4 ms·

Tangentially, something that I see come up in all these threads is the notion that knowledge workers unemployed by AI will retrain into some physical labor job.

Tangentially, something that I see come up in all these threads is the notion that knowledge workers unemployed by AI will retrain into some physical labor job. My question is, at that point, who's buying all that labor? Will the workforce just consist of executives and the manual laborers who work for them?

throwaway1777 4y ago
That’s basically how it was if you go far enough back in history like Roman times.
- 6177c40f 4y ago
  Looks like it's time to brush up on my Latin then
d--b 4y ago
AI/Robots should replace physical labor before it replaces knowledge workers.
- 6177c40f 4y ago
  That's what we've always tended to assume would happen, but now it looks like it may not go that way, thus my concern. If knowledge workers could be replaced first, I don't think anyone's going to wait around for robotics to catch up before doing anything.
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > AI/Robots should replace physical labor before it replaces knowledge workers. There's actually a kind of internet famous novel where the exact opposite happens. I don't remember the name of it or the site it's on, but initial premise has AI automating management (starting with pretty menial things like directing workers at fast food restaurant, and working its way up the value chain). It was pretty interesting, but I only got as far as the protagonist getting interned in a kind of debtors prison once his savings ran out and he couldn't afford to live outside of it (due to all the automation). The prison was theoretically open, but if you wandered too far away, robots would tranq you (after very many "nice" exhortations to return) and you'd wake up back in your bed.
  - gremlinsinc 4y ago
    I think the story is manna, by the founder of How stuff works. https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 it actually ends on a positive note, it's trying to compare two possible ways society could respond to the automation revolution.
    - tablespoon 4y ago
      > I think the story is manna, by the founder of How stuff works. https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 Yes, that's it! > it actually ends on a positive note, it's trying to compare two possible ways society could respond to the automation revolution. Yeah, but I stopped reading at that point. Partially because I had something else to do, and partially because it seemed like a utopian fantasy.
deafpolygon 4y ago
> that knowledge workers unemployed by AI _Some_ knowledge workers may be unemployed. The vast majority? Reduce the overhead on tedium like data entry, writing e-mail, etc. They'll be able to expand what they can do, because AI models like ChatGPT could be trained on company data and used to reduce errors, etc. If anything, middle managers will be the ones to get squeezed out when they no longer have work to do.

throwaway1777 4y ago

That’s basically how it was if you go far enough back in history like Roman times.

6177c40f 4y ago
Looks like it's time to brush up on my Latin then

d--b 4y ago

AI/Robots should replace physical labor before it replaces knowledge workers.

6177c40f 4y ago
That's what we've always tended to assume would happen, but now it looks like it may not go that way, thus my concern. If knowledge workers could be replaced first, I don't think anyone's going to wait around for robotics to catch up before doing anything.
tablespoon 4y ago
> AI/Robots should replace physical labor before it replaces knowledge workers. There's actually a kind of internet famous novel where the exact opposite happens. I don't remember the name of it or the site it's on, but initial premise has AI automating management (starting with pretty menial things like directing workers at fast food restaurant, and working its way up the value chain). It was pretty interesting, but I only got as far as the protagonist getting interned in a kind of debtors prison once his savings ran out and he couldn't afford to live outside of it (due to all the automation). The prison was theoretically open, but if you wandered too far away, robots would tranq you (after very many "nice" exhortations to return) and you'd wake up back in your bed.
- gremlinsinc 4y ago
  I think the story is manna, by the founder of How stuff works. https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 it actually ends on a positive note, it's trying to compare two possible ways society could respond to the automation revolution.
  - tablespoon 4y ago
    > I think the story is manna, by the founder of How stuff works. https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 Yes, that's it! > it actually ends on a positive note, it's trying to compare two possible ways society could respond to the automation revolution. Yeah, but I stopped reading at that point. Partially because I had something else to do, and partially because it seemed like a utopian fantasy.

deafpolygon 4y ago

> that knowledge workers unemployed by AI _Some_ knowledge workers may be unemployed. The vast majority? Reduce the overhead on tedium like data entry, writing e-mail, etc. They'll be able to expand what they can do, because AI models like ChatGPT could be trained on company data and used to reduce errors, etc. If anything, middle managers will be the ones to get squeezed out when they no longer have work to do.