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>Or we recognise that as we automate further that there's less collective work for humanity This has basically never been true in the history of work-saving te

>Or we recognise that as we automate further that there's less collective work for humanity This has basically never been true in the history of work-saving technology improvements. Such advances tend to create entirely new, previously impossible jobs.

krapp 7y ago
What entirely new, previously impossible job does automating away McDonald's workers create, that formerly employed McDonald's workers are qualified for? Are we going to send them all to coding bootcamps so they can program the kiosks and... oh wait, those jobs are already taken, never mind. Your statement tends to be true when automation involves some kind of revolutionary technological paradigm shift, and the number of people being automated out of work is sufficiently small that societies can easily reabsorb them into the workforce. But most modern automation doesn't create new jobs or new technologies, the infrastructure for automation already exists and is stable. It just removes jobs, and at an unprecedented scale.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
  Automated burger assembly machine operator.
- balt_s 7y ago
  > What (..) job does automating away McDonald's workers create? This is going to sound like a crude joke, but it's not: baby maker. I am not hopeful about the future.
- repolfx 7y ago
  But most modern automation doesn't create new jobs or new technologies, the infrastructure for automation already exists and is stable. It just removes jobs, and at an unprecedented scale. If that were true then we'd see record unemployment and virtually no open job reqs. We see the opposite, therefore, it isn't true. In the UK unemployment is at near all time lows, wages are climbing 3x faster than inflation. It's a good time to be a worker despite equally record levels of automation. As for which jobs are absorbing people whose former work was automated, who knows? If you insist on endless cynicism, a lot of the people freed up by automation of food factory jobs went and got worthless degrees and now sit in comfy offices creating pointless PowerPoints, earning/burning money to justify the bosses departmental budget. Don't assume everyone who started out burger flipping stays in food service forever!
- leosarev 7y ago
  Before you have said "unprecedented scale", do you realized that in XIX and XX century advances in agriculture production LITERALLY removed about 98% of the jobs of that era?
ptah 7y ago
> new, previously impossible jobs. like this? https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17308744/bullshit-jobs-book-david-graeber-occupy-wall-street-karl-marx https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17308744/bullshit-jobs-book-dav...

krapp 7y ago

What entirely new, previously impossible job does automating away McDonald's workers create, that formerly employed McDonald's workers are qualified for? Are we going to send them all to coding bootcamps so they can program the kiosks and... oh wait, those jobs are already taken, never mind. Your statement tends to be true when automation involves some kind of revolutionary technological paradigm shift, and the number of people being automated out of work is sufficiently small that societies can easily reabsorb them into the workforce. But most modern automation doesn't create new jobs or new technologies, the infrastructure for automation already exists and is stable. It just removes jobs, and at an unprecedented scale.

9wzYQbTYsAIc 7y ago
Automated burger assembly machine operator.
balt_s 7y ago
> What (..) job does automating away McDonald's workers create? This is going to sound like a crude joke, but it's not: baby maker. I am not hopeful about the future.
repolfx 7y ago
But most modern automation doesn't create new jobs or new technologies, the infrastructure for automation already exists and is stable. It just removes jobs, and at an unprecedented scale. If that were true then we'd see record unemployment and virtually no open job reqs. We see the opposite, therefore, it isn't true. In the UK unemployment is at near all time lows, wages are climbing 3x faster than inflation. It's a good time to be a worker despite equally record levels of automation. As for which jobs are absorbing people whose former work was automated, who knows? If you insist on endless cynicism, a lot of the people freed up by automation of food factory jobs went and got worthless degrees and now sit in comfy offices creating pointless PowerPoints, earning/burning money to justify the bosses departmental budget. Don't assume everyone who started out burger flipping stays in food service forever!
leosarev 7y ago
Before you have said "unprecedented scale", do you realized that in XIX and XX century advances in agriculture production LITERALLY removed about 98% of the jobs of that era?

ptah 7y ago

> new, previously impossible jobs. like this? https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17308744/bullshit-jobs-book-david-graeber-occupy-wall-street-karl-marx https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17308744/bullshit-jobs-book-dav...