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The Real Internet of Things: The Future of Work
These are published chapters from my book The real Internet of Things, published on January 1st, 2017.
Daemonization will fundamentally alter how people work.
Businesses will continue shedding human jobs because humans will become increasingly costly, inconsistent, and low-quality compared to algorithms. The future of work is the exchange of value between individuals and groups of individuals, which will become possible with daemonization.
With daemonization you are the source of truth for your own information, and this includes what you’re good at. For everything you’re skilled in you’ll have third-party-validated ratings, and when someone (or more likely their DA) looks at your daemon, they’ll know which skills you’re competent in, as validated by others (or not if it doesn’t matter).
And the same goes for the person requesting the work. They will have been rated by others on how pleasant they are to work with, whether they paid on time, etc.
So the assistants on each side will, using one or more of the thousands of competing matchmaker algorithm companies available, find the ideal match between someone who needs something done, and someone who’s able to do it.
At any given moment there are billions of people who need something, and who are willing to pay something for it. There are also billions who have skills and the willingness to help in exchange for something in return.
Daemonization turns work (and value exchange more generally) into a peer-to-peer exchange rather than one mediated by institutions.
So as you’re sitting in a coffee shop, your DA will ask and/or present to you through AR, if you want to take incoming jobs. Reviewing a legal document, cat-sitting, talking to a stranger who needs to hear something positive, performing a security audit—whatever. As pre-filtered jobs come in, your DA will present them to you and you can accept or decline them.
But even the word ‘work’ is a bit limiting. The better way to think about this is value exchange. The fundamental idea at play is that of peer-to-peer exchange and the elimination of the need for institutions in the middle.
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Think about other types of services that are currently done by government, such as safety. The future of value exchange has those services coming from peers, not from institutions. If a woman is walking home, and she realizes it’s later than she thought, her DA will summon local protection.
People who are rated as safety qualified (large enough to be a deterrent if assisting alone, has training, rated as trustworthy, etc.) will get summoned by their DAs to either accept or reject an urgent, local request. And within a few seconds one or more people will walk up, nod, smile, and walk with her to her destination. Payment could be in actual currency or in appreciation, depending on the transparent and mutual agreement, and the ratings will be logged in the various daemons.
The same might apply for someone hurting themselves and needing help, a child being lost, providing loans, sharing resources, or anything else that a fellow citizen could do faster (and maybe better) than a limited and centralized source of that service.
Those who own particular resources or have particular attributes can make them available to others as part of their value portfolio as well. People who own apartments with a certain view, people who are particularly good looking or charming, people with a sense of humor, etc. You could have the best comic book collection within 50 miles, you could be a highly rated calligraphy instructor, you can have a horse ranch and a bed and breakfast.
People will be able to provide their talents, their traits, their expertise, and their possessions as value to others—all on demand as part of their daemonized value portfolio.
Basically anything you know, are, or have will become experiences you can create and value you can exchange with others. And that will become the new foundation of work.
Summary
Businesses would rather not have employees, and they’re actively working to discard them.
The answer is peer-to-peer exchange of value enabled by matching needs with capabilities.
People will provide many such services to each other based on their personalities, skills, and possessions.
Daemonization enables the discovery, the vetting, and the coordination of every part of this interaction.