Technology in the Building Trades

Will AI and Robots make our jobs obsolete?

Much of the way we differentiate our world today from the world of history is described in regards to technology. This is also how we differentiate between our current reality and our ideas about the future. 

This may be a fad of modernity; when technology developed more slowly we may have thought differently. But regardless, how we think about and interact with technology is an important part of how we live our lives. Purposeful acceptance, anticipation, or resistance to new technology shapes our communities. As examples of abstaining from technology, we have communities such as the Amish, but also the homeless. Both of these communities have a difficult time interacting with and entering into other communities. Those who are on social media have entered into certain communities that are present on those particular platforms, and the shape of those communities differs with the type of interaction each platform specializes in. 

At the cutting edge, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality attract people who long for a future where technology is more advanced. While this excites some people, many others fear a dystopian future brought on by technology. These fears are not entirely unfounded, because technology has been used to gain power and advantage over others in the past. However, if we look closely at the history of technological advancement, I believe that we will see that these abuses are temporary. Evil can and does drive the development of technology, whether it is a lust for power, pleasure, or greed. But the overarching theme of technology in the Bible, and in history, is an echoing of Joseph’s words to his brothers in Genesis: 

“You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” - Genesis 50:20 NKJV

These words can likely be said of many technological innovations; and while benevolent solutions can also become corrupt, it is not hard to see that the advancements in technology that provide ample food, shelter, clothing and medicine for much of the world are blessings we would not abandon.

How should we view technological advancement in regards to the building trades? From a profit motive, technological improvement will favor solutions that reduce the time and cost of construction, hopefully without compromising the quality. When markets create a need for improved quality, it will come at a premium to cost, and market forces will bring the price down as competition makes newer technology more desirable. 

This program is not approaching the goal from a purely profit based motivation, or not in the traditional sense. Ultimately, by investing in the people instead of the product, more wealth will be generated overall, and the product will be more available, and higher quality. 

Let’s look at a couple different approaches to the use of building technology and how it impacts people and their careers. 

First, let’s look at the traditional craftsmen in Japan. Japan has long been known as a place where extremely high quality items are produced. From knives, to tools, to buildings, vehicles and musical instruments, there is no Japanese junk. There is much innovation in Japan as well, but many traditional items are made in the same way that they have been made for hundreds of years. This process requires that a student learn from a master over a long period of time. The highest emphasis is put on repeating the process meticulously. If it is a product such as wooden barrels for fermenting soy sauce, extremely tight parameters are put on every factor. What wood can be used, not only in species but in grain orientation; the tools, many times traditional hand tools, and the techniques - all will be done in exactly the same way each time, and over many, many years, a student will learn to replicate these techniques in the same way as his teacher. The result is an extremely high quality item; yet there are downsides. Production is low, there is a lot of waste (or unusable material left at the lumberyard), tools may not be replaceable. Sick days means the job won’t get done. And when technological advancement produces a similar product, the price may be significantly lower, to the point it becomes a no-brainer, even if the quality is not quite as high. This means that many traditional crafts are put out of business, and the extreme specialization of the skill set means that the craftsman may not be employable in a job that is anywhere near the level of his talents. If the craftsman had begun to use some more technologically advanced tools and techniques, such as modern woodworking equipment, it  would be easier to translate his skill set to another field. 

Secondly, let’s look at the production construction industry. Here, there is going to be more flexibility, but many of the workers are as equally specialized as the Japanese craftsman, albeit in a different way. Framers, drywallers, flooring installers, rough plumbers, and many others, do the same particular steps in the home building process over and over. They use modern tools (which do save time) such as pneumatic nailers and drywall screw guns. They also rely on large crews to do jobs extremely quickly. But cost saving techniques have also reduced skills. Many framers may have only built using prefabricated roof trusses. They may not know how to calculate and cut rafters. Because we now have large portions of the home being prefabricated by a manufacturer, the construction worker becomes more of an installer than a true builder. This means that their skill set is not only less transferable to other trades, it’s also less valuable overall, because it is relying on someone else completing much of the difficult work. Many modern workers have failed to learn the older techniques, because they are seemingly irrelevant. As an example, when purchasing trim sold by length at the big box stores, construction workers who don’t know how to use a hand saw struggle and look foolish because they never learned how to properly use a crosscut saw.

Modern tools and equipment save a lot of time, but in the case that a single piece of trim needed to be replaced, a simple hand saw and miter box, a hammer and a nail is much faster than setting up a miter saw by the power, getting a compressor and a nail gun, running extension cords or hoses, and then having to vacuum the area afterward. Cordless tools are also available, and those can maximize the convenience of completing the task, but for those single pieces, an investment in decent hand tools is less than $50, while the battery powered equivalents would likely be 10x the price. 

On the extreme end, when everything becomes pre-fabricated, replacing a single piece of trim could eventually require it being made in a factory, shipped to the job site, and require installation by a licensed technician. While that may sound ridiculous, it is that exact process that has come to dominate in areas such as the automotive industry and electronics. As a result, places like the once ubiquitous Radio Shack have completely disappeared. 

It should be apparent here that being well-rounded in knowledge and techniques is a great boon to the worker. Our society tends to reward specialists, but with the rapid speed at which technology changes the techniques of the day, a specialist's skill set can be rendered obsolete overnight. While it may not be as glamorous, there is a perennial value in being a generalist. 

Because the emphasis on Tectonic School is to help people grow, technology must serve this  goal above everything else. Technology can be a useful aid in learning; it can also become a crutch. Building skills require use of the hands - no matter how many videos you watch, your skills will not be perfected until they are practiced. 

Working with technologically advanced tools has shown me that there is no substitute for real skill and real knowledge. When people first hear about things like CNC routers, it sounds like a machine that does everything for you. But once you begin to use one, you learn that there is skill needed in how you prep the material, how you secure it, and how you finish the parts once the machine is done. It also reveals that you must learn about things like tolerances. Perfect math does not create perfect parts. You may have to overcut one piece, and undercut another to get a perfect fit. Or you will have to figure out a way to square up the round inside corners, or compensate for them in your design, at which point a keen eye will recognize the signature mark of a machine made product - an inferiority from a design perspective. 

The inverse of this thought is that technology cannot eliminate real skill and real human ingenuity. We may make machines that solve our current problems, but the machines will be totally blind to the new problems they create. We will identify and fix them. But a sharp eye and a quick mind may discover that some of the best tools to deal with new problems may be the  obsolete and outdated methods from the past. If we don’t know our history, we are doomed to repeat it. Our biggest investment should be not in the tools within our toolbox, but in the skill of our hands, the knowledge in our heads, and the wisdom to employ them well.