Carmel Ben-Or is studying an MBA program at McGill University, based in Montreal, Canada. Prior to enrolling he worked as a marketing consultant.
As Error Approaches 0, People Approach Infinity
“Good morning, Jim. Don't forget: meeting at 10:30,” says the automated security system as Jim Parsons, senior consultant at McBain Group, walks through the company’s doors. Jim’s not the slightest bit daunted by the fact that his schedule and location are now being recorded to optimize his time allocation.
Upon unlocking his workstation, Jim spends the first hour reviewing reports of his productivity in relation to computer-monitored body metrics. He notices that he tends to close deals at a higher rate when his iron levels are in the 90th percentile. This new information prompts Jim to schedule his lunchtime meeting at a nearby steakhouse.
As soon as 10:30 rolls around, Jim finds himself in the boardroom for the ethics meeting. The air is ripe with synergy and oxygen (pumped in to boost productivity). Tapping into all the information they’ve gathered in the past 24 hours, dozens of telecommuting consultants fire ideas back and forth in a technical jargon that vaguely resembles English. A digital mess of holographic flow charts and real-time metrics would be enough to cause seizures, provided that Jim and his colleagues hadn’t already grown up with a cloud database as their third parents.
Jim’s lunchtime meeting ran a bit late but he had managed to close the deal. Feeling victorious, he decided to complete the remainder of his work from home. He pinged the nearest cab, input his destination and sat back as auto-pilot brought him back to “casa di Jim”. Technology is his crutch throughout the day.
Though it sometimes seems as if his job is mostly being done by the robots around him, his human brain is irreplaceable. Moore’s Law doesn’t compare to the increasing computational powers of talented individuals in increasingly large groups. Even 100 years into the feature, technology won’t be able to generate creative brainstorm sessions or charm a client. True, humans are packed to the gills with inefficiencies, but future offices can only seek to minimize error. The right brain will never be rendered obsolete.