In the 18th century and prior, we used our hands to do work. We became skilled at making chairs, tables, bowls, wagons, whatever was needed. We built roads, bridges, and buildings in teams of humans working by hand using skills garnered over a lifetime.

Then, in the 19th century, along came the industrial revolution where we built machines to dig the ditch, make products, and build those roads, bridges, and buildings at scale and speed. Our greatest value moved from our hands to our head. Hard labor began being replaced by good thinking. Skill became less important than knowledge. 

Moving into the 20th century, we began building machines to not only labor for us but think for us. Beginning with meager mechanical adding machines, more sophisticated devices started to evolve to do the work of 100s of bookkeepers, writers, and draftspeople.

The 21st century has now brought us ever more advanced machines that can not only do busy thought-work, but can approximate a lot of actual thinking. More and more, the question as to the need for humans to do the work is being asked. If our hands and our heads are being found increasingly redundant, essentially, what are humans for? 

It’s a troubling existential conundrum to say the least. 

Nevertheless, what does this have to do with liberal arts? 

When our heads were critical to business success, a business degree was very practical and advantageous. Strategy, planning, analysis, management, all of these head-centric disciplines were what a business degree was all about. And that’s what has been needed to manage our fast, ever-changing, mechanized enterprises. 

But now, we are making machines for analysis, strategizing, and planning. Our heads are being replaced by something that can think faster, remember more, and make more provable predictions. 

Enter liberal arts. While machines have been or are replacing our hands and heads, the one thing they can’t replace is our hearts, our ability to care, to feel, and to practice compassion. Liberal arts focuses on these skills—human skills. Liberal arts teaches relational rather than technical competence, and it’s this competence we will always need. Connecting with others and interacting effectively rely on relational excellence, and the need for this kind of excellence is increasing logarithmically as our work evolves to be more about service.

Business competencies? Important for now, but machines are coming for them. As we consider the future, it may be time to consider going where machines cannot, it may be time to consider the value in competencies of the heart. 

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