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TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT THREATENS EMPLOYMENT AND
CAPITALISM
Fernando Alcoforado *
The 1st Industrial Revolution, also called "age of coal and iron", occurred in England in
the eighteenth century (1780-1830). England was the first country to initiate this
revolution. Although it has caused changes not only in industry but also in agriculture,
livestock, trade, etc., the deeper it gave us on the means of production. It was introduced
mechanical practice with steam engines and coal, wage labor, and society ceased to be
rural for urban. The 2nd Industrial Revolution, which became known as the "age of steel
and electricity", occurred from 1860 to 1900. Unlike the 1st Industrial Revolution
countries like Germany, France, Russia, Italy and the United States also industrialized.
The use of steel, the use of electricity and fuels derived from oil, the engine explosion
invention and development of chemical products were the major innovations of that
period. The automotive industry is very important in this period. The technical system
and work of this period is the Fordist, a term that refers to Ford entrepreneur system that
has become the paradigm of technical regulation and the work known throughout the
industrial world until the 1970s.
The 3rd Industrial Revolution begins in the 1970s of the twentieth century. The
activities become more creative, require high qualifications of the workforce and have
flexible hours. It was a scientific technical revolution developed by engineers from
Toyota, the Japanese auto industry, which abolished the function of specialized
professional workers to make them multi-functional experts. The organization of the
work undergoes a fundamental restructuring. It results in a versatile working system,
flexible, integrated team, less hierarchical. After the 1970 occurred Informational or
Post-industrial Revolution. It is wrong to call the 4th Industrial Revolution to what is
going on after the 3rd Industrial Revolution because the changes that are taking place do
not have only the industry as its scope of application. These changes are present
throughout society that can be termed post-industrial. The post-industrial society is the
name proposed by Daniel Bell, American sociologist and professor emeritus at Harvard
University, for an economy that has undergone sweeping changes after the
industrialization process.
The post-industrial society is marked by a rapid growth of the service sector, unlike the
industrial society, and a rapid rise of information technology with the knowledge and
creativity as the key raw materials to such economies. This is why the post-industrial
era is also known as the era of information and knowledge. After the 1970s, came into
being, therefore, a type of society that was no longer based on agricultural production,
or in the industry, but in the production of information, services, symbols (semiotics)
and aesthetics. The post-industrial society differs much from the industrial society and it
is clearly perceived in the service sector, which absorbs nearly 60% of the total
workforce, more than industry and agriculture together because intellectual work is very
more often than manual labor and creativity and more important than the simple
execution of tasks especially in more developed countries.
Udo Gollub, CEO and founder of Sprachenlemen24 from Munich made conference in
Messe Berlin in the Singularity University when presented technological forecasts
available on the website
<https://www.facebook.com/udo.gollub/posts/10207978845381135>, which confirm
strengthen Informational or Post-industrial Revolution that we experience. In short, Udo

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Gollub states that: 1) the software will destroy most traditional activities in the next 5-
10 years as the UBER been doing with the taxi service; 2) Artificial Intelligence as
WATSON, IBM may provide legal advice (as in matters more or less basic) within
seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans; 3) in
2030, computers will become smarter than humans; 4) in 2018, the first vehicles will be
directed automatically; 5) around 2020, the traditional automotive industry will begin to
be demolished and most car manufacturers may fail because the technology companies
(Tesla, Apple, Google) will adopt revolutionary tactics building a computer on wheels;
6) electric cars will become dominant by 2020; and 7) the price of solar power will fall
so that all coal mining cease its activities around 2025.
Udo Gollub adds that: 8) companies will build a medical device (called Tricorder in
Star Trek) that works with phone, making scanning of retina, tests sample blood and
analyzes breath. It will analyze 54 biomarkers that identify virtually any disease; 9) the
price of the cheapest 3D printer has dropped from US$ 18,000 to US$ 400 in 10 years
and has become 100 times faster; 10) 70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20
years; 11) by 2020, there will be application called "moodies" (moods) that is already
able to tell what mood the person is and can tell if the person is lying by their facial
expressions; 12) Bitcoin (virtual money) can become dominant in 2020 and may even
become standard currency reserves; 13) around 2036, people can live well over 100
years; and 14) by 2020, 70% of all humans will have a smartphone.
One fact is clear: society lives, more than ever, under the auspices under the auspices
and domains of science and technology. Advertising that makes about science and
technology is so intense that a significant portion of people believe that they only bring
only benefits to society. For man, the technology makes life easier, cleaner and longer.
Man cultivates a growing dependency in relation to science and technology in
contemporary era. It is a usual behavior of much of society considers science and
technology as liberators of humanity of labor burdens and threats posed by the forces of
nature. Adding to all this, there is a widespread view that scientific and technological
progress brings not only the advancement of knowledge, but also as a real improvement,
inexorable and effective in all aspects of human life.
Science is not only seen as liberating, but also as dehumanizing and enslaving of human
life. Uncontrolled growth of technology has contributed to destroy the vital sources of
our humanity to create a culture without a moral basis. The technology has shaped our
lives because we are at the mercy of interconnected systems, which is serious because
we are submissive to his authority, shaping us in its functioning. The omnipresence of
technology in today's world, coupled with its increased complexity, gives rise to a very
problematic situation.
Everything that was reported based on forecasts of Udo Gollub impact negatively on the
labor market because it may lead to the end of employment and the consequent fall in
demand, putting, also, capitalism as a world system under threat. This means that
scientific and technological advancement will bring the current economic system to
collapse by pointing to the need for the invention of a new economic system. It will
certainly not be in capitalism that the world can reconcile the wonders of science and
technology with the end of employment. Another economic system will have to be
invented in which science and technology will act as liberators of humanity from the
burdens of labor.

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*Fernando Alcoforado , member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012),
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015) and As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo
(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), among others.