4 ms·

Write yourself a note to revisit this sentiment when you are 60. Personally I feel compassion for people that have made a living doing something they love for

Write yourself a note to revisit this sentiment when you are 60. Personally I feel compassion for people that have made a living doing something they love for 30 years only to find that livelyhood made obsolete virtually overnight. Unfortunately, learning new skills is time consuming. There is no pause button on life while you research a new job. I don't know the percentage off hand, but I would not be surprised if more than half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Perhaps if you had a year of runway, were smart (as in able to learn quickly), you could weather such a catastrophe and keep your dignity along with a place to live. It's possible to have compassion for people and disagree with them at the same time.

disordinary 9y ago
The problem is we're looking at a future where you're constantly going to have to retrain and then eventually the amount of jobs will be limited. A lot of countries are looking at UBI others are looking at options for having more people working less hours and sharing the jobs. Whatever the solution the future is very scary, I can't think of many jobs that won't be disrupted by automation and AI.
- socrates666 9y ago
  Neural networks will make humans obsolete. How could they not? They're just connections of mathematical objects...kind of like the way we describe reality. If we can accurately describe reality, then we can accurately instruct a computer to perform real life tasks.
imgabe 9y ago
Barring any severe economic catastrophe, I do not expect to have to work for a living by the time I'm 60. It's unfortunate that an entire generation was led to believe that some institution, either an employer or the government, would be responsible for their well-being in old age. Hopefully anyone younger than 40 knows better by now. Nobody else is going to take care of you, so make sure you take care of yourself.
- FPGAhacker 9y ago
  I imagine a lot of Venezuelans did not expect their assumption of a fat bank account equaling self sufficiency to fall through. Self sufficiency is a fallacy. There are degrees of dependence, and if you lose enough of your dependencies, you may find yourself the subject of such an article.
  - imgabe 9y ago
    If the US goes the way of Venezuela, the world will have much more serious problems than my retirement. It's unlikely anyone will be interested in writing some sappy article about me. You mitigate the risks you can, within reason. I can do something about the possibility of social security failing and not having a pension. There's not much I can personally do about the US economy completely collapsing. I guess I could buy a farm and learn small-scale farming and stock up on canned goods and ammunition, but at some point you have to balance preparing for the future with living your life in the present.

disordinary 9y ago

The problem is we're looking at a future where you're constantly going to have to retrain and then eventually the amount of jobs will be limited. A lot of countries are looking at UBI others are looking at options for having more people working less hours and sharing the jobs. Whatever the solution the future is very scary, I can't think of many jobs that won't be disrupted by automation and AI.

socrates666 9y ago
Neural networks will make humans obsolete. How could they not? They're just connections of mathematical objects...kind of like the way we describe reality. If we can accurately describe reality, then we can accurately instruct a computer to perform real life tasks.

imgabe 9y ago

Barring any severe economic catastrophe, I do not expect to have to work for a living by the time I'm 60. It's unfortunate that an entire generation was led to believe that some institution, either an employer or the government, would be responsible for their well-being in old age. Hopefully anyone younger than 40 knows better by now. Nobody else is going to take care of you, so make sure you take care of yourself.

FPGAhacker 9y ago
I imagine a lot of Venezuelans did not expect their assumption of a fat bank account equaling self sufficiency to fall through. Self sufficiency is a fallacy. There are degrees of dependence, and if you lose enough of your dependencies, you may find yourself the subject of such an article.
- imgabe 9y ago
  If the US goes the way of Venezuela, the world will have much more serious problems than my retirement. It's unlikely anyone will be interested in writing some sappy article about me. You mitigate the risks you can, within reason. I can do something about the possibility of social security failing and not having a pension. There's not much I can personally do about the US economy completely collapsing. I guess I could buy a farm and learn small-scale farming and stock up on canned goods and ammunition, but at some point you have to balance preparing for the future with living your life in the present.