Ahh... computers. They're one of man's greatest inventions and greatest curses.
I'm not talking about when you're at your computer and it locks up just before you save a great narrative.
No, no. I'm talking about when one of us gets replaced by a computer.
I've seen it happen in manufacturing jobs for years. Now it's happening at the airport in a job that used to be uniquely human.
Today, nestled in amongst Mayor Richard Daley's annoucement that Chicago's O'Hare had secured just $12.3 million out of $1.1 billion available dollars being given out by the Federal Aviation Administration, were several brand new touch screen computers.
The role of the computers is to show visitors to O'Hare (not necessarily downtown Chicago) what they are missing by not staying in the city for a while as a tourist.
A welcome wagon, so to speak.
The technology was cool, sure. But it's the human cost that struck me.
These 50 touch screen computers are "replacing" nearly 30 "red-jacket" greeters at the airport. The people, with the human touch, who were available for translation at the international airport and to provide a face-to-face first impression of our city.
The mayor got rid of the positions to save money in a budget that was horribly unbalanced.
Computers will certainly be more consistent in how they deal with visitors to our city but is it going too far to make a computer the replacement for a human job in this case?
Does the cost savings outweigh the human cost of more unemployed workers?
