Historians are great at looking at the cyclical nature of civilizations rise and fall.  The study of the  past is seen as illuminating the future.  Wise man not make same mistake twice says Confucius. However, I have never been much of a student of the past though I love its stories.
In the case of the world of work I have seen each decade having different challenges.  My grandparents lived in New York City.  Without much education my grandmother worked in a sweat shop sewing shirtwaists and my grandfather was a machinist.  They moved to the Catskill Mountains and lived in poverty on their farm and bungalow colony.  My father could not go to college because of the Great Depression. He had two jobs-in the men’s clothing industry and as a postal employee.  My mother was a stay at home mom. My husband and I had college educations at the Universities in New York with both of us becoming teachers. My son went into Informational Systems, and my daughter went from retail to a position with the DMV.
Now I try to see what history can teach me about cycles and trends as I listen to my 23, 21 and 18-year-old grandsons.  They are worried about the future, not five years from now or even 10. I think that in 2041, 23 years from now, “Ready Player One” showed us  a world where robots take over many of the jobs humans do today. Those jobs that our grandchildren are training to continue.
Is that dystopian world what do  they have to look forward to?  Or as many who are watchdogs of of the new technological advances in AI (artificial intelligence) point out, a world in which humans are replaced by machines. How then do we guide our next generation?
Perhaps, like those who went before, human ingenuity should not be underestimated.  In just my lifetime, I saw my grandparents take the leap and leave the confinement of a city.  I saw my father find a way to support his family with a merging of two jobs.  My own journey led me and my husband into careers in the field of education. Then my children went entirely different roads with their education and were able to carve out lives that ultimately fit them entirely.
My grandson who works for UPS may have driverless cars and drones replace him.  My grandson may study international relations and law and find the computer can write briefs better than he.  My grandson who studies to be a minister may find that no one leaves their home because a la “Ready Player One,” everyone is too busy playing video games, as an avatar, whose life is more interesting than hearing the latest sermon.
(In the nature of a sermon, I particularly liked a recent Facebook post. A professor had invited a group of his students to his home for a coffee.  He brought out a plethora of coffee cups among them were some beautiful cups, antiques, and some very ordinary ones.  When all were seated sipping their coffee, he began.  I have noticed all of you chose the most precious, beautiful cups for your coffee.  You realize that the coffee will not taste any different no matter which cup you chose.  Life is like that, he said.  It is never about the container it is what you put into it.)
Work is like that, as is the life in which work is a part, it is not what your work is.  The containers of 2041 were stacked mobile homes. What mattered was what was put into it-love, family, friends, curiosity, excitement….As Spielberg cautioned, at the end of this tale of a dystopian world, “Stay in reality.”  Perhaps the fear is not of robots, but of our becoming sucked up in a world of fantasy- forgetting that the best thing we have is each other to love, and that we have nothing to fear about the world of work, as long as we affirm each other.  Robots will never know the feel of that hug from someone that cares about them.

Ellen Blaufarb is a marriage family therapist.

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