The dictionary of the professions of tomorrow, by Anne-Caroline Paucot. Propellant editions, 227 pages, 24 euros.
Express rating: 4/5
At first glance, the reader thinks he is holding in his hands a very classic report from France Strategy or the Economic Analysis Council on employment prospects over the next twenty years. And therefore expects long developments on the increasingly pressing labor needs in personal services, maintenance, IT or logistics.
So inevitably, from the first pages, the shock is brutal. Because it is less in the corridors of the Ministry of Labor than in a novel of anticipation by William Gibson, the spiritual father of Matrix, even in a poem by Jacques Prévert that the reader finds himself immersed in.
Anne-Caroline Paucot, futurist and writer, started from two simple assumptions: studies on the future of work converge to estimate around 50% of today’s jobs that could tomorrow be filled by robots rather than by humans. These same studies also estimate that 60% to 70% of the jobs college students will do today do not yet exist…
But how can we imagine the professions of tomorrow? By combining the challenges to be met (the fight against global warming, ageing, etc.), technological innovations (artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum physics) and new uses (applications, subscriptions, etc.). Anne-Caroline Paucot and her teams have shaken and mixed, to end up with 170 new professions which do not exist and which therefore had to be named.
New professions… and new skills
This journey into the future is fascinating. There will obviously be many jobs related to digital: “datamynist” (personal data broker) or “epinumerist” (digital epidemiologist). The new ways of working will require “chaoticians” (business routine breakers), “burailleurs” (developers of remote working methods), “chronalists” (synchronizing the individual so that he adapts to the times distended or shortened).
In a more complex and more fragile world, new skills will be necessary: ”machipathy” (empathy for machines), “fluxibility” (ability to think in terms of flow and no longer of stock) or “comunetrism ” (propensity to combine the common good and particular interests). We were suffering from new diseases, such as “zombiquism” (syndrome of individuals incapable of communicating other than at a distance) which will call for new ways of treating oneself. Many new qualifications will finally concern the environment or town planning. The world will need “aspironautes” (space garbage collectors), “eaubanistes” (urban planners of engulfment).
By closing this work as stimulating as it is fascinating, no more doubts: it is not the trades, but the arms that will be sorely lacking!