Premise

The video clip is taken from a famous sequence in the film I vitelloni by Federico Fellini, released in 1953. Alberto Sordi mocks the workers, calling them the workers of the masses, and provokes them with the famous umbrella gesture and a loud raspberry. Shortly after, the workers manage to take appropriate revenge.

The loss of critical capacity

We are attracted by technological evolution, we accept new paradigms with little critical thinking, we build stereotypes that are not very realistic but, widely in line with common thought. In reading history, Fordism, with the introduction of mass production, represented an important change in the production of industrial goods at the beginning of the 20th century.

The consequences of mass production and the assembly line have indeed allowed a greater diffusion of goods, this has happened at the expense of some working conditions of the workers. The standardization and rationalization of work have led to an impoverishment of skills and to a greater control and exploitation of the workforce.

There is a fundamental work for anyone interested in understanding the impact of automation on the world of work and the economy, Labor’s End: How the Promise of Automation Degraded Work click here to read was written by Jason Resnikoff, professor of Contemporary History at the University of Groningen (Netherlands).

In the 1940s-1970s in the United States, the term “automation” symbolized radical change, but its definition remained ambiguous. This book argues that automation was not just a technology, but rather a discourse that reduced work to a mere matter of biological survival, predicting the inevitable disappearance of human work due to technological progress.

Proponents of this discourse have shifted the concept of political freedom from a question of the distribution of power to an escape from the limits of the human body. Ironically, much of what was considered “automation” has not actually eliminated human labor. Unions, by detaching themselves from the workplace as an arena of political competition, have often failed to counter managers who accelerated the pace of work, weakening unions, and moving jobs to nonunion settings, all of which are considered progress.

To learn more about this topic, I suggest you read the interview with Professor Jason Resnikoff by Giuditta Mosca. click here to read.

Observe and analyze

Today the worker is the victim of a perverse system based on analysis, telemetry, benchmarks, objectives, performance and evaluation. These methodologies, apparently aseptic and objective, actually hide pitfalls, perversions and favoritism. Furthermore, we must not forget the illicit telemetry collection activities, which have highlighted an unacceptable cultural incapacity on the part of those who should protect the interests of the working masses.

Today the citizen is the victim of a slow and inefficient bureaucratic system, characterized by waiting lists and times. Public services are poorly protected and not very accessible, since the ordinary access channels are inadequate and slow in ensuring an adequate response time. This leads to a difficulty in accessing essential services, which should instead be easily accessible and timely.

Today the entrepreneur is a victim of sector studies, tax pressure, bureaucracy and access to credit.

The race against time: timed parking with its frantic rush to fit within the time limits, parking meters that seem like demanding computers that ask for information that is impossible to provide (license plate, numbered position). And then there are the advance payments, the reservations, the numbered spaces, the endless queues and interminable waits.

Everyday life has become a race against time, where every activity seems to require meticulous planning not to mention deadlines, installments and payments.

Conclusion

At this point, you have further insights into the future impact of artificial intelligence on our lives.

Reading path