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No, robots will take literally every job. Every single task a human can perform, a computer will eventually do better. We're horses and James Watt just built hi

No, robots will take literally every job. Every single task a human can perform, a computer will eventually do better. We're horses and James Watt just built his steam engine. Enjoy a few more decades of relevance before getting put out to pasture.

jlarocco 9y ago
Not sure I understand. Being able to spend my time however I want instead of wasting my life away at work sounds awesome. The real problem seems to be that our society puts so much emphasis on jobs and working. I guess it's a good way to keep people in line.
IanDrake 9y ago
That's a dream world that's always a few decades away. Do you really know what it takes to make something? Like something as simple as a hammer? Iron ore must be located. Will we have autonomous robots scan the earth for ore deposits?Then a quarry must be set up, explosives must be brought in, mining equipment is needed. Now step back. We need robots to make explosives, transport them to the mine, drill holes to put them in, take the explosives out of the packaging, insert them into holes, blow it, clear the rubble and decide if it's time to process the debris or just move it. Now step back again. You need robots the find the materials to make the explosives, to package them up and deliver them to the factory. Now step back again. You need robots to make and maintain all these other robots. Despite the ease of robots doing everything there is still a finite amount of resources on earth, so some sort of economic triage is needed to decide if iron ore gets shipped to the hammer factory or another factory. I guess that would be some sort of AI? The sheer scale of making a simple hammer from scratch with nothing but robots is immense. We are way, way, way further away than you think. The future is humans and robots working together.
- m52go 9y ago
  I already up-voted you, but thank you again for articulating so well what I couldn't elsewhere in this thread.
- goda90 9y ago
  But the number of people needed to fulfill certain tasks will continually drop as we develop more robots and more AI. A whole logistics chain that used to keep a million people employed, may only need 1000 people to keep the system going.
  - IanDrake 9y ago
    Right. But I was responding to the claim that robots will do everything. Once you make a more reasonable prediction that robots will replace some humans in some jobs then I think we can have an interesting conversation. As robots take on manufacturing, I'm more worried about the political instability of Asia than anything else. It's manufacturing base could be decimated as factories move closer to consumers in higher wage nations due to automated manufacturing making it economical again.
- briholt 9y ago
  You're thinking about it wrong. It's not about tediously inventing thousands of different kinds of robots with niche jobs. It's about inventing one robot that can replicate, iterate, and specialize endless versions of itself for every conceivable job.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - artificialidiot 9y ago
    it is called "human"
    - briholt 9y ago
      Metallic humans that will be 1000x faster to produce, cheaper, and capable.

jlarocco 9y ago

Not sure I understand. Being able to spend my time however I want instead of wasting my life away at work sounds awesome. The real problem seems to be that our society puts so much emphasis on jobs and working. I guess it's a good way to keep people in line.

IanDrake 9y ago

That's a dream world that's always a few decades away. Do you really know what it takes to make something? Like something as simple as a hammer? Iron ore must be located. Will we have autonomous robots scan the earth for ore deposits?Then a quarry must be set up, explosives must be brought in, mining equipment is needed. Now step back. We need robots to make explosives, transport them to the mine, drill holes to put them in, take the explosives out of the packaging, insert them into holes, blow it, clear the rubble and decide if it's time to process the debris or just move it. Now step back again. You need robots the find the materials to make the explosives, to package them up and deliver them to the factory. Now step back again. You need robots to make and maintain all these other robots. Despite the ease of robots doing everything there is still a finite amount of resources on earth, so some sort of economic triage is needed to decide if iron ore gets shipped to the hammer factory or another factory. I guess that would be some sort of AI? The sheer scale of making a simple hammer from scratch with nothing but robots is immense. We are way, way, way further away than you think. The future is humans and robots working together.

m52go 9y ago
I already up-voted you, but thank you again for articulating so well what I couldn't elsewhere in this thread.
goda90 9y ago
But the number of people needed to fulfill certain tasks will continually drop as we develop more robots and more AI. A whole logistics chain that used to keep a million people employed, may only need 1000 people to keep the system going.
- IanDrake 9y ago
  Right. But I was responding to the claim that robots will do everything. Once you make a more reasonable prediction that robots will replace some humans in some jobs then I think we can have an interesting conversation. As robots take on manufacturing, I'm more worried about the political instability of Asia than anything else. It's manufacturing base could be decimated as factories move closer to consumers in higher wage nations due to automated manufacturing making it economical again.
briholt 9y ago
You're thinking about it wrong. It's not about tediously inventing thousands of different kinds of robots with niche jobs. It's about inventing one robot that can replicate, iterate, and specialize endless versions of itself for every conceivable job.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- artificialidiot 9y ago
  it is called "human"
  - briholt 9y ago
    Metallic humans that will be 1000x faster to produce, cheaper, and capable.