The Robots Are Coming, and Sweden Is Fine
GARPENBERG, Sweden — From inside the control room carved into the rock more than half a mile underground,
Mika Persson can see the robots on the march, supposedly coming for his job here at the New Boliden mine.
Three years ago, Soren Karlsson quit his job on the business side of a Swedish newspaper to start United Robots, a venture
that one might initially think was aimed at ruining the lives of his former colleagues: He developed a robot, named Rosalinda, that scans data about sporting events to yield news stories.
“In Sweden, if you ask a union leader, ‘Are you afraid of new technology?’ they will answer, ‘No, I’m
afraid of old technology,’” says the Swedish minister for employment and integration, Ylva Johansson.
“If we don’t move forward with the technology and making money, well, then we are out of business,” says Magnus
Westerlund, 35, vice chairman of a local union chapter representing laborers at two Boliden mines.
“We can’t just moan about what is happening.”
Yet even if robots create more jobs than they eliminate, large numbers of people are going to need to pursue new careers.
“It’s a Swedish kind of thinking,” says Erik Lundstrom, a 41-year-old father of two who works alongside Mr. Persson.
