Automate Management, Not Operators

There are many reasons I'm blessed in this life. Most important, I am loved. Second, I work a job at which I'm competent and skilled, surrounded by co-workers (brothers and sisters) who offer support, love and guidance. Third, I'm still a breathing, contributing member of the world as we know it. Yet there's a possibility my humanity is becoming less valuable than electronic circuitry.

While my job is important, it's not the most vital profession in the world. It's simply necessary. At this time in our evolution, bus and rail operators provide a service that automation cannot currently provide. What if our position becomes replaced by automation? If this happens, many of you who read this will be rendered obsolete. If we allow computer-generated versions of ourselves take over, what jobs are left over for us? Not much, I guarantee.

Not long ago, I read an article in the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International magazine in which it basically prepared us for what is (theoretically) to come: automation of the transit industry. It truly pissed me off to think our union would even consider this a possibility. The article put forth bargaining positions for a future that allows public transit be be operated via artificial intelligence. Would you feel comfortable with a computer at the controls of a megaton vehicle in which you're a passenger? I certainly would not. It's very disconcerting to me that our international union would attempt to prepare us for this as an eventuality, rather than a pipe dream. It's just not right.

If we're preparing for a technology in which humans are rendered obsolete, then we're failing to acknowledge that we are infinitely more valuable than anything we create. We are naturally-intuitive, able to understand and feel human possibilities. Far more than any machine could, given trillions of examples of possibilities which confront transit operators. Even if it's possible to program a computer with every possible scenario we could encounter on the road, it's equally possible it could fail more times than I would. I believe in human intuition over artificial intelligence when human life is at stake. I don't care how many millions of scenarios you could program into a machine. Only a human, with a lifetime of personal and shared experiences, DNA and evolutionary memory, should make split-second decisions which could save a human life. I'd rather trust Ollie Operator with my safety than some machine programmed with actuarial tables of the insurance industry.

Unless humans in the working middle class of any economy (especially our current brand of greed-based isolationism), reassume control of our collective destiny, we're doomed to suffer the fate which our moneyed masters determine. Our future is in dire jeopardy at this point in American history. We're vilified as being "greedy" while the few with the most bribe a government which rewards them over those who generate the very wealth they enjoy.

If the upper class is victorious in replacing humans with automation, then what is left for the "average" human being? Without any means of earning an income, we'll become slaves to the moneyed few. Without any means of self support, how or where would we live? We would become slaves of the aristocracy, doomed to whatever scraps which "trickle down."

Automate the operator? Nah.
I'd rather automate management.

Ten years ago, I made more money than now. My position as a bus operator pays well. It doesn't pay as much as it should though. While Big Money has grabbed trillions the past 30 years, and corporate executives have enjoyed vast increases in salary, the middle class still chugs along making (comparatively) what we did when President Reagan promised glorious dividends. We're still waiting, and paying the bulk of the taxes while mega corporations like Amazon pay zilch in taxes. Hell, I'm still trying to buy a house, but every time the foundation comes within reach it's yanked away like a yo-yo. We feel much like Oliver Twist begging for a few more ounces of gruel.

Some will charge me with a traitor to capitalism. Well folks, it's not working for the middle class American these days. Everything has risen in cost: rent, home prices, groceries, fuel, whiskey. Student loan interest keeps rising while our tax deduction for it has disappeared. Why we keep allowing ourselves to be constantly swindled out of the American Dream escapes me.

We're too divided to fight back, and Big Money delights in this. It continues driving wedges between us so we cannot unite into a strong enough mob to stop the upward flood of money. We've become far too diverse to agree on everything, but we need to remember the art of compromise. That's what helped forge this incredible nation. We allow ourselves to be beaten so soundly we don't even notice when the rug slips out from underneath what tenuous footing we're able to secure. It's a horrendous mind-fuck we're not deriving any pleasure from.

There comes a point at which technological innovation ceases to be advantageous to humans. Any species that would create something which could replace itself is doomed to extinction. Automation has replaced many jobs already, and manufacturing has been siphoned off by China and Third World countries. It's rare when I find something to wear that is actually Made in the U.S.A.

Once in my professional life, I felt my job was safe and secure. My co-workers and I formed a closely-knit team which could accomplish any project on time and under budget. Sure, I was paid very well but by then I had been with the company over a decade. Many of us had strong working relationships and we knew how to get 'er done. Then Corporata decided our department was too expensive and out-sourced it to another corporation. Years of knowledge, teamwork and dedication was suddenly of no value, and we were out of jobs. Oh sure, we were offered "similar positions" for far less money, but that was a shallow gesture. A year later, the service our team had provided with precision and pride had become a distant memory. We were replaced by underpaid and overworked dweebs who failed to perform as we had. Our former co-workers begged me to come back because of the personal touch I provided, but it was too little and too late.

I became complacent in that last job, thinking we were too valuable to be replaced. Those with whom I worked valued my work, but Corporata saw a way to make itself look more attractive to prospective buyers by sacrificing many of those who created the value management took credit for. It was cruel to stab us in the back when we had worked hard to ensure our business flourished. I won't make the same mistake this time.

If you think it's okay for automation to replace transit operators, you're an insipid dolt of a lemming who should be kicked off a cliff by a robotic boot. Automate the food or hospitality industries, where a large percentage of the workforce is employed, and there would be nobody to purchase the food or stay in the hotels. Without wages, we would hold no value to Big Money any more. Given that It rules politics, what's to stop It from just getting rid of us? We would no longer be needed, and therefore it would be easier to just kill us off. Only a certain segment of the population would be left to enjoy the bounty of the world, of which there would be more.

After a few years of fighting amongst themselves without having the masses to do it for them, their greed would ultimately consume them. Given their penchant for torturing those of us "down here," it's logical they would soon begin tearing themselves apart. Within 100 years or less, humans would become extinct. Our planet might return to its original glory after a million or more years of human-free detoxification.

Unless an automated invention is designed to help, rather than replace us, I urge you to reject it. Otherwise, we are simply a collective tool of our own destruction. Think about that the next time someone tells you to embrace new technology. It's akin to hugging a hungry polar bear; he might enjoy it, but you become a bloody smudge upon the tundra.

It might be okay to automate management, as long as we're the programmers.