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The problem is that the new job titles we keep inventing require ever-greater degrees of intelligence, while the distribution of human intelligence has been rem

by hugh4 10y ago

The problem is that the new job titles we keep inventing require ever-greater degrees of intelligence, while the distribution of human intelligence has been remaining just about the same. A hundred farm workers get replaced by one tractor, but that's okay, because those hundred workers become tractor repairmen, tractor factory workers, tractor designers, and we can farm far more land and produce wealth more efficiently. But not everyone who could plow a field can design a tractor. A thousand years ago, damn near every job was manual labour and could be done with a two-digit IQ, but we're reaching the point in first-world countries where less than half the work which needs to be done can actually be done by someone in the lower half of the population's intelligence distribution. If we're not there yet, we will be soon. And I think it's fundamentally different to every previous automation revolution.

nostrebored 10y ago
I have a fundamental disagreement with the notion that we're using our intellectual capital well today. I think that the modern education system fails nearly every student, and some more than others. If we pushed towards educating people in practical skills, like tractor design, do you really think that it would be a large number of people who are incapable of grasping the concepts? Especially if we used the modern research we have into how people learn effectively? Education as an industry and cultural norm needs to grow -- and not in the abominable way that it is now, with us glorifying education for the sake of education -- but a push towards valuing people who have learned specialized skills, regardless of what they are. There's a reason that we have a dearth of mechanics in the U.S., and it's not because being a mechanic is an unattainable goal, but rather because the social norms around specialized blue collar work are ridiculous in the U.S.

by hugh4 10y ago

nostrebored 10y ago

I have a fundamental disagreement with the notion that we're using our intellectual capital well today. I think that the modern education system fails nearly every student, and some more than others. If we pushed towards educating people in practical skills, like tractor design, do you really think that it would be a large number of people who are incapable of grasping the concepts? Especially if we used the modern research we have into how people learn effectively? Education as an industry and cultural norm needs to grow -- and not in the abominable way that it is now, with us glorifying education for the sake of education -- but a push towards valuing people who have learned specialized skills, regardless of what they are. There's a reason that we have a dearth of mechanics in the U.S., and it's not because being a mechanic is an unattainable goal, but rather because the social norms around specialized blue collar work are ridiculous in the U.S.