Image by Marisa04, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.
Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:
1. The great physicist Stephen Hawking passed away this week at the age of 76. If you're not familiar with his work, it's definitely worth looking into. I first learned about Hawking by reading his book, A Brief History of Time back when I was in college. Most people know who Albert Einstein was, and I'd wager that Hawking was as influential to the study of science as Einstein was in his day. Both men changed the world for the better, and with Hawking's recent death we have truly lost one of the great minds of our civilization.
2. People have been losing their jobs to new technologies for a long time, but the frequency of this phenomenon has been increasing since the dawn of the Internet. Now that we have the opportunity to continue our education online, tech companies have poised themselves to essentially retrain the workers that they are replacing via automation. Online courses can prepare beginners for entry-level jobs in the tech industry in just eight to 12 months. This is one step in the right direction, which will hopefully do at least a little bit to deal with the issue that an estimated 75 million to 375 million workers worldwide will be replaced by automation by 2030. At least for now we can see that it may be possible to retrain entry-level workers to work in the tech industry.
That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.