Who would Captain Kirk call
Who would Captain Kirk call? If the toilet on the Enterprise was blocked. If the environmental controls went on the blink. If there was a sudden lack of propulsion.
Not a strategy consultant. Not the AI. Not even the ship’s counsellor. He’d call a plumber. An electrician. A mechanic.
We spend a lot of time worrying about AI taking jobs. But if the future involves moon bases and Mars outposts, the “astronaut” of tomorrow won’t be a heroic test pilot. They’ll be someone who can fix things when they break. Which, in space, is always.
It’s a more optimistic future than we admit. Not everyone needs to code. Someone still needs to keep the oxygen flowing.
So what’s the message for organisations?
You could hire more plumbers. Sensible. Long overdue. But that’s not enough.
The real answer is harder: train for resilience, not just efficiency.
Most organisations have spent years optimising. Smoother processes. Leaner teams. Fewer errors. It works—right up until something goes wrong.
And then it really goes wrong.
Because efficiency is brittle. It assumes the system holds. It assumes the data is right. It assumes someone, somewhere, knows what to do.
Often, no one does.
AI will make this sharper, not safer. It excels at prediction, pattern, repetition. So do highly optimised organisations. Which means the gaps—the messy, unpredictable, high-stakes moments—are left to humans who may not be ready.
So what does “resilience” actually look like?
It looks like cross-training people beyond their job description. It looks like practising failure, not just success. It looks like rewarding those who fix problems, not just those who avoid them. It looks like promoting people who can improvise under pressure, not just present well in meetings.
In other words, fewer passengers. More crew.
And which jobs survive AI? The same ones Captain Kirk would call. Roles that deal with the real world—physical, unpredictable, unforgiving. Roles where judgement matters. Where trust matters. Where things break.
The irony is obvious. We told a generation to aim higher, away from trades and towards “knowledge work”. Now the high ground is crowded—and the real value is in keeping things running.
When everything works, AI looks impressive. When it doesn’t, you need a human who knows what to do next.
Hire fewer of those people—and see how far you get.
Blair Mcpherson former Director author and blogger blairmcpherson.co.uk
