Worksheet

F12.8 Technology, jobs and daily life

Technology and society · GCSE · OCR J277 1.6.1, AQA 8525 3.8, Edexcel 1CP2 5.2.2 · about 15 min

What this lesson is about

Automation and work, how daily life changed, and how automatable a job is.

• Work
• Daily life
• How automatable is a job?

Questions 5 marks in all

1. [1 mark]Which kind of work is automated first?

   1. ARoutine and repetitive work
   2. BWork needing care and judgement
   3. CWork needing persuasion
   4. DUnpredictable work

2. [1 mark]Which statement about automation is most accurate?

   1. AIt removes some jobs, changes many and creates others
   2. BIt removes all jobs
   3. CIt creates jobs only
   4. DIt has no effect on jobs

3. [1 mark]Give a drawback of remote work.

   1. AIt can blur work and home and leave people isolated
   2. BIt needs a commute
   3. CIt shrinks the pool of applicants
   4. DIt always lowers pay

4. [1 mark]Online shopping grew quickly. Give a cost of that.

   1. AHigh street shops closing, plus delivery miles and packaging
   2. BLess choice for shoppers
   3. CHigher prices for everything
   4. DSlower delivery

5. [1 mark]A job is 40% stacking (0.5 automatable) and 60% advice (0). What percentage is automatable?

The task: how automatable?

For each job in jobs, work out its automatable share: the total of each task's share times how automatable it is. Print <job>: <n>% rounded to the nearest whole number, sorted from the most automatable to the least. Add AT RISK to any job of 60% or more. At the end print most human task: <task>, the task with the lowest automatable value across every job.

# the two lines every program starts with: the commands, then the robot
from bugbot import *
connect()

# job: [(task, share of the job, how automatable 0 to 1), ...]
jobs = {
    "shop assistant": [("stacking shelves", 0.4, 0.9), ("helping customers", 0.4, 0.2), ("counting stock", 0.2, 1.0)],
    "nurse": [("taking notes", 0.3, 0.7), ("caring for patients", 0.6, 0.05), ("ordering supplies", 0.1, 0.9)],
    "warehouse picker": [("finding items", 0.6, 0.95), ("packing", 0.3, 0.8), ("checking damage", 0.1, 0.4)],
}

Plan your program here, then type it in and press Run.

Do it on the robot
www.bugbotlab.com/learn/f12-8-technology-jobs-and-daily-life/
The simulator checks it and tells you when it passes. Nothing to install, no account.

Challenges

1. Which job changes least, and what does its safest task have in common with the others' safest tasks?
2. Add a task of your own to the nurse's job. Does the verdict change?
3. Name a job created by computing in the last twenty years, and one it removed.