Technological unemployment: Difference between revisions

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 ====Time off, organised sport and the commercialisation of leisure====
-The British invented all important sports. Even downhill skiing. (Americans: your “important sports” are all close derivatives of things the British invented years before: rounders, netball and rugby).  But this article is not about imperial bragging rights. There is a reason that the British invented all sports, and that is because the British invented the industrial revolution, and that changed the working dynamic for the ordinary stiff forever. It was humankind’s first brush with technological unemployment. Suddenly manual labour was not subsistence work. It had a schedule. Machines could do the grunt work. Humans could operate the machines, in shifts, and the great steampunk economy could schedule people’s labour and ''give them time off'': official “leisure time” beyond essential periods of rest, recovery, nutrition, washing and so on — free time to not think about the factory, and do whatever you please.
+The British invented all important sports. Even downhill skiing. (Americans: your “important sports” are all derived omfrom games the British invented: rounders, netball and rugby).
-And humans like to play games, don’t they.
+Now there is a reason that the British invented all sports, and that is because the British invented the Industrial Revolution, which was humankind’s last go at technological unemployment: suddenly subsistence workers didn’t have to work the circadian rhythm, never stopping for a moment. work came on a reliable schedule. Machines did the grunt work, humans operated the machines, clocked off at 5 went off to enjoy official “leisure time”, meaning time beyond essential periods of rest, recovery, nutrition, washing and so on — to ''not'' think about the factory, and do whatever you please. No doubt anthropologists will say it was more complicated, or less benign, then that, but the essential point is that about two hundred and fifty years ago humans started predictably to have leisure time. This was (partial) technogical unemployment, v1.0. (For sure, technolocal unemployment happens ''by degree''.)
-Figuring out what to do with your free time is a problem everyone wants to have. Being full of industrial workers suddenly having this happy problem, we should not be surprised that the British came up with do much organised sport at about the same time as the industrial revolution was presenting the problem.
+Being full of industrial workers suddenly having the happy problem of figuring out what to do with their free time, we should not be surprised with what the British came up with: organised sport. ''Humans like to play games''.
-There were settled governing associations for golf (1744), cricket (1787), rugby (1845), football (1863),  tennis (1874), boxing (1867), field hockey (1900), okay and baseball (1845), American football (1876) ice hockey (1877) and basketball (1892). Each started as an amateur undertaking — for workers to do in their leisure time — and even those which professionalised early (American sports generally prodessionakused quickly, other sports less so) did not realise the collosal commercial potential until the end of the twentieth century.
+So it was, as the industrial revolution was presenting this “problem” that the sports we know today convened governing associations and set about formalising common rules: cricket (1787), rugby (1845), football (1863), lawn tennis (1874), boxing (1867) and field hockey (1900). Okay, and baseball (1845), American football (1876) ice hockey (1877) and basketball (1892).
-And there’s the rub: activities that emerged to occupy our extra time have value — obviously, or we would not do them — and that value will eventually generate its own industry. What was leisure becomes ''work''. And work evolves around it: agents, event organisers, broadcasters, marketing, equipment manufacturers — suddenly that leisurely bash around at the links on a Sunday requires two and a half grand of Callaway clubs, the same in polo shirts and silly trousers, 10 grand membership, and you need to go to work just to afford the clobber to play an occasional round.
+Each started life as an amateur undertaking — something for workers to while away their leisure time — and even those which professionalised early in the 20th century did not immediately realise their collosal commercial potential — some staying amateur until the end of the twentieth century.
+And here’s the point: these free, “downtime” activities, that emerged to keep idle workers occupied, turned out to have great value in and of themselves — obviously, or noone would do them in the first place — and that value eventually generated its own industry. What was leisure became ''work''. And work evolves around it: agents, event organisers, sponsors , broadcasters, marketers, equipment manufacturers — suddenly that leisurely bash around at the links of a Sunday requires two and a half grand of Callaway clubs, the same in polo shirts and silly trousers,  golf lessons, club memberships — workers had to go back to work just to afford the clobber to enjoy your time off.
 We have been dealing with “technological unemployment” for ninety years, that is too say. ''It hasn't created any unemployment yet''. There is no reason to think it will start now.