5 ms·

You're not even close to a realistic comparison. As a percentage of jobs overall, people working with horses, milkmen, switchboard operators, etc didn't amount

You're not even close to a realistic comparison. As a percentage of jobs overall, people working with horses, milkmen, switchboard operators, etc didn't amount to the sheer enormity of the jobs that will be obsoleted or displaced by self driving vehicles. There is no comparison in history to make. Nothing has happened like this before. Never. The closest you could get would be something like the aftermath of WW2 in Europe or maybe some devastating plagues but even that isn't a good comparison because those removed the people entirely; dead people don't need to be fed or swayed from starting a violent revolution. It's not just the truckers or cab/bus drivers. It's all the industries that support them. Those will disappear too. Just think of all the truck stops we have in the US and the amount of money that truckers spend at these places to sleep, take showers, get wifi, etc. Those will go away too. The motels where travelers sleep at midway points in their travels will lose all that business. The auto body shops that rely on people making mistakes while driving will lose all that business too. You're vastly underestimating the disruption if you're bringing up switchboard operators and milkmen.

brianwawok 10y ago
How about the luddites and looms? Very large percentage of people worked in weaving before tech rushed them out. Or say how we went from 98% of people farming to 3%. You think truck drivers going from 5% to 1% is a bigger jump?
- kasey_junk 10y ago
  That switch from farming to industry was not some sort of beautiful utopia. It was dangerous & violent & chaotic. It also took hundreds of years. There is at least the possibility that the automated future will be as dangerous & violent & chaotic. It could be much worse as we will have less time to adapt.
  - mdpopescu 10y ago
    Heh. This reminds me of Toffler's books, like "The Third Wave". He thought - in the 70s! - that the amount of information that people had to absorb was too much and people would soon be unable to adapt. This was twenty years before the web.
    - CPLX 10y ago
      He was wrong?
      - Godel_unicode 10y ago
        Very wrong.
        CPLX 10y ago
        He would have enjoyed Black Mirror methinks.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
grecy 10y ago
This attitude continues to boggle my mind. It's as if you think it would be better for millions of people to spend massive amounts of their lives away from their families, living extremely unhealthy sedentary lifestyles, eating truck stop and gas station "food" and operating massive machines that cause many deaths every day of the year. You actually think it's a good thing that millions of people spend their time this way! We have the ability to make the world better. We have the ability to eliminate the need for thinking, feeling, living humans to whittle away their lives sitting in trucks and being away from their families. Yes, technology is going to force us to question to role of "work" in society, and if it's more important to earn lots of money while being away from your family and living and extremely unhealthy life, or if it's more important to earn less money, and have more time with family and healthy living. Yes, the world is about to change - and keep changing - and it's going to change whether you resist it or not.
- CPLX 10y ago
  An excellent point. Clearly they should spend their life sedentary in low rise office parks surrounded by cars in suburban San Francisco, operating a network of increasingly smaller machines that serves to siphon the wealth from the rest of world into their increasingly greedy pockets.
- cr1895 10y ago
  >You actually think it's a good thing that millions of people spend their time this way! I think you're putting words in riskable's mouth. What the comment actually said is that you were vastly underestimating the disruption in comparing it to milkmen, etc. There wasn't any judgment whether it was a good thing or not.
  - bko 10y ago
    The percentage of Americans employed as farmers in the US far exceeded that of trucker drivers. Yes there was disruption, but those people didn't permanently go on to be the underclass unemployed of society. They and their descendants went on to more fruitful activities. The thing is, at the time, you couldn't imagine what those activities would be. [0] http://www.usda.gov/factbook/art/fig31.jpg http://www.usda.gov/factbook/art/fig31.jpg

brianwawok 10y ago

How about the luddites and looms? Very large percentage of people worked in weaving before tech rushed them out. Or say how we went from 98% of people farming to 3%. You think truck drivers going from 5% to 1% is a bigger jump?

kasey_junk 10y ago
That switch from farming to industry was not some sort of beautiful utopia. It was dangerous & violent & chaotic. It also took hundreds of years. There is at least the possibility that the automated future will be as dangerous & violent & chaotic. It could be much worse as we will have less time to adapt.
- mdpopescu 10y ago
  Heh. This reminds me of Toffler's books, like "The Third Wave". He thought - in the 70s! - that the amount of information that people had to absorb was too much and people would soon be unable to adapt. This was twenty years before the web.
  - CPLX 10y ago
    He was wrong?
    - Godel_unicode 10y ago
      Very wrong.
      - CPLX 10y ago
        He would have enjoyed Black Mirror methinks.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

grecy 10y ago

This attitude continues to boggle my mind. It's as if you think it would be better for millions of people to spend massive amounts of their lives away from their families, living extremely unhealthy sedentary lifestyles, eating truck stop and gas station "food" and operating massive machines that cause many deaths every day of the year. You actually think it's a good thing that millions of people spend their time this way! We have the ability to make the world better. We have the ability to eliminate the need for thinking, feeling, living humans to whittle away their lives sitting in trucks and being away from their families. Yes, technology is going to force us to question to role of "work" in society, and if it's more important to earn lots of money while being away from your family and living and extremely unhealthy life, or if it's more important to earn less money, and have more time with family and healthy living. Yes, the world is about to change - and keep changing - and it's going to change whether you resist it or not.

CPLX 10y ago
An excellent point. Clearly they should spend their life sedentary in low rise office parks surrounded by cars in suburban San Francisco, operating a network of increasingly smaller machines that serves to siphon the wealth from the rest of world into their increasingly greedy pockets.
cr1895 10y ago
>You actually think it's a good thing that millions of people spend their time this way! I think you're putting words in riskable's mouth. What the comment actually said is that you were vastly underestimating the disruption in comparing it to milkmen, etc. There wasn't any judgment whether it was a good thing or not.
- bko 10y ago
  The percentage of Americans employed as farmers in the US far exceeded that of trucker drivers. Yes there was disruption, but those people didn't permanently go on to be the underclass unemployed of society. They and their descendants went on to more fruitful activities. The thing is, at the time, you couldn't imagine what those activities would be. [0] http://www.usda.gov/factbook/art/fig31.jpg http://www.usda.gov/factbook/art/fig31.jpg