Day Ten

Today was an introduction to our final group project for the course. Topics haven't been picked yet, but we've selected our interests, and we'll be grouped accordingly. After these discussions, we shopped for foodstuffs for the next few days, then headed back to the hostel before leaving for the bus station (Hlemme (?)) to go to visit the author of Dreamland ( Andri Snær Magnason) in his home turf at a re-purposed Coal Energy Factory (now Toppdin). The location was magnificent, the kind of place I could wander for hours taking pictures and never get bored.  We only had a short time to wander after his speech/question period, not nearly as long as I would have liked! Here are some pictures from the factory!

The pictures weren't really the most important part of this visit though, Andri was really interesting to listen to. He's written a few books (starting with poetry and children's books) and had interesting views on how the labour force should be structured and what form that labour should be. Iceland has become a hotspot for aluminium smelter plants due to its super cheap energy (ie. the energy company breaks even) which take up over 70% of the energy produced here.  The energy is primarily hydro-electric which means these companies can claim to be using green energy, but they are still eating up Iceland's beautiful landscape. Andri describes a shift in thinking towards a new type of labour force, and warns against the tribulations of living in the past. (Which makes me think of the shift described by a guy the Strombo had on his tv show - he describes how because so much has become mechanized and automated, the required labour force is shrinking; therefore, the more important jobs in the future will be those that add value through creativity and innovation.)  Andri believes that the energy and aluminium/heavy industries are like wildlife: if you feed them, and encourage them, they will get hungrier and hungrier and complacent in the realm we've built for them; they will endlessly come back for more. Instead, Andri advocates the need to understand that just because nothing is changing, new smelters aren't being built, there is no economic growth, the country is not stagnant but rather in a time of consistent prosperity. I agree with this to an extent: economies cannot grow indefinitely, this is unsustainable, so this perceived stagnation may just be a balancing point in the scale at this particular point in time; however, if everyone else is growing, does that really mean that one is not really stagnant, but rather shrinking with respect to other economies? I think this would be a hard pill for any government to swallow (or to try to feed to its people).

Some of this is mine, most of it is his. I like that this is not the first time I've heard of the idea that we are moving towards a tertiary labour force. As a mechanical (engineer), I'm part of those that mechanize systems to make them more efficient and consequently provide fewer jobs.  When labour is cheap elsewhere, and money drives decisions, we need to look at how we can add value, at how we can be innovative and irreplaceable.  I think the days of being an assembly line worker are coming to an end - we can assemble anywhere or machines can that job.  How can the assembly like worker innovate and make themselves irreplaceable? I do not have an answer, but I know that one will be needed soon if we want to save the millions (or more?) of people that do these kind of jobs in North America.

Night all.