A brief description of how I feel AutoCAD is contributing to elitism in our society.
I believe our world is on a fast track into uncharted territory. The effects of our “progress” on our society are far reaching and grave in scope. I shall discuss why I feel AutoCAD is contributing to the formation of an elite class.
A single feature of AutoCAD when looked at in the proper light can help illustrate my point. The 3D rendering function is a truly marvelous advancement in personal computer and software technologies. It enables one skilled person to perform an incredible amount of work. As a general rule, one CAD operator could readily replace at least three to five drafters using traditional methods.₁
The ethical ramifications are multi-faceted: Most obvious is the reduced workforce necessary to reach the same (if not heightened) level of productivity. Drafting was once a prolific, well paying, respectable profession. It has been reduced to a fraction of the required personnel equipped with increasingly less expensive and more powerful computers. So what becomes of all the would-have-been drafts persons? It’s true many of them will find gainful employment in other positions, but will they be professionals of the status draft persons once held? It is not as though this phenomenon is unique to CAD and drafting. All over our society people are losing their professions to fewer people equipped with ever more advanced technology. It is not difficult to find entire lists of occupations that have become obsolete.₃ If one follows this train of thought it becomes painfully obvious what will begin, many would say has already begun, to happen. Those who are the chosen few, those who can either by luck, personal connections, or on occasion, through hard work and good planning, become the people operating the technology will become the elite.₂
If fewer skilled personnel are able to produce what whole firms did in the past then fewer people are needed to be paid from presumably the same amount of income from a job or contract. This fact alone contributes to the formation of an elite and it does it quickly.
I think one thing that is common among those who are classified as “elite” in one form or another is the desire to remain so. In this scenario, since the elite are the technically savvy, they will be in a position to manipulate technology to become increasingly more complicated or I should think downright cryptic, there-by strengthening their gasp on power.
This trend is ever occurring and is not limited to CAD or any one profession. It has always occurred in one form or another and so it may be natural to wonder why there is any cause for alarm now over times past. There are however a couple major differences between now and times gone by. First of all is our ability to produce ever more autonomous machines and robots and software which are making people obsolete at an exponentially increasing rate. Even more critical, and only exasperated by that condition, is the fact that the world is reaching its maximum capacity. In the past when people’s jobs became obsolete they were able to re-train and find gainful employment doing something else. That is a strategy that works fine in an ever growing economy. But the economy can’t keep growing forever. So what happens to people whose job becomes obsolete when there is no new field to enter? They join the masses and the elite are formed.
An advanced feature like 3D rendering in AutoCAD, producing such a leap in productivity, helps to illustrate these phenomena. Although it is not responsible for the direction our world is heading in, it contributes to it.
