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I always talk to the drivers about their feelings and so on when taking Uber. Maybe my data is skewed but most accept it as inevitable and are not worried much

I always talk to the drivers about their feelings and so on when taking Uber. Maybe my data is skewed but most accept it as inevitable and are not worried much as they have other side jobs. The cab drivers are the ones who must be anxious. It will be really bad if they cannot be retrained for other jobs as it will add to the existing frustration around automation. We simply cannot afford to leave people out as we move on to other things. Outsourcing moved manufacturing jobs to China, our focus on climate and global warming will leading to moving out of coal leaving coal miners behind, Amazon is automating their warehouses, Self driving will leave cab drivers behind...So, how do we create new type of jobs for these people? Humanity cannot progress by leaving people behind.

taxicabjesus 10y ago
> The cab drivers are the ones who must be anxious. It will be really bad if they cannot be retrained for other jobs as it will add to the existing frustration around automation. I used my "training" - a very expensive CS degree - to drive a cab. I developed a nerve condition in college, so really I just suffered through the program without becoming competent as a programmer. Also, I dance to the beat of my own drum, and do not take orders well. My kuro5hin.org (RIP) story "Humanity's Second-best Hope" [1] is about the seasonal job I had at Amazon, just before I started taxi driving. [1] http://www.taxiwars.org/p/humanitys-second-best-hope.html http://www.taxiwars.org/p/humanitys-second-best-hope.html Cab driving offered me freedom to be my own boss. The cab company's rules were reasonable, and easy enough to comply with. As long as I paid my lease, I could go anywhere and do anything I wanted with my time. No one in the company's administration cared if I took a short break, or a long break, or spent the night in bed. Something more important came up, and ridesharing ruined the economics of the business (Arizona makes it easy and cheap for anyone to start their own transportation company. The upstarts couldn't be bothered with playing fair), so I don't drive around in a taxi anymore. I think these money-losing "ride sharing" companies were founded by people with delusions of grandeur and venture capitalists' money to burn. When they run out of their investors' money, the realities of transporting people from place to place will reassert themselves.
GarrisonPrime 10y ago
I guess we should still be using horse and buggies then. How dare we leave buggy drivers behind. Change is inevitable. And for many people, painful. If the automation revolution occurs too fast, it will be a pretty economically painful transition period for a large chunk of humanity. On the other hand, if the transition is really really fast, the painful period may not last too long. Most things will become so cheap and abundant that most people won't have to work, or we will transition society to a 10-hour work week or something.
794CD01 10y ago
>Humanity cannot progress by leaving people behind. Most historical evidence suggests the opposite.
antisthenes 10y ago
> Humanity cannot progress by leaving people behind. You're way overestimating the value our civilization places on an individual human life, doubly so if they're unexceptional and male. And that's even more true for less developed societies. The sanctity and preciousness of human life and desire to avoid suffering and achieve equal outcomes is a relatively new concept, unique to the developed nations of post WWII era.

taxicabjesus 10y ago

> The cab drivers are the ones who must be anxious. It will be really bad if they cannot be retrained for other jobs as it will add to the existing frustration around automation. I used my "training" - a very expensive CS degree - to drive a cab. I developed a nerve condition in college, so really I just suffered through the program without becoming competent as a programmer. Also, I dance to the beat of my own drum, and do not take orders well. My kuro5hin.org (RIP) story "Humanity's Second-best Hope" [1] is about the seasonal job I had at Amazon, just before I started taxi driving. [1] http://www.taxiwars.org/p/humanitys-second-best-hope.html http://www.taxiwars.org/p/humanitys-second-best-hope.html Cab driving offered me freedom to be my own boss. The cab company's rules were reasonable, and easy enough to comply with. As long as I paid my lease, I could go anywhere and do anything I wanted with my time. No one in the company's administration cared if I took a short break, or a long break, or spent the night in bed. Something more important came up, and ridesharing ruined the economics of the business (Arizona makes it easy and cheap for anyone to start their own transportation company. The upstarts couldn't be bothered with playing fair), so I don't drive around in a taxi anymore. I think these money-losing "ride sharing" companies were founded by people with delusions of grandeur and venture capitalists' money to burn. When they run out of their investors' money, the realities of transporting people from place to place will reassert themselves.

GarrisonPrime 10y ago

I guess we should still be using horse and buggies then. How dare we leave buggy drivers behind. Change is inevitable. And for many people, painful. If the automation revolution occurs too fast, it will be a pretty economically painful transition period for a large chunk of humanity. On the other hand, if the transition is really really fast, the painful period may not last too long. Most things will become so cheap and abundant that most people won't have to work, or we will transition society to a 10-hour work week or something.

794CD01 10y ago

>Humanity cannot progress by leaving people behind. Most historical evidence suggests the opposite.

antisthenes 10y ago

> Humanity cannot progress by leaving people behind. You're way overestimating the value our civilization places on an individual human life, doubly so if they're unexceptional and male. And that's even more true for less developed societies. The sanctity and preciousness of human life and desire to avoid suffering and achieve equal outcomes is a relatively new concept, unique to the developed nations of post WWII era.