By Samuel Ameh

Life is a Sisyphean race, run ever faster towards the finish line that’s merely the start of the next race. Matt Ridley.

Welcome to a new age, welcome to the globalized world, welcome to the era of sophisticated paraphernalia of information and communication technology. 

Precipitated by the advancement in ICT, there has been a river flow of hoopla from concerned adults to young people urging them to leverage on the avalanche of opportunity provided by ICT to learn digital skills. Not just for this current globalized world, but also for the world which is fast approaching in the speed of light. 

This concerned hoopla has in recent times gone beyond roof tops and getting more deafening in an ailing society benighted by shadow economy and bad government such as Nigeria, where Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), strikes so often, that Amadioha (God of Thunder) start feeling like he holds a wrong title. 

In tandem, a serious point that can be adduced from these earthly voices of admonition is that; young people should groom and regroom themselves for the now and future of Job or work that lies ahead.

However, to reappraise  the notable words of Charles Dickens which asserts that  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of darkness, it was the season of light, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Every era has its inherent ups and downs. 

In furtherance, one thing that has become a certitude and probably unalienable part of humans is our irrevocable inclination to keep predicting the future, despite our full knowledge of the dicta that says “no one knows tomorrow”. Despite our numerous accounts of failed attempt to predict the future of humanity, we wax stronger in our prediction.

Retrospectively, no medieval man would have ever believed that one day, humans will develop and own apparatus that will take them to the moon. Maybe if Neil Armstrong Apollo 11 team had achieved their big feet during antique times, they may have become object and subject of a fervent religious set in the world today. Whom people will worship with all piety, fervor and candor. 

People who were born 70 years ago especially in places Donald J. Trump consider has shit hole countries, arguably will a single soul among them be able to predict that by year 2022, there would be cryptocurrency which we revolutionize the future and destiny of paper currency. There will be cars which will be powered by electricity rather than motor spirit. 

There will be social media that will interconnect the world and obfuscate geographical boundaries. I surmise carefully that not a single soul back then will be able to predict what the world is experiencing today. 

Even in the developed nations of the world, the technologically advanced utopian dream, might be a dreary dream to have as at 70 years aback. 

Even though the likes of George Orwell have predicted the ‘Big Brother Phenomenon’ in his book ‘1984’, implying that the world will develop a surveillance mechanism, especially by the government which will make the citizen easier to see and control. 

Of course, the world has advanced beyond that stage, but nobody back then as 1949 when the book appeared will be able to predict effectively how this intend to happen. Also, Marshall McLuhan a media fad predicted that the world will become a Global Village in his laudable book Understanding Mass media which was published in 1964, but wasn’t exact about the “How and When” it will take place. 

The foregoing implies that maybe some humans may likely be successful in telling us about something that will happen one day, but God did not bestow on us the power to be exact about the “How and When” life vicissitudes will change to usher in another form of experiences. 

However, regardless of its inherent anomalies, the reality of today has ushered us into a better world, but does it now guarantee that we can tell what the next 50 years will be like? 

Humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers or equations. The simpler the story, the better and easier believed it will be. We infer, permutate, and draw conclusion from both rational and irrational concoction of past and present events. 

Here lies the quandary, that which necessitate few questions. Who can tell us what the world will become in the nearest 50 years? In like terms, who can tell us what the future of works will be in the nearest 50years? I permit you to resonate on the first, but I have an answer for the second. Not exactly about the nature of works, but I have seen the future, artists are dancing, others and wailing. Who is behind the drum and the whip?

Work in general has been previewed by many to be God’s punishment for the disobedience of man. The life of many is saddled with the responsibility of one day having to retire from work into pleasure, just to tell us how much we humans hate working.

In fact, Paul Lafarge, an in-law to Karl Marx argued in his book “You have the right to be lazy” that people who work are only working for those who do not work(boss), something regarded as the Mathew 25:29 effect by Malcolm Gladwell in his book the Outlier. In Tandem, George Orwell in his socialist book “Road to Wigan Pier” lend credence to the voice of Paul Lafarge by bemoaning the pain of the peasant workers in the industrial society of Europe. 

He bemoans the dirty bread they eat, the poisoned water they drink, the dirty rags they put on etc. This led to workers revolting against exploitation, example given is the labour riot in the Carnegie Steel Company. Nevertheless, we cannot toss to the wind that some people love and enjoy their work so much. Should we now call this “Enjoyable Punishment’’?

Furthermore, the advancement in information and communication technology, made it agreeable that machine learning and robotics will change almost every line of work. From producing yoghurt to teaching yoga. In Africa, if there will be need to take pap and akara, to eat roasted corn and, beef or plantain, as predicted that the future belongs to machine & robots, we may have robots and machine in charge of making pap, frying akara, roasting corn, beef, plantain etc. Machine and Robots will definitely change the nature of work, it’s changing already.

However, there are still conflicting views about the nature of the change and its imminence.  Some believe that within mere decade or two, billions of people will become economically redundant. Others maintain that in the long run, automation will keep generating new jobs and greater prosperity for all. 

So, we are on the verge of a terrifying upheaval, or are such forecasts yet another ill-founded Luddite hysteria? It is hard to say. 

Fears that automation will create massive unemployment is dated back to the Nineteenth century, and so far they have never materialized. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, for every job lost to a machine at least one new job was created. And the average standard of living was improved dramatically. Yet there are good reasons to think that this time it is different, and that machine learning will be the real changer. 

Humans have two types of abilities, physical and cognitive. In the past machine competed with humans in the raw physical abilities, while we retained an immense edge over machine in cognition. Human possessed the kind of cognitive skills to operate such machines, such as learning, analyzing, communication and also understanding human emotions. 

In this present epoch, artificial intelligence is here and it is outperforming humans already. AI can now operate themselves, they would no longer be need for humans to operate machines anymore. Car can now drive itself, oh! There won’t be need for drivers anymore. AI is now capable of gathering news and information across different geographical landscape and reporting it. Painfully, there won’t be need for news room reporters again. AI can attend to people with their bank issues.

Heartbreakingly, there won’t be bankers anymore. AI is being developed with the knowledge and exceptionality that they don’t even make mistakes best professionals commit. 

However, one vacuum will remain void in which AI will not be able to fill, and this is the vacuum of creativity. Despite the fact that scientists have successfully designed algorithms and machines that will outperform humans within the working environment. 

One teetering problem remain that, AI still lack human creative power. AI can help generate news stories across the globe using a special algorithm to track occurrence from different places, but it will never be able to write a creative editorial to serve as the organizational stance on any issue of national or global importance. 

This lack of creative power of machines and Algorithms will lead to a world were all creatives as well as Artiste who are custodian of creativity in the world will become the center of the new emerging globe. This will lead to a world were majority of humanity will become irrelevant. Prior to this present epoch, human’s problem majorly has been exploitation. However, in the nearest future, irrelevance will overtake exploitation. Nobody will exploit you again, you will only remain irrelevant. 

Having read, the above paragraph, you might be forced to start thinking it’s a simple thing, all we need is that people become creatives. It is quite laughable because creativity itself is a rarity, a kind of potential God bestow on a very few people. Even in the rank and cadre of the people who are gifted with creativity, there is always the most gifted. 

This will usher the world into a massive age of Monopoly, where the most creative will drink 90% of the juice meant for a whole field. As it stands, monopoly is edging very fast, but we are beguiled to believe that, many people are not yet good with digital skills. This to some extent may be correct but largely untrue. It’s a conspiracy that’s meant to blind you from the true reality of things. 

Take a look at it like this, there are many talented and creative guys who can develop and design social media platforms, but none will probably make it into overshadowing Facebook again. If you try harder and better, and you seem a little bit threatening, it will lead to what is known as acquisition that will further lead to huger monopoly. Instagram, WhatsApp became a hot cake, and at the verge of getting stronger; Mark acquired them and lead to a bigger monopoly. 

Twitter about to be acquired by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos acquired Washington Post. There are many search engines in the world, but none will be able to out-perform Google for now. Google in order to strengthen its monopoly, acquired YouTube. As it stand, Google has been added to the dictionary as a verb. As an action word.

The foregoing implies that the future belongs to the creatives, however, one particular group of creatives will outshine and remain very much relevant in the nearest future to come. This group of creatives will be the Artists. They will be the only one to think and create something new out of their wealth of imagination and creative talents. AI will tell you the kind of music people are getting engrossed with, but will never be able to compose one. 

Only those who can compose melodic music and sell to the world will enjoy the future of their work. People who could write books such as the “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson, which has been acclaimed by many to have orchestrated the invention of the Metaverse virtual technology of Zuckerberg. 

People who could paint and capture pictures that can sell for huge amount of money. Oh! Michael Angelo and Davinci will miss the future, but the future still belongs to people who can create like them, or better than them. I have seen the future; artists are dancing, others are wailing. Creativity is behind the whip and the drum. Those who have it are dancing, those who don’t are crying. 

Lastly, you may be forced to ask if there’s any epoch creative people (artists) have never been appreciated? Mayhap not. However, to avoid higgledy-piggledy. Don’t see things from creative people’s perspective. See it from the angle of the non-creative people. The world before and now has given them enough room to thrive and even enjoyed more than creative people in many areas, but the future will not give them even the forest to rest.