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Unspecified in all of this is: Society at large needs less labor to function. What happens when all of the production is automated to the point we don't NEED '

Unspecified in all of this is: Society at large needs less labor to function. What happens when all of the production is automated to the point we don't NEED 'Men to work'? What do we do with them? What mischief do they get into when they have idle hands?

giantg2 4y ago
I mostly agree. I feel like some people will gravitate back towards self sufficient activities. There are a lot of people on this site doing stuff like building their own furniture, gardening, etc. Of course I do think there will be a subset that use their time for more destructive things, as happens even now.
- ponow 4y ago
  You'd think so, but an array of regulations makes that increasingly difficult. Fixing your own house or car can put you in legal hot water.
- kjkjadksj 4y ago
  Try doing that in a studio apartment
  - giantg2 4y ago
    There are productive hobbies that can be preformed in a studio apartment, even if those options are more limited.
honkycat 4y ago
there is a huge opportunity for environmental conservation and clean-up, and care-giving for the sick / elderly / mentally ill. unfortunately there isn't a profit motive for those things, so the work in those industries tends to be low paying and requiring a high level of education. there is definitely still a ton of work to do in the world, we just don't have anyone willing to pay for it.
robotburrito 4y ago
The question that must be asked is instead, "What will they do with us?"
- commandlinefan 4y ago
  > What will they do with us Or to us.
judge2020 4y ago
Even if something like food service at McDonald's is automated, it's tough to argue that we should be getting humans to work on things that can be automated. Imagine working 40 hours a week then seeing that the machine both prepared more product and made fewer mistakes than you, or feeling like you're doing work just because someone (the government) pities you enough to force some jobs to remain non-automated. Working with more complex, higher-skilled work that makes you feel like you're improving the lives of others is what our brains crave, not repeating menial tasks over and over again.
- fundad 4y ago
  Order-taking is miles apart from the actual prep, cooking and serving. Imagine owning AND MAINTAINING a machine that can do all of that with less combined labor and expense.
- Damogran6 4y ago
  The problem with that is that there are people that are more or less intelligent and more or less motivated. There's NOTHING wrong with the occasional menial task, and there's nothing wrong with being unmotivated, so long as it's not a net negative drain on society. Once everything is automated away, I suspect it won't be the Star Trekian Utopia we'd like.
  - akiselev 4y ago
    > Once everything is automated away, I suspect it won't be the Star Trekian Utopia we'd like. The Star Trekian utopia grew out of a 21st century devastated by a world war that saw a third of the Earth's population wiped out so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  > Imagine working 40 hours a week then seeing that the machine both prepared more product and made fewer mistakes than you The Ballad of John Henry is Civil War era, but even he was a century or two after the Luddites started wrecking automated weaving machines. It's actually been a feature of the Industrial Revolution for awhile, but I think the effects are more pronounced now than ever.

giantg2 4y ago

I mostly agree. I feel like some people will gravitate back towards self sufficient activities. There are a lot of people on this site doing stuff like building their own furniture, gardening, etc. Of course I do think there will be a subset that use their time for more destructive things, as happens even now.

ponow 4y ago
You'd think so, but an array of regulations makes that increasingly difficult. Fixing your own house or car can put you in legal hot water.
kjkjadksj 4y ago
Try doing that in a studio apartment
- giantg2 4y ago
  There are productive hobbies that can be preformed in a studio apartment, even if those options are more limited.

honkycat 4y ago

there is a huge opportunity for environmental conservation and clean-up, and care-giving for the sick / elderly / mentally ill. unfortunately there isn't a profit motive for those things, so the work in those industries tends to be low paying and requiring a high level of education. there is definitely still a ton of work to do in the world, we just don't have anyone willing to pay for it.

robotburrito 4y ago

The question that must be asked is instead, "What will they do with us?"

commandlinefan 4y ago
> What will they do with us Or to us.

judge2020 4y ago

Even if something like food service at McDonald's is automated, it's tough to argue that we should be getting humans to work on things that can be automated. Imagine working 40 hours a week then seeing that the machine both prepared more product and made fewer mistakes than you, or feeling like you're doing work just because someone (the government) pities you enough to force some jobs to remain non-automated. Working with more complex, higher-skilled work that makes you feel like you're improving the lives of others is what our brains crave, not repeating menial tasks over and over again.

fundad 4y ago
Order-taking is miles apart from the actual prep, cooking and serving. Imagine owning AND MAINTAINING a machine that can do all of that with less combined labor and expense.
Damogran6 4y ago
The problem with that is that there are people that are more or less intelligent and more or less motivated. There's NOTHING wrong with the occasional menial task, and there's nothing wrong with being unmotivated, so long as it's not a net negative drain on society. Once everything is automated away, I suspect it won't be the Star Trekian Utopia we'd like.
- akiselev 4y ago
  > Once everything is automated away, I suspect it won't be the Star Trekian Utopia we'd like. The Star Trekian utopia grew out of a 21st century devastated by a world war that saw a third of the Earth's population wiped out so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
hotpotamus 4y ago
> Imagine working 40 hours a week then seeing that the machine both prepared more product and made fewer mistakes than you The Ballad of John Henry is Civil War era, but even he was a century or two after the Luddites started wrecking automated weaving machines. It's actually been a feature of the Industrial Revolution for awhile, but I think the effects are more pronounced now than ever.