Technological Unemployment, the Architecture Profession, and My Worth as an Author

I believe Michael Ferguson‘s analysis about the future, jobs, and technological unemployment is essentially correct,

http://thefuture101.blogspot.com/2011/08/and-now-lets-move-to-jobs.html

Technology is automating more and more jobs.  We software-oriented architects are the “grunts” that are helping to usher this process along.  Indeed, we are working to automate ourselves out of traditional employment.  We have been creating conditions which favor permanent entrepreneurship for every one of us, and which do not favor traditional employment for any of us.

From a Coasean economics perspective, information technology is helping to reduce general transaction costs worldwide such that transaction costs internal to firms and external to them are approaching parity.  In other words, it is increasingly nonsensical for any company to bother hiring employees.  This does not mean however, that companies do not need people, nor does it mean that future consumers do not need the products of your hard work!  Read Michael’s article for his detailed analysis of this phenomenon.

How can I write a book on a “theory of I/T architecture”, of the philosophy and science of I/T architecture, without addressing this trend?  I can’t.  I need to discuss where we have been as professionals, where we are, and where were are going.  I must play the futurist and make predictions.  Of course, some of my predictions will be shown to have been correct over time, some wrong, but stick my neck out I must!  There is no way I can write such a book, sit on the side lines, and simply throw up my arms and say, “I have no idea what to do next.”  If I am not attempting to help my readers make critical decisions about their personal futures, then what good would I be as an author?  Why should you bother to read what I have to write?

Two Books, Two Audiences

For my two books, I have two audiences in mind:

• potential and current I/T architects, and
• those who would hire them

For the I/T architect I will provide them a way of integrating business, economics and law into computing system designs. I will teach them a little about legal theory, contract theory and transaction cost economics in a concrete way they can incorporate into their models.  In the end, the I/T architecture will be in a better position to predict business impact than they have traditionally been.

For those who would hire the I/T architect, this will be a book recap a little business theory and the role of computer systems in relation to transaction economics.  Nothing new here, but the twist will be to educate that employer on how to discuss these important business issues with the I/T architect in a way that is mutually understandable for the both of them.  I will also introduce “I/T thinking” to the employer who hasn’t a clue.  There is a great cultural divide between the “business” and “technology” worlds which I believe can be breached by thinking in terms of concepts every human can relate to, that is the ethics of architecture.

Two Books on Ethics

Udi Dahan suggests^* I break up my “ethical context” book into two: one book for consumption by architects and the other for consumption by those who would hire architects.

I think that’s a very good idea.

[*] Yes, this suggestion was made over drinks, but alcohol notwithstanding his is still a good idea!

The Ethical Context

My cousin Rebecca Littman is correct: too many topics in my book!  My colleague Bill Barr also has the same great criticism.  Indeed, there are several books I need to generate from this.

I am converging on many concrete theses, and of course, multiple books and articles which to focus on over time.  I will have to start at the philosophical level first however since there is where all of my axioms and other assumptions will be defined and described.

Perhaps my first book will be to satisfy the thesis of,

The case for the ethical context in I/T architecture

Ultimately, the “ethical context” is the source of the most valuable quality attributes which must be balanced in any architecture.  These qualities, amongst others, are the difference between profit and loss, legal and illegal, even life or death:

• Epistemology, semantics and standards of proof
• Contract and charter trees/privilege and responsibility
• Profit and cost responsibility
• Value in ex ante versus ex post consideration (short term versus long term thinking)
• Information quality in principle-agent relationships
• Transaction costs (in the generalized sense, borrowing from both economic and legal theory)
• Game theory (prisoner’s dilemma, chicken, information cascades)
• Cognitive illusion and fallacy (responsibility for truth)
• Rules versus standards (responsibility to protect)
• Statute, regulation and law
• Collaboration, property, markets, efficiency, rent-seeking, regulatory capture: the industry context
• Market suppression: the business context
• Architectural governance as a set of ethical virtues

The Ethical Context

An interesting definition of ethics is the “art of cooperation”.  What I call an ethical context in architecture is a description of the way a particular culture solves their cooperative problems.  That culture may be corporate, regional or national.  Characterizing the ethical context has specific design considerations, such as:

• Regulatory consideration
• Security design (who has access to what, etc.)
• Customer relations (what does the customer see, how they are invited to participate, etc.)
• Consumption of “commons” (such as power and water)

Changed Subtitle

New subtitle: Computing, architecture and what ought to be built

Old subtitle: The philosophy and science of information technology architecture

Thoughts?

Topics

Topics thus far, in no particular order or preference:

• Philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, logic, mathematics, linguistics, ethics, politics, government, law, aesthetics
• Science: physics, chemistry, biology, physiology, cognition, materials science, information
• Business: value in energy, value in matter, value in time, value in emotion, property, trust, liberty, promise, contract, charter, professionalism, banking, money, economics, industrial governance, value, risk, custody, care, investment, planning, action, the future
• Art: architecture, design, measurement, collaboration, innovation, construction, experiment, career