Richard V. Rupp

September 29, 2021

Good Wednesday morning. I'm author Richard V. Rupp, writing from Burbank, California. Welcome to RUPP'S NOTES/FBI SPECIAL AGENT HARTMAN SERIES posts.

 

I'll drink to that. Today is National Coffee Day. I have two cups first thing every morning. Over the years, I have gotten lazy and now use a Keurig K-cup coffee machine. I'm not sure it's the best coffee, but it sure is easy to make.

 

Apparently, I'm not the only one who likes their morning java. According to the National Coffee Association, nearly 60% of Americans choose coffee each day over other beverages, including tap water.

 

You may want to go out for your coffee today as it appears a lot of places are offering free or discounted coffee deals. Starbucks is celebrating its 50th anniversary today with a freebie cup, but you need to bring your own clean, empty, reusable cup, up to 20 ounces. Wawa, with locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and D.C., expects to give away nearly 1.88 million cups of free coffee. The one I really like is Panera, which is dedicating the coffee holiday to parents and caregivers. When you place an order, just say you're a parent or caregiver to get free coffee all day.

 

Let me think about this one for a while. "Hesitation is a crucial element of creation. If people would rephase writers' block as hesitation, writers would feel better about it." – Ian McEwan, quoted in the FINANCIAL TIMES.

 

I may be having too much fun writing the manuscript for my novel SKYWARD. It's fun building a colony in a place that is nothing like Earth, but I need to work at it, not being a forever project. As an example of my getting caught up in something. I just read an article about cows that got my crazy mind whirling. Yes, cows. I have already decided the Bowman Colony will use 3D-printed beef. And, I was considering just using goat milk. But then I read this article in THE WEEK – German scientists have shown that cows can be toilet-trained. They used a molasses drink to coax cows to urinate in a special pen.  . . .An animal psychologist said he hoped that "in a few years, all cows will go to a toilet."

 

Then there was the KIPLINGER article about what industries and jobs will be obsolete in the future. I thought about this in conjunction with SKYWARD, and here's what I came up with.

 

Library (Librarian) – My favorite people are librarians, but unfortunately, the world is changing. This profession will disappear from Earth and is not even considered for the Bowman Colony (BC). The new generations rely on digital access to information. The same is true of the BC, where all information is digital. Sorry to all my librarian friends. But, the world has changed. I suspect historical libraries with continue to exist, but they will be more like museums.

 

Banks (Bankers) – More and more monetary transactions are done digitally. In the BC, all financial transactions are digital, controlled, and maintained by the master computer.  The new generations rely on digital solutions for their investing needs and use online banking. The fintech world is exploding with new mobile investing devices.

 

Lawsuits (Lawyers/Legal Secretary) – The law will become more and more computerized, and there will be more and more data about events affecting society. Deloitte indicates that over the next 20 years, 114,000 legal jobs will be automated. The digital world will instantaneously provide case history and feed data into a system that indicates the legal solution. All documentation will be filed electronically and become part of societies database. BC will have this described system on steroids.

 

Schools (Teachers/Administrators) – The factory school will become obsolete and be replaced by smaller units overseen by professional advisors. A growth mindset is the idea that you can continually develop further through hard work, good strategies, and mentorship from others, whatever level of talent you have. The learning process will be done by online distance learning and by live video from professional lecturers located miles away. Professional firms and businesses will provide additional mentorships to students at their locations. You will see more emphasis on STEM and on "life skills" like exercise and nutrition. There will be collaborative research projects. Commercial gyms will provide daytime exercise programs tailored to youngsters and sporting events.

 

"Rote memorization becomes something that is done for the purpose of compliance, rather than for the purpose of learning," Cahill explains. "In particular, we know that young people now need to learn the context of material that they can learn and build on, and also so that they can learn to think critically and problem-solve—which you don't do in the abstract."

 

Most of the above came from my research for SKYWARD, so BC will use the above model.

 

Brick & Mortar Stores (Cashier, Clerk)  – As the Earth becomes a cashless society, the life skill of making change is being performed by computers. But, even forget about that, more and more goods are purchased electronically and delivered directly to the customer. Amazon is leading the way and others are being forced to follow. That store space is needed to house our expanding homeless society. In BC, all goods are ordered online.

 

Post Office (Mailpersons) – From the BROOKINGS INSTITUTE – "The U.S. Postal Service was created more than 200 years ago and maybe the country's oldest continuously operating business. But like the candle makers and the buggy whip makers that ran prosperous businesses back when Ben Franklin was the first Postmaster General, the Postal Service is becoming obsolete. . . .To understand this crisis of obsolescence, all you really need to do is ask yourself when was the last time you got an actual letter addressed to you in the mail with a stamp on it. Even Christmas cards and wedding invitations are going electronic. And so the main business of the service is withering away."

 

This may be the straw the broke the camels back – "U.S. Postal Service delivery will be getting slower and more expensive just in time for the holidays, NPR reported Tuesday night. . . .USPS on Friday will begin implementing "new service standards" for first-class mail and periodicals that will slow target delivery time by about 30%, spokesperson Kim Frum told NPR.

 

As you can imagine, there are no physical letters in BC.

 

Truck/Taxi/Delivery Drivers (Delivery Vehicles) – It is safer and more efficient (no salary, fewer vehicle accidents) to use autonomous vehicles, drones, and bots for delivery. In BC, all vehicles are autonomous (except for bicycles), and bots do a lot of the delivery work. It is estimated by 2040, there will be 33 million autonomous vehicles on Earth's roads.

 

Factory (Factory Workers) – In today's world, anything repetition is being replaced by AI/Robotics. Then you have 3-D and Additive Manufacturing. It is estimated that over 204,000 manufacturing jobs will be lost by 2029. In BC, most repetitive jobs are done by robotics.

 

What do you think will happen to your job over the next few years? What education should you be recommending for your children?

 

Cheers,

 

Richard V. Rupp, Author

Website – www.richardvrupp.com

Email – rupprisk@gmail.com

Copyright©2021 by Richard V. Rupp