From David Byrden
In the past century, legions of unskilled jobs have vanished, taken over by automation; but there remain many tasks which machines cannot perform.
Now a new order is dawning. Thanks to the communications satellites which hang over us like the gods of antiquity, our white-collar jobs can be “moved” to Third World countries where salaries are enticingly low. Routine data-processing work is already going this way; but now computer programming is beginning to leave as well, heading mainly for India, which has huge reserves of highly skilled programmers.
In a few years’ time, software skills may become unsellable in the West.
We need a new word for this enormous Third World reserve of talent. May I suggest “the Brainforest”?
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