Ten Jobs of 2050 - Only Slightly Tongue-in-cheek

September 4th 2008 at 8:40 pm

I was cleaning up spacing issues on old posts yesterday, and I ran into a promise I’d made to post my notes for a panel I was on at the World Science Fiction Convention.  So here they are:

1.       Nanomanufacturer programming:  We may have the all-purpose assembler machine by then.   Well, someone needs to tell all that nano what to do, and build in safeguards, etc.  I mean, without security and a programming framework, you might ask the machine for a pair of shoes and get an AK-47, right?  If nothing else, think of the Homeland Security implications of this stuff.

2.       World genetics Authority Staff:  Think the FDA is gonna be enough to oversee all the new genetically altered animals?  In this job, you might be the one who gets to decide whether or not a new animal gets reproductive rights.  Do glow in the dark humans get to reproduce?  Seriously, we do need something like this – the godboard of genetics.

3.       Download monitor:  if Ray Kurzweil is right, by 2050 we’ll all be able to download into computers.  Someone’s going to have the check the integrity of the downloads (or more likely, take action if one fails the integrity checks) and protect the various fine souls in there.

4.       World Information Security Czar:   Truly a top job.  We’ll have some kind of world governance by then.  Someone is going to guard against cyber-attacks from the coup attempt, right?

5.       Wildland Gardener:  By 2050, nothing will truly be wild.  But someone’s gotta oversee the robots keeping the invasives out of ecosystems (remembering that one ecosystem’s anchor plant is another one’s weed).

6.       Biartist:  Short for Biological Artist.  These people grow their art.

7.       Personal Misstep Manager:  For when you need a keeper to keep you from doing something you might get sued for.  That same person will watch for opportunities to sue someone yourself.  What a lovely world we’ll be making.  

8.       Carbon Cop:  Watches for violations of draconian carbon emissions laws.  Yes, we’ll still be working on carbon reduction in 2050.  Wish it was easier to resolve; it’s not.  But at least by then this will be a mature field.

9.       3D Storyteller:  All the world is data, and a rich story needs a lot of it.  This is the multimedia artist it their peak.  Mashup the mashups, the new maps, the demographics, the novels, the historical details, and tell anyone any story they want, in full 3D with sound, music, and a plot.

10.   Roborepair:  Straight from the science fiction tropes of the seventies, by 2050 we’ll finally need these guys and gals.   Actually – this one already exists.  Someone fixes those robovacuums.

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