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Or they could do the socially correct thing and not automate. Or, all that automation is just vaporware outside of marketing demos and the unions will be fine.

by dmead 8y ago

imglorp 8y ago
Have you ever seen a modern factory?
- dmead 8y ago
  yes in fact, but we're not talking about a factory.
whb07 8y ago
How are you writing this on the web?
- dmead 8y ago
  I wasn't aware me posting on a webzone was actually displacing thousands of manual laborers.
  - whb07 8y ago
    What do you mean? Have you seen switchboard operators? Surely internet packets displaced the phone companies! What about most things that you own today? Surely the metals you come across the very electronic you’re typing away on didn’t come from a blacksmith? I’m sure I could go ad nauseum but I hope you get my point. I’d believe you if you lived somewhere in the artic circle in a remote corner of that desert. But here you are on HN of all places! Edit: typo
    - dmead 8y ago
      those jobs are already gone. the fact they were eliminated decades ago doesn't support the idea of accelerating joblessness through automation.
brogrammernot 8y ago
Why is it socially correct to not automate? I’m genuinely curious to hear this point of view. I don’t believe unskilled labor (or minorly skilled labor) has a right to a job anymore than a very skilled laborer does. There’s a reason why cement trucks were created when you could (and can) still mix cement by hand. It’s wildly inefficient at a certain project scale, and I hold the same view for other items. I’d love to know why you feel it’s socially wrong to push forward automation.
- icantdrive55 8y ago
  "Why is it socially correct to not automate?" Because we (USA) have a terrible social safety net. Wanna get philosophical; At what point do you regulate automation? When most people are homeless, and jobless? I guarantee doctors, and lawyers using their lobby groups (AMA, and ABA), are quietly working on the day their jobs will be affected. Why not blue collar workers? Hell we have the tech to ticket every automobile that runs a red light, or parks illegally. Why don't we just put up cameras everywhere. It would certainly be efficient? Tech is ripe for automation. It will come, and it will be ugly. The Rockstars will always have jobs, but the rest of you will be looking at a section 8 housing list--that's been closed for 10 years. RIP Jim Fox. (Died a few moths ago while homeless. He was involved with Word Star.) I am all for an admendment that regulates automation/AI.
- zorkw4rg 8y ago
  I assume people are against automation because it leads to more unemployed. In the future we will probably have most manual labor automated by robots and have massive amounts of people without jobs, no healthcare, barely surviving at all in terrible conditions. But you know, its all their fault of course, they could've just learned to code!
  - brogrammernot 8y ago
    I think the fear is exaggerated, automation has been happening throughout the history of mankind. Should we not have vehicles because it put the horse/buggy drivers out of a job? Have cars made by hand and not by more efficient, safer automation because it puts people out of work? I completely understand & respect that viewpoint that this does not all happen in a vacuum so the people working manual labor likely did not get or have access to the same opportunities as those "who learned to code". Who is to say that the automation opens room for better-paying jobs or leads to innovations in health-care that make universal health care more affordable to tax-payers so it can get passed into legislation? There's negative consequences of slowing automation as well.
brohee 8y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QndP_PCRSw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QndP_PCRSw If UPS doesn't deploy something like that, a competitor will...

Or they could do the socially correct thing and not automate. Or, all that automation is just vaporware outside of marketing demos and the unions will be fine.

by dmead 8y ago

Or they could do the socially correct thing and not automate. Or, all that automation is just vaporware outside of marketing demos and the unions will be fine.

imglorp 8y ago

Have you ever seen a modern factory?

dmead 8y ago
yes in fact, but we're not talking about a factory.

whb07 8y ago

How are you writing this on the web?

dmead 8y ago
I wasn't aware me posting on a webzone was actually displacing thousands of manual laborers.
- whb07 8y ago
  What do you mean? Have you seen switchboard operators? Surely internet packets displaced the phone companies! What about most things that you own today? Surely the metals you come across the very electronic you’re typing away on didn’t come from a blacksmith? I’m sure I could go ad nauseum but I hope you get my point. I’d believe you if you lived somewhere in the artic circle in a remote corner of that desert. But here you are on HN of all places! Edit: typo
  - dmead 8y ago
    those jobs are already gone. the fact they were eliminated decades ago doesn't support the idea of accelerating joblessness through automation.

brogrammernot 8y ago

Why is it socially correct to not automate? I’m genuinely curious to hear this point of view. I don’t believe unskilled labor (or minorly skilled labor) has a right to a job anymore than a very skilled laborer does. There’s a reason why cement trucks were created when you could (and can) still mix cement by hand. It’s wildly inefficient at a certain project scale, and I hold the same view for other items. I’d love to know why you feel it’s socially wrong to push forward automation.

icantdrive55 8y ago
"Why is it socially correct to not automate?" Because we (USA) have a terrible social safety net. Wanna get philosophical; At what point do you regulate automation? When most people are homeless, and jobless? I guarantee doctors, and lawyers using their lobby groups (AMA, and ABA), are quietly working on the day their jobs will be affected. Why not blue collar workers? Hell we have the tech to ticket every automobile that runs a red light, or parks illegally. Why don't we just put up cameras everywhere. It would certainly be efficient? Tech is ripe for automation. It will come, and it will be ugly. The Rockstars will always have jobs, but the rest of you will be looking at a section 8 housing list--that's been closed for 10 years. RIP Jim Fox. (Died a few moths ago while homeless. He was involved with Word Star.) I am all for an admendment that regulates automation/AI.
zorkw4rg 8y ago
I assume people are against automation because it leads to more unemployed. In the future we will probably have most manual labor automated by robots and have massive amounts of people without jobs, no healthcare, barely surviving at all in terrible conditions. But you know, its all their fault of course, they could've just learned to code!
- brogrammernot 8y ago
  I think the fear is exaggerated, automation has been happening throughout the history of mankind. Should we not have vehicles because it put the horse/buggy drivers out of a job? Have cars made by hand and not by more efficient, safer automation because it puts people out of work? I completely understand & respect that viewpoint that this does not all happen in a vacuum so the people working manual labor likely did not get or have access to the same opportunities as those "who learned to code". Who is to say that the automation opens room for better-paying jobs or leads to innovations in health-care that make universal health care more affordable to tax-payers so it can get passed into legislation? There's negative consequences of slowing automation as well.

brohee 8y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QndP_PCRSw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QndP_PCRSw If UPS doesn't deploy something like that, a competitor will...