5 ms·

Every time I hear/read about automation, all I can think about is the movie "Her". Humans are weak and companies are just waiting to exploit that.

by NTDF9 9y ago

philjohn 9y ago
The problem is ... unless there's a universal income, or new jobs for all these people, who in the hell is going to buy your products?
- tobbyb 9y ago
  That's why products are becoming progressively more expensive including things which traditionally became cheaper with generations. Why focus on the 'fluff' who have lower incomes and will have soon have even less, when you can focus on the 'cream' with high margins, hence $1000 phones and $800 billion cash reserves with no use.
  - walshemj 9y ago
    the $1000 phones are luxury goods at motog is a far cheaper smart phone
  - Kurtz79 9y ago
    "That's why products are becoming progressively more expensive" Examples ? Since you mention 1000$phones, in tech you see more and more "premium" products, accompanied by very basic ones that are still quite funcional and dirt cheap, and everything in between. You can buy a fully functional laptop or smartphone for 100 bucks, and I can remember times when they were both "premium only" products.
- briandear 9y ago
  Weren’t we making the same arguments with weavers in the early 1800s and with the assembly line? Same story, different century. The auto made horse traders and blacksmiths redundant, automated weaving looms made weavers redundant, high yield farming made many small farmers redundant — yet worldwide poverty is lower than it has ever been, unemployment rates are fairly constant. New industries form when others decline. Who would have thought in 1920 that there would be an entire industry centered around home recording technology or that car alarms would be a thing or that home automation installers would exist? Everyone always thinks that their age is the pinnacle of technological achievement — only to be proven wrong within a single generation. This clamor for UBI and sky-is-falling fear is textbook Ludditeism. Identical arguments were presented by the Luddites, yet everyone can agree that England was a pretty rotten place for normal people in the early 19th century.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    Maybe people would rather not have a repeat of the tumult and violence that accompanied the industrial revolution?

Every time I hear/read about automation, all I can think about is the movie "Her". Humans are weak and companies are just waiting to exploit that.

by NTDF9 9y ago

Every time I hear/read about automation, all I can think about is the movie "Her". Humans are weak and companies are just waiting to exploit that.

philjohn 9y ago

The problem is ... unless there's a universal income, or new jobs for all these people, who in the hell is going to buy your products?

tobbyb 9y ago
That's why products are becoming progressively more expensive including things which traditionally became cheaper with generations. Why focus on the 'fluff' who have lower incomes and will have soon have even less, when you can focus on the 'cream' with high margins, hence $1000 phones and $800 billion cash reserves with no use.
- walshemj 9y ago
  the $1000 phones are luxury goods at motog is a far cheaper smart phone
- Kurtz79 9y ago
  "That's why products are becoming progressively more expensive" Examples ? Since you mention 1000$phones, in tech you see more and more "premium" products, accompanied by very basic ones that are still quite funcional and dirt cheap, and everything in between. You can buy a fully functional laptop or smartphone for 100 bucks, and I can remember times when they were both "premium only" products.
briandear 9y ago
Weren’t we making the same arguments with weavers in the early 1800s and with the assembly line? Same story, different century. The auto made horse traders and blacksmiths redundant, automated weaving looms made weavers redundant, high yield farming made many small farmers redundant — yet worldwide poverty is lower than it has ever been, unemployment rates are fairly constant. New industries form when others decline. Who would have thought in 1920 that there would be an entire industry centered around home recording technology or that car alarms would be a thing or that home automation installers would exist? Everyone always thinks that their age is the pinnacle of technological achievement — only to be proven wrong within a single generation. This clamor for UBI and sky-is-falling fear is textbook Ludditeism. Identical arguments were presented by the Luddites, yet everyone can agree that England was a pretty rotten place for normal people in the early 19th century.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  Maybe people would rather not have a repeat of the tumult and violence that accompanied the industrial revolution?