It has been estimated that when Amazon customers now receive a package from a centre such as this, its preparation will have involved no more than a minute of human work. A great deal of Amazon’s nitty-gritty operations are increasingly done by software and machines – and the company is by no means alone. The optimists cite the way that, although technology always does away with some jobs, it usually creates others. Further up the hierarchy, software engineering, machine design and all kinds of innovation depend on human ingenuity and hard graft. “The truth is, generally speaking, what every company is trying to do is grow their business and have people doing different jobs.

Source: The Guardian November 25, 2017 07:52 UTC