“It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.”

What Joseph Cardijn saw in his time was all about jobs, workers’ lives, the dignity of work, and what it means to be a human being made in God’s image and likeness.

Today, we learn from those who came before us, and once again, the situation is about jobs. What it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. What do that image and likeness mean? What are we as humans, and what work do we do in the kingdom of God here and now?

The genuine concern about AI and jobs, which politicians entirely ignore, is that, like in previous revolutions such as the agricultural and industrial, people lost their jobs, and the markets created new ones, but time was not of the essence. Now, with AI—in industrial countries especially, it will take much longer to emerge from the cause-effect of AI, especially in well-developed technology-based countries, and much quicker in less developed or “third world” countries because they are not engrained in the baggage that has embedded the markets. For many workers, re-skilling will be complex or out of reach in industrial countries. It happened with every major technological introduction throughout history. What we have always referred to as “white collar” jobs will still exist but at much fewer hours. Across the spectrum of careers and industries, the 35/40 hour work week will disappear. The work won’t disappear, but the human time involved will disappear. I tell my students this is not an issue for baby boomers. Still, baby boomers have voices that should be heard because this dramatically affects their children, especially grandchildren.

Sure, brilliant scientists will develop even more brilliant life-saving medicines, new medical machines, health-care-assisted robots, climate-saving battery chemistries, self-driving trains, trucks, and cars with AI. But for every Yin, there is a Yang; technology is always interconnected and has a self-perpetuating cycle and human experiences. So, in all these advances, we will experience new levels of greed, power, and entitlement, and every criminal and manipulative scheme with money in the bank account will get better at taking advantage of other humans. No technology in history has yet changed essential human nature. What will it take for humans to address the cause-effect of technology collectively?

Why don’t companies that become more productive pass savings on to customers? Enhance the education of the workers. What must we first learn about the difference in being human and the difference it makes? How do we employ SEE-JUDGE-ACT methods to get us where we need to be as humans? Why do we always wait until we are forced to by competition, laws, or regulation to make change a reality? Competition and regulation are often created for the benefit of the funders, not the user/recipients. Will specific industries, markets, and companies grow more extensive and dominant because of AI? Look at history and think of big-box stores in towns where local stores are shutting down; think of shopping centers’ rise and eventual fall; think of the history of marketplaces and see the phase change. For some strange reason, Americans and our leadership, both in government and in religion, are unaware of this. We have social teachings, encyclicals, and documents of Vatican II, and they all address this evolving new autonomous revolution. Yet where are the prophets from Mountain tops screaming at us to SEE-JUDGE-ACT? Why do we allow large companies over the smaller ones to have the technical resources to implement AI and see a meaningful benefit? After all, with the rise of data centers that are home to AI and where AI is most useful when there are large amounts of data to crunch to be shared by all for the greater good. Again, do we need to address greed, power, and entitlement?

Will AI reduce competition and enrich company owners, stockholders, and venture capitalists at the expense of humanity’s greater good? Are we seeing today the profits companies generate without lowering prices for their customers? Have you been to the supermarket lately?

For example, self-checkout kiosks. Yeah, we have all used them. We are in a rush, or it is one of those days where we say I don’t want to talk to anyone. The self-checkout kiosks don’t make the remaining checkout staff more productive; they are not contributing to their job education or their rights as a worker. They do not form a marketing perspective driving more shoppers to sell more goods or enhance the store’s beauty. They allow management to fire some of the staff for more profit. We have all seen and experienced how technological advances can and will continue to improve marginal productivity. Still, the real question we should be asking using the SEE_JUDGE_ACT method is whether what and how they do what they do depends on how the company implements for the greater good of humans, the common good of all. All too often, the only time a company decides to do the “good” is because of unionized workers or the law forces it to.

Yes, we have entered a new, brave world. We need a new focus on PEOPLE, PLANET, PURPOSE, AND PROSPERITY for all humans. Is this not what Joseph Cardijn was all about? What will we learn from the Encyclicals, especially Gaudium et Spes, to help us SEE and JUDGE to ACT?

Discuss the ideas expressed in this blog posting in your groups, among friends, and in reading/book clubs. See where people’s minds are focusing when it comes to AI. Do we all understand the impact on labor? Remembering the technical advances of the Industrial Revolution and the cause-effect on people was the waking-up call for Joseph Cardijn.

“It’s a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.

You know how I feel as if I’ll never come back.

It’s a very strange world and I thank you, Master Jack.

You taught me all the things the way you’d like them to be…

But I’d like to see if other people agree.”

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Lyrics: “Master Jack” is a song written by David Marks and first recorded by Four Jacks and a Jill.

Photo: The Redemptor Hominis Community