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Yes. The problem is that automation will be taking even more jobs away in the near future. It’s going to be a hard transition for people.

briandear 9y ago
We’ve heard the same argument throughout industrialization. And everything was fine. Nothing is uniquely different now. Starving blacksmith, out of work horse trainers; yet an entire new industry, the automobile essentially created from nothing that employed more, created more wealth than all horse related commerce in the history of the world. It’s arrogant to think that this time it’s different, that somehow our technology advances are finally going to wipe out the common worker. These arguments that automation is going to collapse society, etc— straight out of the Marxist playbook; they were saying the same thing about factory machinery a century ago, weaving looms, for example. Everything will be fine.
- jacobush 9y ago
  Exactly! Nothing will happen that a global war or two can’t sort out.
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    Every displaced worker can retrain as an infantry soldier within weeks.
    - jacobush 9y ago
      Every displaced worker can be repurposed as training targets for the drones and then upcycled to Soylent Green after the training session!
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- notfromhere 9y ago
  Industrialization replaced skilled physical work, automation is replacing unskilled physical work and increasingly attacking skilled 'brain' work. Might other jobs appear from that at some point in the future? Sure, but that doesn't give any comfort to the unemployed textile worker or laid off office admin whose prospects for retraining are low and won't ever find a job that offered the same pay/benefits they enjoyed 15 years ago.
- throwmenow_0140 9y ago
  I would love to say something against this because I'm convinced that the industrial revolution is a whole different game than the deep learning / outsourcing / computer revolution, but I can't. "Everything will be fine." is just too ambiguous to argue against. Being fine is not an objective quality. I'm sure the world will be fine. But maybe it won't be fine in my eyes or for most people in a sense that they'll lose a significant amount of wealth compared to their current situation. But maybe they'll still be fine in another way. So maybe both sides are right - in their own regard.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  So what's going to happen to the common worker?
a3n 9y ago
Yes, automation will replace people in a lot of jobs. That worries me, as an individual subject to that disruption, and as a citizen/steward of my country. But I've also been wondering if there might be a new kind of job coming, "person who does a new thing until it can be understood well enough to be 'autoficialized'." Artificial intelligence may be great at running complex but well bounded problems, but intelligence of the wet kind probably won't be surpassed at recognizing and dealing with "exceptions" real-time for some time to come. Also, AI will fail at being subversive, which is sometimes necessary. "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that ..."
- corpMaverick 9y ago
  In addition to your point let me provide an example. We can get machines to cook burgers or pizzas because the task is bounded and there is an economy of scale to do it. But it is a lot harder to build a machine that can cook anything.
  - a3n 9y ago
    But similar to a hamburger machine, it's relatively easy to build a machine that can cook what's on the menu, or to buy the small number of machines required. "Sorry, no fajitas today, the machine's service has been called. We just got a crepes machine ..."

briandear 9y ago

We’ve heard the same argument throughout industrialization. And everything was fine. Nothing is uniquely different now. Starving blacksmith, out of work horse trainers; yet an entire new industry, the automobile essentially created from nothing that employed more, created more wealth than all horse related commerce in the history of the world. It’s arrogant to think that this time it’s different, that somehow our technology advances are finally going to wipe out the common worker. These arguments that automation is going to collapse society, etc— straight out of the Marxist playbook; they were saying the same thing about factory machinery a century ago, weaving looms, for example. Everything will be fine.

jacobush 9y ago
Exactly! Nothing will happen that a global war or two can’t sort out.
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  Every displaced worker can retrain as an infantry soldier within weeks.
  - jacobush 9y ago
    Every displaced worker can be repurposed as training targets for the drones and then upcycled to Soylent Green after the training session!
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
notfromhere 9y ago
Industrialization replaced skilled physical work, automation is replacing unskilled physical work and increasingly attacking skilled 'brain' work. Might other jobs appear from that at some point in the future? Sure, but that doesn't give any comfort to the unemployed textile worker or laid off office admin whose prospects for retraining are low and won't ever find a job that offered the same pay/benefits they enjoyed 15 years ago.
throwmenow_0140 9y ago
I would love to say something against this because I'm convinced that the industrial revolution is a whole different game than the deep learning / outsourcing / computer revolution, but I can't. "Everything will be fine." is just too ambiguous to argue against. Being fine is not an objective quality. I'm sure the world will be fine. But maybe it won't be fine in my eyes or for most people in a sense that they'll lose a significant amount of wealth compared to their current situation. But maybe they'll still be fine in another way. So maybe both sides are right - in their own regard.
s73ver_ 9y ago
So what's going to happen to the common worker?

a3n 9y ago

Yes, automation will replace people in a lot of jobs. That worries me, as an individual subject to that disruption, and as a citizen/steward of my country. But I've also been wondering if there might be a new kind of job coming, "person who does a new thing until it can be understood well enough to be 'autoficialized'." Artificial intelligence may be great at running complex but well bounded problems, but intelligence of the wet kind probably won't be surpassed at recognizing and dealing with "exceptions" real-time for some time to come. Also, AI will fail at being subversive, which is sometimes necessary. "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that ..."

corpMaverick 9y ago
In addition to your point let me provide an example. We can get machines to cook burgers or pizzas because the task is bounded and there is an economy of scale to do it. But it is a lot harder to build a machine that can cook anything.
- a3n 9y ago
  But similar to a hamburger machine, it's relatively easy to build a machine that can cook what's on the menu, or to buy the small number of machines required. "Sorry, no fajitas today, the machine's service has been called. We just got a crepes machine ..."