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Come on, what did you think was going to happen? The historical record has consistently shown that humans have not worked less when given tools that increased p
by esafak 1y ago
Come on, what did you think was going to happen? The historical record has consistently shown that humans have not worked less when given tools that increased productivity; they simply produced more.
This is what the whole four-day workweek movement is about; to reclaim some of that productivity increase as personal time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-day_workweek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-day_workweek
Economist Keynes predicted one century ago that the workweek would drop to 15 hours due to rising productivity. It has not happened for social reasons.
I don't know what's going to happen when humans become redundant; that's an incipient issue we'll have to grapple with.
- SoftTalker 1y agoHumans will probably be cheaper than machines for a long time for some things. They reproduce themselves, they self-repair (up to a point), they are quite dexterous, they can be powered fairly cheaply by stuff that grows out of the earth, and they learn by example without explicit programming. They will do the menial but deceptively demanding of high dexterity tasks that need to be done. Laundry, dishes, housecleaning. New construction will largely be done by machines but repairs are more unpredictable so human mechanics, plumbers, etc. will continue to be in demand. Software development as a career will evaporate in the next decade, as will most "knowledge" work such as general medicine, law, and teaching. Surgeons and dentists will continue a bit longer. Bottom line, most of us will be doing chores while the machines do all the production and creative work.
- esafak 1y agoI don't think people in democratic societies will stand for being reduced to errand runners; they will vote for governments that promise them relief. And even those chores will be done by robots. A new social contract will be demanded.