The pill-popping future of work looks terrifying

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, a dystopia rules mankind in a way that renders the masses compliant consumers. The apex of medical mind control in the book is soma: a tranquilliser offering ‘a holiday from reality’. Huxley describes how its users’ ‘eyes shone (and)…the inner light of universal benevolence broke out on every face in happy, friendly smiles’. 

Huxley’s vision was intended as a nightmare but PricewaterhouseCoopers appear to have taken it as an inspiration. Their new report, Workforce of the Future, predicts what the labour market could look like in 2030. As you might expect, automation takes the starring role and a survey of 10,000 workers across the world presents mixed opinions. Three-quarters are ready to learn new skills; 65 per cent see technology as a good influence; but almost four in ten believe automation is putting their job at risk. 

The answer lies, the report predicts, in the creation of ‘a new breed of elite super-workers’ whose productivity ‘is maximised through sophisticated use of physical and medical enhancement techniques and equipment’.