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What is the moral case for implementing autonomous manufacturing? If you eliminate one kind of job, then another, then another, and then implement general purp

What is the moral case for implementing autonomous manufacturing? If you eliminate one kind of job, then another, then another, and then implement general purpose job elimination, where does it end? Is it not an axiom of the world that there simply isn’t enough knowledge work to go around all seven billion of us? By taking away jobs what do those of us who aren’t programmers, architects, novelists or day spa wait staff have left to do? (Thank you for your comment, it really made me think.)

gwicks56 6y ago
Surely the whole point of tech is to make life involve less work? The problem becomes an economic one, how to you distribute the wealth automation enables.
- mrguyorama 6y ago
  Solving the tech part of the issue while ignoring the societal aspect is somewhat condemning millions to misery though. Here in the US, it's expected you work, the economy and society are built around it, and millions of people would scream at you for trying to make a system that some people "don't have to" work in
  - joshspankit 6y ago
    No offence, but the economy and society in the US is long-overdue for an oil-change.
harperlee 6y ago
I don’t think “work” will ever end. Normally we dread this coming from the supply side, “will we end all possible work through automation?” But if you think it from the demand side, people will always need something like “work”: structured schedule, socialization, ways to differentiate yourself from others through “achievements” that not everyone can do, etc. Even in an utopian society where all material needs are covered and wealth redistributed, people would create and consume art, “fight” for relevance, create petty politics... and gladly “pay” for part of that. So we will end up inventing new jobs in any case, so we can keep on using the same old concepts and social structure, just not for food acquisition. If you think about it, this sophistication has been happening for some centuries already.
joshspankit 6y ago
If we implement UBI (my preference is by taxing automation), or some post-capitalism model where people can get paid by the emotional and cultural value they provide, then the moral case for autonomy is to free everyone from boredom and drudgery. I could talk about this for days, but: the more we automate below us on Maslow’s pyramid, the higher we raise our baseline.

gwicks56 6y ago

Surely the whole point of tech is to make life involve less work? The problem becomes an economic one, how to you distribute the wealth automation enables.

mrguyorama 6y ago
Solving the tech part of the issue while ignoring the societal aspect is somewhat condemning millions to misery though. Here in the US, it's expected you work, the economy and society are built around it, and millions of people would scream at you for trying to make a system that some people "don't have to" work in
- joshspankit 6y ago
  No offence, but the economy and society in the US is long-overdue for an oil-change.

harperlee 6y ago

I don’t think “work” will ever end. Normally we dread this coming from the supply side, “will we end all possible work through automation?” But if you think it from the demand side, people will always need something like “work”: structured schedule, socialization, ways to differentiate yourself from others through “achievements” that not everyone can do, etc. Even in an utopian society where all material needs are covered and wealth redistributed, people would create and consume art, “fight” for relevance, create petty politics... and gladly “pay” for part of that. So we will end up inventing new jobs in any case, so we can keep on using the same old concepts and social structure, just not for food acquisition. If you think about it, this sophistication has been happening for some centuries already.

joshspankit 6y ago

If we implement UBI (my preference is by taxing automation), or some post-capitalism model where people can get paid by the emotional and cultural value they provide, then the moral case for autonomy is to free everyone from boredom and drudgery. I could talk about this for days, but: the more we automate below us on Maslow’s pyramid, the higher we raise our baseline.