Grieg Foundation – Annual Report 2014

The development of automation and production with robots are moving rapidly forward. There has been made some scary comments, describing the world in 30 to 50 years time where practically everything today performed by human hand or mind, can be done better by robots and other super-technical installations. This development has already reached a stage where many types of production outsourced to countries like China, India, Bangladesh only relatively few years ago, are now redirected back home to their original production area where cost due to automation etc. has again become competitive.

Comments are also now being made describing a near future, i.e. 20–30 years down the road, where 20 million human working places in USA alone will be erased due to automation and robot competition. All this is happening during a period where there is another revolution going on: Hundreds of millions of people around the world, today living under poverty limit, will be raised to a more dignified life with proper nutrition and access to at least a basic education.

In Africa the average family produces more children than in Europe and America. This will change in the next 10–20 years as many of the traditional killer illnesses in Africa will be controlled parallel with reduced hunger and increased education. In Europe, the 70 years of peace and constructive development have lead to high productivity, high living standard and a negative birth rate. Such a scenario could easily lead to a serious redistribution of people across continents, and create new demographic situations.

The above deliberations are meant to remind us that in this extremely interesting and fastmoving world of ours, challenges are and will be abundant. For us as a small player on the international scene, we must only try as best we can to position our means in projects which we at any time feel helpful under the prevailing conditions. It is easy to be despondent as things get complicated. Then there is a lot of comfort in the saying: “Let us try to save the world one child at the time”.