Useless: RoboTrucks and the Sociology of Worklessness

• In Event: 2451 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 2. Deskilling

Abstract

A truck driver named Baxter, 48, sits in the Iowa 80 truck stop on a break from driving his semi. A Guardian reporter asks him about the latest developments in driverless truckers and Baxter admits, "I'm scared to death of that, I can't operate a pocket calculator!" (Oct 10, 2017) What does it feel like to await your robotic replacement? How do you feel as you climb back into the truck for another stretch when newspapers are reporting on the onslaught of driverless advances? Do you look forward with relief? Do you resist the logic? The potential uselessness of human labor in light of advanced machine learning is not merely rooted in a robot's capacity to someday drive "better" than Baxter at a fraction of the cost, it's also rooted in a robot's ability to write a data summary, translate a poem, or interpret data, and then almost instantly teach its co-workers to do the same. And over the arc of that learning curve, execution, and dissemination of training a robot never pees, disagrees, or gets a cold. As such artificial intelligence disrupts both the need for the workers and the auxiliary services that recruit, train, and support human professions. This paper uses the example of “robotrucks” to examine worker responses and ways of thinking through the prospect of artificial intelligence as it arrives in the driver’s seat. I use the robotruck example to examine logics, rationales and the fears associated with broad spread technological change and occupational disruption.

Author

• Karla A. Erickson, Grinnell College