Research Director at the Igarapé Institute. Instead of a single force, a handful of countries – the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, India and Japan chief among them – show semi-imperial tendencies. However, at the same time, the role of the state is threatened by trends including the rise of cities and the spread of online identities, 4. Farewell hospital, hello home-spital. Technology will have further disrupted disease, writes Melanie Walker, a medical doctor and World Bank advisor. The hospital as we know it will be on its way out, with fewer accidents thanks to self-driving cars and great strides in preventive and personalised medicine. Scalpels and organ donors are out, tiny robotic tubes and bio-printed organs are in. 5. We are eating much less meat. Rather like our grandparents, we will treat meat as a treat rather than a staple, writes Tim Benton, Professor of Population Ecology at the University of Leeds, UK. It won’t be big agriculture or little artisan producers that win, but rather a combination of the two, with convenience food redesigned to be healthier and less harmful to the environment. 6. Today’s Syrian refugees, 2030’s CEOs. Highly educated Syrian refugees will have come of age by 2030, making the case for the economic integration of those who have been forced to flee conflict. The world needs to be better prepared for populations on the move, writes Lorna Solis, Founder and CEO of the NGO Blue Rose Compass, as climate change will have displaced 1 billion people. 7. The values that built the West will have been tested to breaking point. We forget the checks and balances that bolster our democracies at our peril, writes Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. 8. “By the 2030s, we'll be
ready to move humans toward the Red Planet.”
What’s more, once we get there, we’ll probably
discover evidence of alien life, writes Ellen Stofan, Chief
Scientist at NASA. Big science will help us to answer big
questions about life on earth, as well as opening up
practical applications for space technology. 21
technology tipping points we will reach by 2030 Many emerging technologies that you hear about today will reach a tipping point by 2025, according to a recent report from The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society. The council surveyed more than 800 executives and experts from the technology sector to share their timeline for when technologies would become mainstream. From the survey results, the council identified 21 defining moments, all of which they predict will occur by 2030. Here’s a look at the technological shifts you can expect during the next 14 years. 90% of the population will have unlimited and free data storage by 2018. Deleting files to make room for files is going to become a thing of the past. In fewer than three years, about 90% of people will have unlimited and free data storage that will ultimately be ad-supported, according to the report. We are already seeing some companies offer cheap or completely free service. For example, Google Photos already offers unlimited storage for photos and Amazon will let you store an unlimited amount of whatever you want for just $60 a year. A big reason companies are able to do this is because hard drive cost per gigabyte continues to fall. This has spurred more data to be created than ever before. According to the report, it's estimated about 90% of all data has been created in just the last two years. Still, there are signs this may not be the case. Microsoft recently killed its plan that offered unlimited storage on its cloud service OneDrive. The first robotic pharmacist will arrive in the US 2021. Robots already have a big presence in the manufacturing industry, but as they become more advanced we will see them enter new service oriented jobs. In fact, respondents predict that by 2021 we will even have first robot pharmacist in the US. (Note: It happened in San Francisco in 2016, I believe .(Read Homo Deus: A brief history of the Future. It made over 2 million prescriptions with no errors compared to, I believe, a 10% error rate for a regular human pharmacist.) 1 trillion sensors will be connected to the internet by 2022. Welcome to the internet of things. As the cost of sensors continues to decline and computing power increases, all kinds of devices will increasingly become connected to the internet. From the clothes you wear to the ground you walk on, everything will come online. And as early as 2022, its predicted 1 trillion sensors will be connected According to the report “every (physical) product could be connected to ubiquitous communication infrastructure, and sensors everywhere will allow people to fully perceive their environment.” 10% of the world's population will be wearing clothes connected to the internet by 2022. Cars, appliances, and other everyday objects are increasingly becoming more connected to the internet. And not too long from now, even the clothes on our back will get a connection. By 2022, experts predict that 10% of people will be wearing clothing with embedded chips that connects them to the internet. This isn’t really too surprising seeing as a number of accessories—including watches and rings— are already becoming connected. According to the research firm Gartner, about 70 million smartwatches and other bands will be sold in 2015 alone. The first 3D printed car will be in production by 2022. 3D printers are increasingly becoming more powerful, capable of printing complex objects from all kinds of materials. Many car companies are already using the technology to create prototypes and to more efficiently create specific parts of a vehicle. Most recently, Audi showed off a miniature sized vehicle it created using its metal printers. But the automotive startup Local Motors is aiming to begin production on a full size car using 3D printing in the next few years. The company has already created several prototypes, but will begin taking orders for its production model (shown above) in 2016. The first implantable mobile phone will become commercially available in 2025. Being attached to your smartphone may take on a whole new meaning by 2023. About 80% of respondents predict that in seven years the first implantable mobile phone will become commercially available. The device will potentially be able to track a person’s health more accurately, while also allowing them to communicate thoughts via brainwaves or signal instead of verbally, according to the report. Implantable health devices, like pacemakers and cochlear implants, have already become more mainstream. And it's likely we'll see more widespread adoption of implantable technologies emerge before 2025. The first government to replace its census with big-data technologies by 2023. As collecting, managing, and understanding data becomes easier, governments may move away from old methods of collecting information and begin to rely more on big data technologies to automate programs. According to the report, this is going to happen sooner than later. More than 80% of respondents estimate that the first government will replace the census with big-data systems by 2023. Some countries, including Canada, have already began experimenting with pulling back on traditional census methods, however, no country has completely replaced the system yet. 10% of reading glasses will be connected to the internet by 2023 Interacting with the world around you will become a lot different when connected glasses become more common. Eighty-six percent of survey respondents predict connected eye wear will become common by 2023. The technology will allow the wearer to have direct access to internet applications will enable an enhanced or augmented reality experience. Eye tracking technology will also enable them to control the interface with their vision. Google, of course, has already introduced similar technology with its Google Glass and is currently working on connected contact lenses. 80% of people on earth will have a digital presence online by 2023. More people will gain a digital identity as internet connectivity becomes more prevalent. Respondents estimate that by 2023 more than 80% of the global population will have a digital presence. According to the report “...digital life is becoming inextricably linked with a person’s physical life,” and will only continue to grow in importance. Companies like Facebook and Google are pushing this effort ahead with various projects to connect remote parts of the world to the internet. A government will collect taxes for the first time via blockchain 2023. Digital currencies, like Bitcoin, use a mechanism called the blockchain to perform transactions. The blockchain is essentially a shared public ledger that everyone can inspect and no single person controls. Those using the system keep it up to date to continuously keep track of transactions. The blockchain technology, though, holds promise beyond Bitcoin. Some have proposed using the technology for public databases, like titles to land or other goods. According to recent article from the Economist, the NASDAQ is even about to start using the technology to record trading in securities of private companies. Blockchain technology is expected to reach its tipping point in the next few years and by 2023 its predicted that the first government will collect taxes using the technology. 90% of the global population will have a supercomputer in their pocket by 2023. Around the world people are increasingly using their smartphones more than PCs, and in developing nations people are becoming connected to the internet for the first time via their mobile phone. As smartphones gain computing power and the price continues to fall, the speed of adoption will only accelerate. The number of global smartphone subscribers is estimated to reach more than 50% penetration by 2017 and by 2023, about 90% of the population will be connected via smartphone. Access to the Internet will become a basic right by 2024. According to the survey, 79% of respondents predict that by 2024 most of the world will have regular internet access. Tech giants like Google and Facebook are currently coming up with creative solutions to connect the remaining 4 billion people who don’t have access to the internet. Facebook’s Internet.org is using drones to beam internet down to Earth from satellites and Google’s Project Loon is using giant balloons that float in the atmosphere to connect remote parts of the world. The first transplant of a 3D printed liver will occur 2024. 3D printers are already increasingly used in the healthcare industry to create human parts, like bone replacements and organ implants. Doctors have already used 3D printing to create part of a patient's rib cage and other bone implants. But bioprinting, which combines bioengineering with 3D printing, will also enable researchers and others in the healthcare industry to grow useable artificial organs. More than 50% of Internet traffic to homes will be from appliances and device by 2024. As more sensors are deployed and more products become connected to the internet, we will see a big shift in internet traffic. Currently, most of the internet traffic in home is for personal consumption, whether it be for communication or entertainment. But by 2024, about half of the internet in the home will be used for home automation purposes. 5% of consumer products will be 3D printed. 3D printing, also know as additive manufacturing, has already made a lot of inroads with designers and in the manufacturing industry. But as the printers become less expensive, more powerful, and easier to use, consumers will also increasingly adopt the technology. This will enable them to print things at home on demand. Demand for the technology has already grown more than it was expected. In 2014, there were 133,000 3D printers sold worldwide, which is a 68% increase from 2013. 30% of corporate audits will be performed by artificial intelligence 2025. AI will increasingly replace a range of jobs performed by people today, including white collar jobs. Because artificial intelligence is so effective when it comes to matching patterns and automating processes, it’s well suited to perform many tasks in large organizations, according to the report. According to an recent research from the McKinsey Global Institute, about 45% of activities people are paid to perform can be automated by adapting current technologies. This represents about $2 trillion in annual wages in the US. Furthermore, it’s not only low-income, low-skill workers that will be at risk. According to the McKinsey research, “even the highest-paid occupations in the economy, such as financial managers, physicians, and senior executives, including CEOs, have a significant amount of activity that can be automated.” By 2025, AI used in white collar jobs is expected to reach a tipping point and about 30% of corporate audits will be performed by AI. Globally, more trips will be made using car sharing programs than privately owned cars by 2025. The sharing economy has taken off in a big way during the last few years thanks to online marketplaces and mobile apps, but perhaps the best example of the sharing economy in action is in the transportation sector. Services like Uber, Lyft, and Zipcar have changed how people think about transport and car ownership. It’s also forced auto manufacturers to rethink their business models. And by 2025, 67% of respondents predict that the sharing economy will have grown to the point that more rides taken globally are actually via a car sharing service and not by a privately owned car. Driverless cars will account for 10% of all cars in the US. 2026 Autonomous cars have the potential to dramatically increase safety, decrease emissions, and change models of transportation. Tech companies like Google and Uber, as well as traditional automakers like Toyota, General Motors, and Volkswagen are all currently working on self-driving cars. But respondents predict that it will be 2026 before the 10% of all cars are driverless in the US. The first AI machine will join a corporate board of directors 2026. Artificial intelligence will increasingly play a more important role in the business world as a decision making tool. Because AI can learn from previous situations, it can provide insight and automate complex decision process based on data and past experiences. This means that the robots won't just replace low-wage, low-income jobs. As AI and robotics evolve, we will see more white-collar jobs also begin to be replaced. According to the survey, the technology will be to the point that the first AI machine will become part of corporate board of directors by 2026. The first city with more than 50,000 people and no traffic lights will come into existence by 2026. Infrastructure will also become more connected in the future, giving way to more smart cities. Everything from the sidewalk and streets to the traffic lights and buildings will be connected to the internet. Smart cities, like a smart home, will be automated capable of managing their “energy, material flows, logistics and traffic,” according to the report. The evolution of connected infrastructure will bring about the first city with a population of 50,000 people and no traffic lights by 2026, according to the report. 10% of global gross domestic product will be stored using blockchain technology 2027. As blockchain technology take off, more money will be stored using the technology. According to the report, the total
worth of Bitcoin in the blockchain is around $20 billion, or
about 0.025% of global GDP of around $80 trillion. By 2027,
about 10% of the global GDP will be stored using
blockchain. Pandemic
Opened New Avenues now. Don't need to waiat for 2030 The healers 1. Sound Therapist The music industry was hit as hard, or worse, by the pandemic than just about any industry, given most musicians rely heavily on live shows and merchandise sales to make ends meet. With little work to be had, some turned to sound therapy — using metal singing bowls and gongs to fight anxiety, depression, insomnia and other ailments exacerbated by the pandemic. Many of these classes began in a virtual setting and have now transitioned to in-person sessions amid wider vaccination rates, extending an earlier budding self-care trend. “It definitely seems like it’s starting to blow up right now,” says Alex Ballew, who recently signed a lease for studio space in Atlanta for his company, Secret River Sounds. “People need it more than ever. After a year of so much uncertainty, stress, anxiety, people are feeling disoriented.” 2. Got a Doc in the Virtual House? Even though Skype and other web services had already been around for a decade, telemedicine didn’t really take off outside of rural communities that lack hospitals . . . until the COVID-19 pandemic forced services for both physical and mental health to go virtual. The remote diagnosis service Zipnosis saw a 3,600% increase in usage last year, and the U.S. and Australian governments, among others, are now reimbursing telehealth appointments. Patients get faster, cheaper treatment, while docs can potentially see many more clients from more far-flung locales. 3. Equity Economist A key part of worldwide healing will be figuring out a more equitable way to share the wealth, particularly after so many lives and jobs have been lost while the richest experienced meteoric gains. American billionaires saw their total net worth surge by $1.6 trillion between March last year and April this year, a 55% increase, according to Inequality.org. That represents one-third of their total gains over the last 31 years, even as nearly 600,000 Americans lost their lives and millions struggled to find work or pay bills. Economists have traditionally focused on what helps economics writ large, influenced perhaps by the ethos “a rising tide lifts all boats,” but the world’s next generation of economists are focusing on equity over sheer GDP growth. 4. Online Nanny or Caregiver As tools for virtual surveillance expand, so does the ability for your children or elderly loved ones to be watched from afar . . . especially when combined with artificial intelligence robots that can hand your child a juicebox or dispense medicine to your parents. Sittercity, among other organizations, began offering virtual babysitting services during the pandemic. While a personal touch may be appreciated after so much distance, making use of virtual caregivers could help reduce both the spread of diseases that are deadly to seniors and instances of elder abuse. Turns out, patients may actually prefer the new model: 36 of 40 participants in a study conducted by Oregon Health and Science University said they were happy with, or preferred, virtual consultations. Read more. 5. Phlebotomist or Geneticist In an effort to fend off heartburn, indigestion or bloating, health-conscious eaters are increasingly turning to food sensitivity home tests to identify the dietary causes of their discomfort. With blood and genetic tests more widely available, people are making informed decisions about their health without visiting a doctor’s office. Scientists tracking this trend are finding huge demand for these services — although skeptics say the work is so medically dubious that it may be no more valid than reading tea leaves. Still, genetic testing is rapidly advancing in other scientifically valid uses, from diagnosing rare diseases early to aiding fertility treatments. The tech-savvy 1. White Hat Hacker Remember those lines at the gas pumps a few weeks back? Thanks to a ransomware attack, the Colonial Pipeline was shut down for days, leading to surging pump prices and many East Coast service stations running out of gas. It was just one stark example of the myriad threats cyberwar poses. President Biden signed an executive order calling on government and private industry to work together to fight back against “malicious cyber campaigns ” and requiring IT providers to report breaches that could compromise U.S. networks, among other measures. One Pew Research poll of 26 nations from 2018 revealed that cyberattacks were the third most feared threat, behind climate change and ISIS. Which makes white hat hackers — coding experts who expose vulnerabilities for the greater good — ever more necessary. But it is a profession that carries serious risks: Chris Kubecka, credited with saving Saudi Arabia from financial ruin, has faced legal intimidation from corporations that don’t appreciate their security flaws being exposed, while Marcus Hutchins, dubbed “the hacker who saved the internet,” was slapped with lengthy charges by U.S. officials. 2. Drone Pilot Joystick jockeys are in for more than a joyride these days. Militaries are slowly replacing jet fighter pilots with soldiers who can steer a drone through a video game-like environment. Everyone from farmers and conservationists to insurance companies and video crews are sending commercial drones into the skies. While the salary potential for these jobs is as hard to pin down as the drones themselves, Glassdoor estimates that yearly earnings range from $33,000 to $79,000 — and that doesn’t include drone pilots who choose to freelance. 3. Deepfake Animator Fears of election-altering deepfakes in 2020 never quite came true, but the proliferation of deepfakes will only increase as the tech improves : DeepTrace Technologies counted close to 8,000 deepfake videos online in December 2018 and watched that number nearly double by September 2019. However, deepfake careers don’t have to be nefarious. A skilled deepfake animator could help influencers create more social media content, for example, or solve a key problem filmmakers face with big names: lack of access. China has already used deepfake tech to create a 24/7 news anchor that could work “tirelessly ” day and night. Still, the potential dangers are abundant. 4. Internet Archivist Love history? Historians are accustomed to working with ancient texts, but as data shifts increasingly online, massive amounts of information are at risk of being lost forever — unless they are preserved. We’re talking about everything from six-second Vine videos created by hundreds of millions of users to news archives that evaporated in the wake of bankruptcy to digital content “vaporized” by design updates. The number of archivist positions is expected to grow 11% from 2019 to 2029, a much faster rate than other professions, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 5. Blockchain Engineer The value of blockchain is that it is on a ledger that can be tracked, but the ramifications of that tech have yet to be fully realized. Now that banks and major companies are making significant investments in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, governments are likely to take the industry more seriously as well — spurring demand for people who are crypto savvy and know how to get the most out of blockchain. The recreation innovators 1. Robo Pimp Sex dolls are all the rage in Asia, with hotels springing up in Taiwan and mainland China where people can book a night with an almost lifelike companion. And the interest is truly going global: Australia, Norway, Finland, Denmark and the U.S. led in Google searches for sex dolls. As AI matures and robots become more capable of mimicking human speech and movement, human pimps capable of matching customers with their ideal companion will take “robo-prostitution” to the next level. There is already a term for mechanized lovers: B.O.B. . . . your battery-operated boyfriend. Of course, not all robot love includes plastic: Everything from girlfriend chatbots to therapist apps could become part of our autonomous amorous futures. 2. Speakeasy Operator If people prefer more intimate settings over bars in the post-pandemic world, speakeasies could rise to a prominence unseen since Prohibition. Booze delivery straight to your door, made possible by the government finally removing puritanical laws stifling alcoholic e-commerce to promote social distancing, led to skyrocketing U.S. online sales. Startups like Thirstie, Speakeasy Co. and Drizly — the latter bought by Uber for $1.1 billion — are catering to consumers’ new appetite for home delivery. And while speakeasy-style bars could proliferate, it’s also not hard to imagine people promoting their homes as boozy retreats: Think Airbnb for speakeasies. 3. Weed Ph.D. Marijuana scientists have typically been forced to grow their knowledge secretly. But as the legalization of weed spreads — strengthening the economics around the weed economy, there is a need for more trained professionals. Oaksterdam University in California calls itself the first “cannabis college,” while Northern Michigan University offers a degree in medicinal plant chemistry. The University of Vermont and Florida Gulf Coast University are offering relevant coursework as well, paving the way for pot pop quizzes. 4. Professional AI Athlete Coach Physical sports with human athletes remain hugely popular, but esports are becoming a billion-dollar business. Cut to the merger of the two: AI athletes created by engineers and programmers who may even helm the controls to boot. The moral and health issues plaguing violent sports, from UFC to American football, are bound to catch up to them as more research into the effects of CTE reveals the dangers to humans. Plus, there are already three robot-related, Olympic-level competitions — World Robot Olympiad, RoboRAVE International and RoboGames (which features more than 70 events, including robot soccer, sumo and firefighting). Will young robotics club members become the new high school jocks? 5. VR Tour Guide Tourism and travel is a trillion-dollar industry. And as virtual reality tech improves and becomes more widely accessible, would-be travelers are considering the benefits of seeing the world from the safety of their home — a logic that’s even harder to argue with since the pandemic. A number of virtual tour guide companies have cropped up to meet the growing demand for interactivity, especially as standard smartphones can be easily transformed into VR headsets with an app and some cardboard and plastic fashioned into a viewer. 6. Marriage Proposal Planner The promposal generation is growing up . . . and getting engaged. With social media fueling a desire to continually one-up one’s peers, proposal planning is primed to become a big business. One U.S. company, The Yes Girls, has more than 3,000 clients who’ve paid thousands for its proposal service, with one customer spending $100,000 to pop the question on a private island. Another company, The Heart Bandits, has raked in over $5 million planning proposals for athletes and business executives across five continents. The agents of change 1. Chief Ethics Officer Consumers want the companies they support to share their values. As a result, businesses are being held accountable for the ethical ramifications of their products like never before, particularly as they stretch into morally fraught fields. In response, more C-suites are adding a new title to the mix: chief ethics officer. These other CEOs are taking a crucial role in confronting a wide array of topics. Consider medicine, which is increasingly grappling with hot-button issues like bias in clinical trials and gene banks and the problem of unequal health outcomes for people of color. Then there’s the world of AI, which is being forced to address charges of racial bias in its facial-recognition technology. 2. Digital-First Educator No more snow days. Not after COVID-19 ensured that online teaching isn’t going away. Teachers who excel at virtual instruction are the future. Jonte Lee turned his home kitchen in Washington, D.C., into a chemistry classroom to live stream for his students during the pandemic. The African American physics teacher has a speech impediment but worked to show his students that they “can do anything. ” Indian teacher Ranjitsinh Disale, who won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize from the Varkey Foundation in December, learned new languages and created QR-coded lesson plans to help his students. The latter tactic has spread across the Indian state of Maharashtra and proved essential when schools closed during lockdowns. 3. Economic Security Officer In Japan, the government is requiring companies in certain strategic industries — including semiconductors, nuclear power and AI — to appoint an executive charged with protecting their exclusive technologies from intellectual property theft. That initiative reflects a broader global concern as countries participate in an innovation arms race with geopolitical stakes. China is often accused of surreptitiously seizing others’ intellectual property, although that charge is shifting as U.S. and European companies are increasingly being called out for copying Chinese tech innovations. Though companies have always tried to hide their secret sauce, the digital world is generating new threats that may require dedicated economic security officers to combat. 4. Climate Change Insurance Agent A majority of insurers are citing
climate change as one of the biggest challenges their
industry faces, pointing to events such as wildfires in
California and floods in Iowa. That’s led to an
increase in companies that are unwilling to do business in
high-risk environments. However, startup insurers are seeing
an opportunity in running
toward the flames (or waters,
winds and other environmental scourges). To pull it off,
they will need agents with skills tailored to assessing the
volatile threats posed by a warming planet. Gen
Z does not dream of labor “I don’t have goals. I don’t have ambition. I only want to be attractive.” This apathetic declaration is the start of a TikTok rant that went viral for its blatant message: to reject hard work and indulge in leisure. Thousands of young people have since remixed the sound on the app, providing commentary about their post-college plans, dream jobs, or ideal lifestyles as stay-at-home spouses. Over the past two years, young millennials and members of Gen Z have created an abundance of memes and pithy commentary about their generational disillusionment toward work. The jokes, which correspond with the rise of anti-work ideology online, range from shallow and shameless (“Rich housewife is the goal”) to candid and pessimistic. “I don’t want to be a girlboss. I don’t want to hustle,” declaimed another TikTok user. “I simply want to live my life slowly and lay down in a bed of moss with my lover and enjoy the rest of my existence reading books, creating art, and loving myself and the people in my life.” Many have taken to declaring how they don’t have dream jobs since they “don’t dream of labor.” This buzzy phrase, popularized on social media in the pandemic, rejects work as a basis for identity, framing it instead as an act to pursue out of financial necessity. To quote the billionaire Kim Kardashian, it does seem like nobody wants to work these days. Nobody wants to work in jobs where they are underpaid, underappreciated, and overworked — especially not young people. The reality is much more complicated. American workers across various ages, industries, and income brackets have experienced heightened levels of fatigue, burnout, and general dissatisfaction toward their jobs since the pandemic’s start. The difference is, more young people are airing these indignations and jaded attitudes on the internet, often to viral acclaim. Today’s young people are not the first to experience economic hardship, but they are the first to broadcast their struggles in ways that, just a decade ago, might alienate potential employers or be deemed too radical. Such attitudes might abate with age, but the Great Resignation has inspired a generation of workers to speak critically — and cynically — about the role of labor in their lives. As a result, zoomers (and millennials, to an extent) have been touted, perhaps undeservedly, as beacons of anti-capitalism and pivotal figures in the nationwide quitting spree. Activists are hopeful that the current pro-worker momentum can be harnessed into legislative or union-based gains. Still, it’s too early to tell whether this brazen anti-work ethos can effectively support and fuel labor organizing. America’s youngest workers, who have a lifetime’s worth of labor ahead of them, are not afraid to publicly quit their jobs or put employers on blast. But will these virtual acts of employee resistance culminate in lasting systemic change? Business Insider recently cited data claiming that emboldened Gen Z workers were more “likely to change jobs more often than any other generation,” and a recent Bloomberg poll found that millennials, followed by zoomers, are the most likely to leave their current position for a higher salary. Gen Z workers change jobs more often than any other generation because they're prioritizing happiness, high expectations, and raises Generational stereotypes and categorizations, for better or for worse, have pervaded our perception of American work culture and the workplace. These age-based categorizations are usually reductive, and exclude key factors like education level, social class, race, and gender in their analyses. Still, they do offer a revealing read into the ambitions and aspirations of the country’s youngest workers, regardless of whether they’re actively leaving their jobs. While it’s certainly easy to group workers by age, more emphasis should be placed on when people enter the workforce, the coinciding state of the economy, and the various safety net programs in place, said Sarah Damaske, an associate professor of sociology and labor and employment relations at Penn State University. “It’s not necessarily that different generations hold different attitudes about work,” Damaske argued. “For millennials and for some members of Gen Z, they’ve witnessed two recessions, back-to-back. This is a very different labor market experience than what their parents and grandparents encountered.” Many zoomers entered the workforce during the pandemic-affected economy, amid years of stagnant wages and, more recently, rising inflation. “My dad got a job straight out of high school, saved up, and bought a house in his 20s,” said Anne Dakota, a 21-year-old receptionist from Asheville, North Carolina, who earns minimum wage. “I don’t even think that’s possible for me, at least with the current money I make. Naturally, this has major consequences for social attitudes about work — and the viability of performing labor in times of crisis. What sets zoomers apart, according to common narratives, is their determination to be fulfilled and defined by other aspects of life. They expect employers to recognize that and promote policies and benefits that encourage work-life balance. For decades, if not centuries, this was not the case. Work has been — and continues to be — a major aspect of the American identity. “Most people identify themselves as workers,” said Damaske. “It’s an identity that adults willingly take on.” The pandemic changed that for everyone, not just the youngest workers. In addition to reassessing their relationship to work, people are reflecting upon their greater life purpose. One human resources manager called it the “Great Reflection,” wherein people are “taking stock of what they want out of a job, what they want out of employment, and what they want out of their life.” More often than not, workers are not content with labor that is unsatisfying, low-paying, and potentially harmful. And Gen Z has not been shy about detailing these expectations to employers and on social media. “I think people are realizing that we just want better for ourselves,” said Jade Carson, 22, a content creator who shares career advice for Gen Z. “I want to be in a role where I can grow professionally and personally. I don’t want to be stressed, depressed, or always waiting to clock out.” On TikTok, Carson has shared tips on negotiating salary, potential employer red flags to be wary of, and her workplace non-negotiables. Her goal is to help job applicants realize that they should not be afraid to ask for what they deserve, even if most of her audience is currently at the bottom of the career ladder. “Even with internships, I only promote paid opportunities,” Carson said. “There’s so much valuable free knowledge out there. More people are realizing that they can make career moves or requests they otherwise didn’t think they could.” In some cases, workers are quitting without anything lined up. It’s a common rallying cry on #QuitTok, where users endorse and applaud those who’ve left demoralizing jobs. “I’m here to tell you that you also have permission to quit a job that makes you miserable,” said one 28-year-old TikToker, who recently left teaching. This was the case for Nikki Phillips, 27, who resigned from her role in warehousing and fulfillment services in October, after months of dealing with “a toxic work environment.” Though some of her work can be done remotely, Phillips was required to be in the office full time, and eventually she contracted Covid-19 (she was fully vaccinated). The final straw, she said, was when her boss made her feel guilty for being out sick. “Life is about so much more than working yourself to death,” Phillips said. “I don’t want to keep working 40 hours a week, coming home only to have four hours a night to spend with my kids and boyfriend, and do it all again the next day.” Phillips, a self-described “struggling zillennial,” is a single mother of two who dropped out of community college to start working in her early 20s. She didn’t expect to leave her old job with nothing lined up, but the experience took “such a drastic toll on [her] happiness” that she felt better walking away: “My mental health and my happiness matters more than my salary, but at the same time, I can’t afford to not have a job because I’ve got bills to pay and two kids to support.” And it empowered her to know that so many workers seemed to be doing the same. Phillips’s predicament is reflective of most working-class employees, according to Damaske, who don’t have the financial means to stop working for a protracted period of time. As a job seeker without a college degree, Phillips said she struggles to be considered for well-paying opportunities, even in roles she has experience in. Still, she’d rather take a lesser-paying job that allows her to work from home with respectful managers over a well-paid position with little flexibility and a poor work culture. “I want to work with people who understand that I’m a human being and don’t expect me to be a corporate slave,” Phillips said. While younger workers have developed a reputation for “job hopping,” Damaske believes employers are also to blame. “We really have seen an erosion in the employer-employee contract over the last 40 years,” she said. “Why are young people being asked to make commitments to employers who no longer uphold their end of the bargain? Young workers don’t get to work for a company until they retire. Those kinds of practices don’t happen anymore.” Employers have grown increasingly comfortable laying off employees as a cost-cutting measure, while simultaneously relying more on temporary workers and contractors. Many culled their ranks during the pandemic, so remaining employees often have to take on more job responsibilities and hours. That hadn’t always been the case, according to Damaske. This varies by company, but junior workers are often the easiest to let go. (Research has also found that ethnic minorities and older employees are at higher risk of layoffs, compared to younger, white workers.) Regardless, many young employees, especially those who’ve entered the workforce during the past two recessions, have internalized this job insecurity and might be more eager to jump ship if a better offer arises. According to a 2019 Harris poll, workers under 35 expressed more “layoff anxiety” than their older counterparts. Many, as a result, don’t develop a work identity that is tied to their employer or their current field of work. In fact, more Americans than ever are looking to start their own businesses, and low-paying workers are trying to pivot to higher-paying industries. “A lot of young people are looking out for themselves, whether that means building a personal brand or finding a job that works best for their lifestyle,” said Carson. “There are so many online resources on social media, even LinkedIn, with people providing so much free career knowledge, like offering to look over resumés and even providing personal referrals.” Carson doesn’t think that most zoomers are actually anti-work, at least from a political perspective. In fact, she said, she thinks it’s the opposite: She has noticed more young people publicly committing to quit an undesirable job so that they can devote more time to learning new skills, in the hopes of entering a field like tech, which boasts high salaries and good benefits. Many have also left behind corporate roles to work as full-time content creators or freelancers. “I see a lot of content about people leaving their retail job to try and break into tech,” Carson said. “They’re quitting their job so they can prepare to find a better job.” What comes after #QuitTok, though, is mostly still work. There is work in figuring out how to pay next month’s rent and qualify for health insurance. Some users make retrospective videos, detailing how their lives have changed since quitting a toxic or unsatisfying job. Others document their attempts to switch into an ideal role or industry, which can veer into hustle culture. Instead of emphasizing leisure and personal fulfillment outside of work, these videos lean into a different kind of work identity. The #breakintotech TikTok trend, for example, has been criticized for romanticizing the benefits of a tech job without diving into its realities: long hours, heavy workload, and how developing certain skills, qualifications, and connections can’t be done overnight. WHAT COMES AFTER #QUITTOK, THOUGH, IS MOSTLY STILL WORK “There are more people who are not laboring in a traditional sense, but the way I see it, they’re still working for their dollar,” Phillips said of content creators and independent entrepreneurs. “My dream job is to be a pastry chef. Still, the average pay for a cake decorator is $16 an hour, and I’d rather baking be a hobby that brings me joy.” Most of us won’t ever stop working, although it is healthy to detach from an employer-oriented identity. “What people miss is that the dream isn’t labor,” argued F.D. Signifier in a YouTube video critiquing the buzzy, anti-capitalist phrase. “It’s the idea that [people’s] work and effort will create new opportunities for them, their families, and their children … If I don’t labor, how will my children eat?” Young people understand that they have to labor for their livelihoods, but many, like Phillips and Dakota, believe the existing system has set them up to fail. Bleak economic circumstances — exacerbated by crushing student loan debt, growing wealth inequality, and wage stagnation — have soured their perceptions of capitalism. As a result, the generation has adopted more anti-capitalist language to express these discontents. There is a dissonance, however, between these aggrieved attitudes and the political action necessary to implement change. The country’s youngest workers might be the most zealously vocal online about how labor can be soul-crushingly exploitative and mentally taxing, but they are, after all, only newcomers to the workforce. They might have greater sway in some corporate environments by being upfront about health benefits and remote work flexibility, but these individualized wins have yet to fully diffuse across the workforce — to affect change offline. American workers currently have significant leverage to demand better conditions and benefits. Employers might still hold a lot of power, but swaths of employees are organizing through unions to better the terms and conditions of their employment. Across the country, workers at Amazon, Chipotle, McDonald’s, and Starbucks have petitioned to unionize. Zoomers are a part of this pro-labor wave, but so far, the age cohort’s official participation appears modest. Workers between the ages of 16 and 24 have the lowest union membership rate, according to a 2022 Bureau of Labor Statistics report. It’s likely that fewer young people are being hired into unionized roles, given how union membership has significantly declined since the 1980s. “Most people my age don’t have a clear idea of what a union is and don’t often ask about it when we’re hired,” said Dakota, the 21-year-old Asheville receptionist. Many believe the internet is a useful tool in shifting public opinion, and digital spaces are where young people are first introduced to more progressive ideas. The nonprofit Gen-Z For Change, for example, has over 500 young creators consistently producing progressive content, some of which have highlighted the various unionization efforts across the country. The organization relies on grassroots tactics to draw attention to causes through public-facing creators, who each have their own independent base of followers. Most aren’t afraid to engage with comments (and critics) directly, and their videos often highlight digital organizing strategies that viewers can participate in. For example, members of Gen-Z For Change created a website and tool that can send fake job applications to union-busting Starbucks locations. Some creators have claimed that explicitly political or pro-labor TikToks are often placed under review, which means they’re likely to receive less traction than more apolitical QuitToks. Still, this content is often a scroll or a click away, and digital organizers are hopeful that social media can be harnessed to affect real change. Dakota felt like she was initially
misinformed about why people didn’t want to work, until
she spent more time reading up on labor unions and worker
testimonies. “It’s not about people not
working,” she said. “It’s about not settling
for a job that diminishes their quality of life. I’m
lucky to have realized that early on.” 7
Jobs That No Longer Exist Night Soil Men Vacuum pump for removing night soil from cesspools.Credit: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group In the 19th century, most cities did not have municipal sewer systems. Instead, people relied on outhouses and privies. These, however, were not bottomless pits — they had to be routinely emptied. The person responsible for this unpleasant task was the night soil man. Named because he usually worked under the cover of darkness, the night soil man emptied privies with long-handled buckets and loaded them onto carts, taking the fertilizer to local farms. (But, more often, dumped into the nearest waterway.) Herb Strewers Before the invention of the flush toilet in the 18th century, cities often smelled less than desirable. But if you were wealthy enough in the 17th century, you could hire an herb strewer to keep the aroma fresh. King George III, for instance, employed a herb strewer named Mary Rayner, a woman who spent more than 40 years scattering flowers, herbs, and other natural fragrances throughout the royal residence to make it smell welcoming; popular plants included lavender, roses, chamomile, sweet yarrow, basil, marjoram, and violets. Aircraft Listeners The first practical demonstration of using radar for aircraft detection occurred in the 1930s. By then, airplanes had already been taking flight for more than three decades. Consequently, during times of war, soldiers had to deploy clever methods to find enemy aircraft. During World War I, aircraft listeners used war tubas, which, according to CNN, were “essentially large horns connected to a stethoscope.” Other aircraft listeners used acoustic mirrors, large concrete dishes that amplified sound coming from above. Knocker-Uppers Before the advent of the alarm clock, industrial-era workers who needed help waking up in time for work would hire knocker-uppers. These hardy souls would rise in the early hours of the day and patrol the streets with sticks, tapping on their clients’ bedroom windows each morning. Some knocker-uppers, like Mary Smith, were not fans of the stick method: She roused the local sleepyheads by shooting peas at their window panes. Linkboys In William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Falstaff says, “Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern.” Turns out, that’s a pretty accurate description of a linkboy. Typically a young, low-class male, linkboys escorted pedestrians through dark city streets with a torch. The job eventually became obsolete after cities installed streetlamps. (Incidentally, the phrase “can’t hold a candle to...” was likely a reference to linkboys; anybody who couldn’t “hold a candle” better than a low-class linkboy was viewed as extremely inferior.) Linotype Operators Starting in the late 19th century, lines in newspapers and magazines were often created with a linotype machine. The linotype machine was revolutionary for its time. Before the machine, each letter of an article was individually set by hand into a mold for print. The linotype machine eliminated this process by having operators type each line with a special 90-key keyboard, creating a “line o’ type” set in lead, and then that stamp was used to print the text. This technology was used for almost 100 years, eventually tapering off in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Water Carriers Water carriers still exist, but
they’re an endangered profession. These vital workers
have been around for millennia, trudging water from rivers
and wells to people’s homes. Some used buckets hanging
from a yoke or leather sacks, while others lugged large
tankards over their shoulders. And while the water carrier
was mostly replaced by modern plumbing, some places still
commemorate the once-vital profession. In Hamburg, Germany,
a water-carrier named Hans Hummel is celebrated as the local
mascot, with more than 100 statues of his likeness sprinkled
throughout the city. 1
in 4 US medical students consider quitting, most don’t
plan to treat patients: report - The Hill The report “Clinician of the Future: Education Edition,” which was released by the health science and journal publisher Elsevier, surveyed 2,212 students from 91 countries between April and May of this year. “Students are committed to and positive about their education, but with concerns about mental health, study-life balance, combined with external worries such as the rise of misinformation and looming clinician shortages, some are considering quitting their course altogether, while others are thinking about non- patient-facing roles once qualified,” the report stated. Among the surveyed medical students, 60 percent said they were concerned about their mental health, 69 percent said they were concerned about their income, 63 percent expressed concerns about experiencing burnout and 60 percent were worried about how clinician shortages would affect them. Overall, 12 percent of medical students around the world said they were considering quitting their studies. Among U.S. students, this percentage more than doubled to 25 percent. More than half of medical and nursing students — 58 percent — said they viewed their current studies as a stepping stone to careers in health care that don’t involve treating patients. Tate Erlinger, vice president of clinical analytics at Elsevier, said the reasons students were considering leaving were “variable.” “There were several things [that] sort of floated to the top at least that caught my attention. One was sort of the cost, and that’s not limited to the U.S., but the U.S. students are more likely to be worried about the cost of their studies,” Erlinger said. “I think there’s a common sort of chronic feeling of being overwhelmed by the amount of information that they need to obtain,” he added. Erlinger noted that the high percentage of students considering their studies as stepping stones to administrative and support roles was “surprising,” as those sorts of decisions are typically seen later in their careers. “I think there’s a common
sort of chronic feeling of being 'Eye
Opening': Chatbot Outperforms Ophthalmologists -
2/23/24 An artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot largely outperformed a panel of specialist ophthalmologists when given prompts about glaucoma and retinal health, a comparative single-center study found. The ChatGPT chatbot powered by GPT-4 scored better than the panelists on measures of diagnostic and treatment accuracy when it analyzed 20 real-life cases and considered 20 possible patient questions, reported Andy S. Huang, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues in JAMA Ophthalmologyopens in a new tab or window. Huang told MedPage Today that he had expected that the chatbot would do worse, "but there's no place where people did better." AI obviously can't do surgery, he said, but its ability to answer questions and evaluate cases does raise "the question of whether this is a real threat to optometrists and ophthalmologists." The findings also provide more evidence that chatbots are getting better at offering reliable guidance regarding eye health. When researchers gave retinal health questions to a chatbot in January 2023, it bungled almost all the answers and even offered harmful advice. But the responses improved 2 weeks later as the chatbot evolved, and a similar study or window reported high levels of accuracy. Another study found that a chatbot's responses to eye health questions from an online forum were about as accurate as those written by ophthalmologists. The study by Huang's team is one of many that researchers have launched in recent months to gauge the accuracy of a type of AI program known as a large language model (LLM), which analyzes vast arrays of text to learn how likely words are to occur next to each other. Huang said the new study was inspired by his own experiences experimenting with a chatbot: "I slowly realized that it was doing a better job than I was in a lot of tasks, and I started using it as an adjunct to improve my diagnoses," he said. The findings are "eye opening," he said, adding that he doesn't think ophthalmologists should turn in their eye charts and let AI robots take over. "Right now we're hoping to use it as an adjunct, such as in places where there's a significant number of complex patients or a high volume of patients," Huang said. AI could also help primary care physicians triage patients with eye problems, he said. Moving ahead, "it's very important for ophthalmologists to understand how powerful these large language models are for fact-checking yourself and significantly improving your workflow," Huang said. "This tool has been tremendously helpful for me with triaging or just improving my thoughts and diagnostic abilities." In an accompanying commentaryopens in a new tab or window, Benjamin K. Young, MD, MS, of Casey Eye Institute of Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland, and Peter Y. Zhao, MD, of New England Eye Center of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, said the study "presents proof of concept that patients can copy the summarized history, examination, and clinical data from their own notes and ask version 4 to produce its own assessment and plan to cross-check their physician's knowledge and judgment. Young and Zhao added that "medical errors will potentially be caught in this way," and that "at this time, LLMs should be considered a potentially fast and useful tool to enhance the knowledge of a clinician who has examined a patient and synthesized their active clinical situation." (The duo were co-authors of the previously mentioned January 2023 chatbot study.) For the new study, the chatbot was told that an ophthalmologist was directing it to assist with "medical management and answering questions and cases." The chatbot replied that it understood its job was to provide "concise, accurate, and precise medical information in the manner of an ophthalmologist." The chatbot analyzed extensive details from 20 real patients from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai-affiliated clinics – 10 glaucoma cases and 10 retinal cases -- and developed treatment plans. The chatbot also considered 20 questions randomly derived from the American Academy of Ophthalmology's list of commonly asked questions. The researchers then asked 12 fellowship-trained retinal and glaucoma specialists and three senior trainees (ages 31 to 67 years) from eye clinics affiliated with the Department of Ophthalmology at Icahn School of Medicine to respond to the same prompts. Panelists evaluated all responses in a blinded fashion except their own on scales of accuracy (1-10) and medical completeness (1-6). The combined question-case mean ranks for accuracy were 506.2 for the chatbot and 403.4 for the glaucoma specialists (n=831, Mann-Whitney U=27,976.5, P<0.001). The mean ranks for completeness were 528.3 and 398.7, respectively (n=828, Mann-Whitney U=25,218.5, P<0.001). For retina-related questions, the mean ranks for accuracy were 235.3 for the chatbot and 216.1 for the retina specialists (n=440, Mann-Whitney U=15,518.0, P=0.17). The mean ranks for completeness were 258.3 and 208.7, respectively (n=439, Mann-Whitney U=13,123.5, P=0.005). The results showed that "both trainees and specialists rated the chatbot's accuracy and completeness more favorably than those of their specialist counterparts, with specialists noting a significant difference in the chatbot's accuracy (z=3.23; P=0.007) and completeness (z=5.86; P<0.001)," wrote Huang and co-authors. Limitations included that the single-center, cross-sectional study evaluated only LLM proficiency at a single time point among one group of attendings and trainees. In addition, the investigators cautioned that the "findings, while promising, should not be interpreted as endorsing direct clinical application due to chatbots' unclear limitations in complex decision-making, alongside necessary ethical, regulatory, and validation considerations not covered in this report." Source Reference: opens in a new tab
or windowYoung BK, Zhao PY "Large language models and the
shoreline of ophthalmology" JAMA Ophthalmol 2024; DOI:
10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.6937.
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