There have been millions of technological innovations since cave men first invented the wheel... many of them -- such as the printing press, the sewing machine, and the robot -- have put people out of a job. However, it is completely illogical to state that technology eliminates jobs. If that were true, then 10,000 years of innovation would mean no jobs left on the planet... The relationship between technology and jobs is much more complex than that.

Put simply, innovations may be disruptive, but they can never replace a human who actually gives a damn. This may be difficult to believe -- especially if you recently lost your job because a robot/computer could do it faster... but innovations don't fire people; managers fire people... and both labor and management use technology as a scapegoat.

Here's my theory on how this all works:

• For better or worse, the majority of people are motivated by economic means. Not entirely, mind you, but significantly... and everybody would prefer to have more money if possible.
• The primary thing that keeps an economic system growing and creating new wealth is increased worker productivity.
• Technological innovations make workers more efficient.
• This means a short-sighted employer can purchase new technology, lay off workers, and maintain existing production levels... however, this trick is easy for the competition to replicate, so its a terrible long-term solution.
• Alternatively, workers could learn how to work with new technology, and become phenomenally more productive than just technology alone. This is difficult for the competition to replicate, because it relies on a culture of training, sharing knowledge, and institutional learning... so its a great long-term solution.
• Therefore, employers who use new innovations plus retrained labor will always be more competitive, and the first to find and cultivate new markets.
• When this happens, overall worker productivity increases, and more wealth is created for everybody: investors, innovators, managers, and workers.

Scribes lost their jobs when the printing press was invented... but cheap books created huge demand for new kinds of books, and the printing industry boomed. Tailors lost their jobs when the sewing machine was invented... but cheap clothes created huge demand for new fashions, and the clothing industry boomed. Naturally, this doesn't always work for low skilled workers, and all this amoral capitalism is painful for people who lose their job... so a smart government would provide its citizens with temporary unemployment pay, education, and jobs programs to help them through the disruptive phase. But, that's a blog post for a different web site ;-)

This same rule applies to knowledge workers... don't think of them being "replaced" with software, think of them being "empowered" by software.

I am personally highly skeptical about "Enterprise 2.0" software that claims to help people effortlessly find content, seamlessly connect with people, and make effective business decisions as a "crowd". That's not to say these tools have no value... but they are no replacement for people who know what they are doing, and have a desire to get better at it.

Neither Wikipedia nor Google can replace people who intuitively understand a subject, and can weed out "false" information from the mountain of badly written presentations, reports, and blogs... Neither LinkedIn nor Facebook can replace the people who genuinely love connecting with thousands of friends, staying in touch, and helping people out... And nothing, nothing can replace a manager with leadership and consensus building skills. All these people have a genuine talent for discovering useful information, connecting people to each other, and managing a group.

If you have talented employees, you can never replace them. If you don't have them, then software is a stop-gap solution; not a substitute. Technology can only raise the bar a little... ordinary folks will use technology to become slightly better than average at a task... but those with talent can use the exact same technology, and leave everybody else in the dust.