In next 10 years many older workers will have to learn skills from the young or find something else to do that better matches their own skills. As I described earlier, many young workers also have a distinct culture. This will substantially change the work environment in many firms.
The home, in contrast to the firm, will be less specialized, serving as the locus of many different activities formerly conducted in different locations. More adults will work at home; more students will study at home, with access to superior on-line instruction and libraries; and a wider variety of entertainment will be available in the home. People will also have more choice of when they want to participate in each of these activities. And new computerized devices such as smart stoves and cleaning robots will serve the household.
Information technology will also lead to a "golden age" of
science and engineering. Advances in supercomputers, simulation
and networks are creating a new window into the natural world --
making IT as valuable as theory and experimentation as a tool for scientific discovery. With computers can make trillions of
calculations in a second, scientists and engineers will be able
to better predict the impact of climate change, design more
efficient and cleaner energy systems, and gain new insights into
the fundamental nature of matter.
Organizations will become flatter. The Internet and organization-specific intranets will reduce the relative number of middle managers and middle staff positions. For a while, maybe for a generation, the relative earnings and influence of computer-literate employees, often younger employees, will increase. More employees will telecommute more of the time. Organizations will also subcontract tasks, often to other countries, for which the output can be transmitted on-line.
Teleconferencing will probably reduce business and professional travel. It is less clear whether....
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