Looking for a Gig

Technology continues rippling through our economy in interesting and innovative ways.  We have all heard how easy it is to shop from home and have boxes appear on your doorstep filled with your latest purchases.  Even more technical advances are helping NASA train astronauts using virtual reality.  Those of us not proficient in physics are still able to experience the tech-revolution through a national home improvement company which offers hologram presentations of custom renovation plans. 

Some of these advances are creating gigs for those who are not in bands.  An independent workforce is taking on paid tasks like car rides or grocery shopping, running errands and even sharing one’s personal home to strangers on vacation.  These gigs are allowing the economy to more fully use capital (both human and equipment).  However, when I recently read about one gig in particular, I couldn’t help but smile and want to share it with you. 

A new company has created glasses which will let the blind borrow vision.  These spectacles send a video feed to a person who then describes the environment to the wearer via earbuds.  For now the technology is helping with a few tasks those of us fortunate enough to have sight might take for granted like reading a menu or a story to a loved one.  However, it has even been used to help a person assemble IKEA furniture.  As somebody who is both able to see and has put together some of the furniture purveyor’s wares, I can attest that finishing this task is something of which both participants should be proud.

Like so many of the other gigs, even this task could get outsourced to machines.  It seems likely to be only a matter of time before artificial intelligence is capable of seeing and describing the environment to vison-impaired clients.  Currently, the firm employs roughly 800 eyes but even this small set of workers must see the writing on the wall: the machines continue to come.