In my Predictions 2014 post on 20th Dec 13, I declared 2014 to be the start of the Era of Wearable Computing. I also declared it an Era that would include Driveables and Flyables. I should have added Sailables too.
The FT on 26th Dec 13 announced Rolls Royce plots course with drone ships. Indeed several other publications forecast that cargo ships would be either crewless or have greatly reduced numbers of crew in the next 10-20 years as most of their functions could be undertaken much more effectively remotely. The single major cause of maritime disasters is crew fatigue/incompetence. Watch keeping would be greatly improved if undertaken by alert staff working remotely. I can see that would make sense!
But there is a really big issue here. I commend you to read The robots are coming and they will terminate your jobs in the FT on 28th Dec 13. “In the future, there may be people who – despite being willing and fit to work – have no economic value as employees”. I have no intention of arguing the ‘Luddite View’ that we should stop such ‘progress’. But I do think we should appreciate the social consequences. There will always be a sizeable section of our population that can’t become brain surgeons (or coders). We used to give them jobs in the services, down the mines, in factories or in the fields. They had pride in doing “a proper day’s work putting bread on the family table”. The consequences of creating a permanent underclass of unemployable people – probably predominantly youngsters – is too scary to contemplate.