President Kim Dong-one of Korea University Discusses Technology and Labor Attitudes
On Thursday, May 9th at 5:30 pm, Korea University held the first session of the 2024 Leaders Changing the World Lecture Series with the President of Korea University at the Kim Yang-hyun Hall in the Auditorium.
Before the lecture, Park Hyun-sook, Vice President for Student Affairs, said, “We organized this lecture series for speakers who can be role models for students to share their stories. We hope that students will gain experience and wisdom and become leaders who will change the world in the future.”
President Kim Dong-one argued that there were three categories of people: those with positive, negative, and neutral views of technological progress. “Utopians, or those who are positive about technological progress, have the opinion that technological progress will make people happy, and technology will improve the quality of life in the future society.”
President Kim continued, “Dystopians, those who are negative about technological progress, hold the view that technological progress is hell. It will cause a lot of social inequality and result in the end of labor.” He noted that a surprisingly large number of people fall into this category.
Furthermore, he explained, “Finally, 80% of people hold a neutral stance on technological advancement. People in this group take the stance that technological progress itself is good. We should embrace it, but we should do so in a way that doesn’t cause harm.”
After explaining these views on technological progress, President Kim Dong-one discussed technological advancement and labor-management conflict. “Many people think that the advancement of technology will lead to the end of labor. However, the unemployment rate has nothing to do with technological progress. Rather, unemployment occurs due to economic and political problems,” he said. “New jobs are being created to replace those that have disappeared. For example, in the past, more than 90% of the US population was engaged in agriculture. Currently, however, only 1.2% of Americans work in this industry.” President Kim also emphasized, “It is, however, a widely held opinion that technological progress leads to polarization. Therefore, we must build a social safety net to prepare for technological progress.” With this message, he concluded the special lecture.br>
The 2024 Leaders Changing the World Lecture Series is part of Korea University’s 120th anniversary celebration project. The university plans to regularly invite alumni from various fields, including sports, culture, arts, and the legal profession, to deliver special lectures.