The Future of Work in Information Society: Political-Economic Arguments PDF
Preview The Future of Work in Information Society: Political-Economic Arguments
SPRINGER BRIEFS IN ECONOMICS Andrzej Piotr Wierzbicki The Future of Work in Information Society Political-Economic Arguments 123 SpringerBriefs in Economics More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8876 Andrzej Piotr Wierzbicki The Future of Work in Information Society Political-Economic Arguments 1 3 Andrzej Piotr Wierzbicki National Institute of Telecommunication Warsaw Poland ISSN 2191-5504 ISSN 2191-5512 (electronic) SpringerBriefs in Economics ISBN 978-3-319-33908-5 ISBN 978-3-319-33909-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33909-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016939055 © The Author(s) 2016 Translation from the Polish language edition: Przyszłos´c´ Pracy w Społeczen´stwie Informacyjnym by Andrzej P. Wiertbicki, © Komitet Prognoz “Polska 2000 Plus” oraz Instytut Ła˛cznos´ci (PIB), 2015. All Rights Reserved This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland Acknowledgments The author would like to express his deep gratitude to the reviewers, Profs. Bogdan Galwas and Elz˙bieta Kryn´ska, as well as to the internal reviewer, Dr. Maria Wierzbicka, for their very incisive and useful reviews. Comments of an anonymous reviewer in Springer Verlag also contributed significantly to the final version of this book. v Contents 1 Introduction ................................................ 1 References .................................................. 9 2 Ethical Premises and Values ................................... 11 References .................................................. 17 3 Technological Progress in Economics, Market and Democracy Versus Informational Revolution ............................... 19 References .................................................. 26 4 End of Communism and a Beginning of the End of Capitalism ...... 29 References .................................................. 35 5 A Vision of the End of Work and the Emergence of Precariat ....... 37 References .................................................. 44 6 A Possible Scenario of Annihilation ............................. 47 References .................................................. 52 7 A Vision of Informed Society and a Sustainable Redistribution System ........................................ 55 References .................................................. 61 8 Who Will Be Adverse? ....................................... 63 References .................................................. 66 9 Final Conclusions ........................................... 67 References .................................................. 69 Index ......................................................... 71 vii About the Author Andrzej Piotr Wierzbicki was born on June 29, 1937 in Warsaw. He graduated with a Master degree in Engineering in the field of Automatic Control in 1960 from the Warsaw University of Technology, the Faculty of Telecommunications. During 1958–1961, he worked at the National Electrotechnology Institute. Between 1961 and 2004, he worked at the Warsaw University of Technology, first in the Chair for Automatic Control (later renamed as an institute, and operating today as the Institute of Automatic Control and Applied Computer Science) of the Faculty of Telecom- munications, later renamed as Faculty of Electronics, and since 1995 known as the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology. He obtained a doctoral degree at the Faculty of Electronics in 1964, a Doctor of Science (habilitation) in 1968, the title of Professor in 1976, the position of tenured professor in 1992. During 1976–1978, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Electronics of the Warsaw Univer- sity of Technology. In the period 1979–1984, he held the position of the Chairman of the Systems and Decision Sciences Program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg near Vienna, Austria. During 1991–1994, he was elected as the Chairman of the Commission of Applied Research of the State Committee for Scientific Research of Poland. He worked at different universities in different parts of the world, e.g., in Japan (in 1989–1990 at the Kyoto University, and in 2004–2007 in the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Nomi near Kanazawa). From 1996 until now, he has been working at the National Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw, and during 1996–2004 he served as the Director General of this Institute. He has published dozens of scientific books, over 150 papers in scientific jour- nals or chapters in books, over 120 papers at scientific conferences, and is an author of several patents, including three implemented and broadly utilized. He was a sci- entific supervisor of over 20 doctoral theses, several of his former doctoral students (A. Dontchev, I. Lasiecka, A. Lewandowski) are professors in different universities in different parts of the world, and many others—professors at Polish universities. He has contributed to the theory of control and optimization—he is, inter alia, the author of the maximum principle for processes with delays, optimization algo- rithms used for shifted penalty functions and augmented Lagrange functions with ix x About the Author generalizations for dynamic optimization and constraints in a Hilbert space. He also authored a generalized approach to the theory of sensitivity of dynamic sys- tems and optimal control, based on the distinction between a basic model and a perturbation model as well as on a structural version of the implicit function theo- rem (a monograph, in Polish and also in English). His main contribution is the authorship of an original approach to the theory and methodology of vector optimization, multiple criteria decision support and design. This approach, called reference point method, in the theoretical layer is based on new characterizations of vector optimal solutions using conical separations of sets and a specific class of achievement (scalarizing) functions, parametrically depend- ent on a reference point. In the methodological layer, the approach stresses the sovereignty of a user of decision support system or a design support system (who should be supported and not replaced by an automatic choice of a decision or a design variant). This approach achieved an international recognition and became a basis of further research of many authors (in the USA, Europe, and Japan). Andrzej P. Wierzbicki worked also on the game theory and negotiation tech- niques. More recently (1997), he proposed a rational evolutionary theory of intui- tion, based on information theory and the distinction between the difficulty of processing of verbal information and immanent information (full information reach- ing a human by all senses, but mostly visual) and the recognition of the simplifying and accelerating role of the evolutionary invention of speech as opposed to intuition. This theory suggests that at most 0.01 % of human neurons are involved in rational, verbal, and logical thinking. During 2004–2007, he also worked in Japan on micro- models of knowledge creation and co-edited two monographs on this theme. Since 1985, he has cooperated closely with the Future Studies Committee “Poland 2000 Plus” of the Polish Academy of Sciences, serving, inter alia, as the scientific secretary and later, as an editor of the journal Przyszłos´c´: S´wiat, Europa, Polska (Future: World, Europe, Poland) issued by this committee. He has also authored many publications concerning the development of information society and informational or knowledge civilization. His recent book (2015), Techne: n Elements of Recent History of Information Technologies with Epistemological Conclusions is also related to this theme. He was granted many international and Polish awards and distinctions, among them are: • 1991: Georg Cantor Award of the International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making, Taipei, Taiwan; • 2000–2002: Selected by the European Commission as a member of ISTAG (Information Society Technology Advisory Group), Brussels, Belgium; • 2003: Belgian distinction for inventiveness, Le Merite De L’invention, Croix d’Officier, No. 1819, Brussels, Belgium; • 2005: Best Paper Award of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Science, Kulualoa, Hawaii; • 2006: Distinguished with T. Hofmokl Award for the popularization of the ideas related to the information society and the promotion of computer network development in Poland, Warsaw. Chapter 1 Introduction Abstract This chapter indicates main themes of the book: the causes of and the responsibility for growing unemployment and social inequality. The author, a t echnologist, admits that a part of the causes belongs to technology, but most causes result from the capitalist system. This system includes a mechanism of capital replacing labour (actually, investments in technology replacing labour), and this mechanism contains a positive feedback, accelerating such replacement (the more a capitalist earns by such replacement, the more similar investments follow). Such investments occur today at unprecedented scope and speed and this is the main cause of resulting social troubles. The chapter includes also a short review of related literature. Keywords Escalating automation · Capital replacing labour · Acceleration by a positive feedback · Growing unemployment · Growing inequalities · Endangered capitalism I was motivated to write this book by the feeling of co-responsibility for disturb- ing socio-economic phenomena related to the utilization of high technology by the contemporary capitalistic system. By profession, I am a specialist in automatic control and informatics, and have been working in this field for over 50 years. Over 40 years ago I took part in automation of Polish steelworks and sugar plants in the hope that this would help people in their hard work. Today, however, I observe how the escalating automation and robotization of all work, including intellectual work, results in growing unemployment and increasing social inequal- ity. Thus, I ask myself: are we, automatic control specialists, responsible for these phenomena? I answer myself: indeed, to some extent, since we did not forecast with s ufficient precision the social effects of universal automation and robotization. It was p redicted by Lem, e.g. in his novel of science fiction, Return from the Stars (Lem 1961)—even © The Author(s) 2016 1 A.P. Wierzbicki, The Future of Work in Information Society, SpringerBriefs in Economics, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-33909-2_1
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