Flight rules for the post-capitalist era

You are standing at the edge of an abyss. The time is now, and across the abyss, is your future. The challenge: can you rise above the abyss, or fall into it? The answers are out there, but it's on you to find them.

We've been working since the Dawn of Time, since humans lived by following game trails and eating berries. It's about making a living. That's changing - and as changes go this is one of the biggest. Labor, as we've known it, will become obsolete in the decades ahead.

In Max Weber's classic work of sociology, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the author explained it was an article of faith for followers of Protestant reformer John Calvin, that people who did OK in business might think of themselves among those who would be saved at the end. It became the foundation of the Protestant Work Ethic.

Thomas Frey, a futurist predicts that just three years from now, in 2022, 1 billion jobs will have been lost to automation, all around the world and by 2030, 2 billion jobs will be gone. The McKinsey Global Institute, in a 2017 survey of 46 countries, accounting for 90 percent of global GDP, reported that 33 percent of jobs could be taken over by "robots" by 2030.

Back in 2013, the Oxford Martin Program, in a landmark study, predicted 49 percent of jobs in the US would be gone inside 20 years. And the NGO Prosperity Now, reported that 40 percent of American households are only one missed pay check away from poverty.

The dawning of the Post-Capitalist Era, will be harder on developing countries. It used to be that developing countries would go from agriculture, to light manufacturing then to large scale industrialization. Automation could disrupt that. World Bank data shows that automation is a threat to disrupt 69 percent of jobs in India, 77 percent in China and in Ethiopia it could go as high as 85 percent.

So, this dark shadow called unemployment, rises from the abyss, like the monster in a horror movie. No money, no food, no shelter, no fun, no ambition, loss of self-worth and all that.

It doesn't have to be like that but the hard core fact is that not everybody will succeed.

The question of how long will it take before automation can handle all work was put to experts in artificial intelligence at some of the biggest companies in the world. The survey was done by Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute, and by the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. The rough consensus among the experts was about 130 years.

There is a way to survive in the emerging post-capitalist era. So how can the coming generations sprout wings and fly over the Abyss instead of falling into it?

The experts, from the McKinsey Global Institute, the World Economic Forum and just about anywhere else you look are in just about universal agreement. For those wishing to fly, the formula is "cognitive intelligence" combined with technology.

Cognitive skills cover a pretty broad range: creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, people skills, problem solving skills, social influence. It's not a short list so the opportunities are practically limitless.

According to the World Economic Forum's Report on the Future of Employment, 2018, the list of possible careers is also practically endless. In the coming years companies will recruit scientists, software and applications developers, e-commerce and social media specialists, people with distinctively "human" skills, like, sales and marketing professionals, training and development experts, professionals in culture, organizational development, big data and process automation.

Progressive companies are meeting the challenge by helping core workers upgrade their skills. It's also worth saying, that far less re-training is being given to workers considered - at highest risk. Cities need to get in on the changes too. Some 74 percent of companies considering setting up new bases of operation prioritized the availability of a skilled local talent pool as a key consideration.

Are you ready to spread your wings and fly? The opening of the WEF report on the future of employment offers this hope:

"The inherent opportunities for economic prosperity, societal progress and individual flourishing in this new world of work are enormous, yet depend crucially on the ability of all concerned stakeholders to instigate reform in education and training systems, labor market policies, business approaches to developing skills, employment arrangements and existing social contracts. They entail difficult transitions for millions of workers and the need for proactive investment in developing a new surge of agile learners and skilled talent globally."