In 15 years, you had better have a better job than writing data-based reports because you will be completely replaced by a computer program.

Today in our industry and many others like it, we take data in tables and turn it into narratives, a story for the client to understand and base their decisions on. This is good work helping people who would otherwise have no way to interpret the massive amount of data present in the databases we scour. But computer programs are already writing reports quicker and faster than trained professionals for public consumption, and often the public is not even aware.

New Scientist reported in March 2014 that an article in the LA Times caused a bit of a stir when after reporting the details of an earthquake that had happened minutes earlier, the final sentence read, "This post was created by an algorithm written by the author." In other words, this post was computer generated. What is funny about this is that Forbes magazine had already been using a company called Narrative Science to generate corporate earnings reports.

All of these reports are based on data. An earthquake in LA would generate data such as;

Time: 14:15; Intensity: 2.3; Epicenter: San Fernando Valley.

And the program would write a small article which says,

"Today at 2:15 PM a small earthquake struck the metropolitan Los Angeles area. The earthquake has the potential to cause some structural damage to underground utilities and buildings and citizens residing within 50 miles of the epicenter in San Fernando Valley may be affected. This is a developing story." - Signed Your New Robot Overlords. It would work similarly for earnings reports or ANY report which is based primarily on quantifiable data.

Well, I for one welcome our new robot friends as they slowly take all the low level writing work and leave us in the environmental industry free to do higher level work. It is foolish to fight progress, the robot revolution is coming and rather than gathering at the border with troops, I'm opening the gates.

The luddites are afraid of the wrong thing. You can't preserve society in a time capsule. Progress marches on, technology makes jobs obsolete that once paid well, and technology makes jobs obsolete that once paid poorly. Nobody would argue that they would want all clothes to be made by hand today. A shirt that costs anywhere from $10 to $100 dollars today would cost approximately $3,500 dollars in the dark ages when 100% of everything was done by hand. That is assuming you paid the person making it minimum wage at every step of the process (no such thing in the dark ages). Check out the source article for more information.

What the luddites don't get is that as robots take your job, you can move up! You can take on the more creative roles within your company. In our industry, a Phase I ESA professional in the future will spend more time investigating a property in person since the database work will be autogenerated and more time face to face with the client, getting the know what their real concerns are and what their goals are for buying a property. And the professional, using their industry knowledge and the report generated, could help the client make an informed decision. Due to the increased efficiency, we could serve more clients and make more happy people.

As William Gibson, author for the Economist said, "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed." Forbes knows about it, the LA times knows about it, and the first environmental company that aggressively pursues the future rather than fighting it, will wipe the floor with its competition.

Look... the first textile worker replaced by the loom could not have been happy about it. They probably complained that machines were taking over. But we look back and smile, bemused at their lack of forethought and vision.

Don't be That Person!!!

IF you want to take advantage of the technology which will revolutionize the environmental industry, please join me and come meet other forward thinking professionals in the environmental industry at the Environmental Tech Summit on April 10-11 2016 in Raleigh, NC where you can discover the latest environmental software, remote sensing, and mapping technologies while connecting with environmental professionals, app developers, and hardware engineers to learn and create solutions for your projects. Early bird tickets are almost sold out!!!

Register Here Today for your Early Bird Discount!!!!!!!

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