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Technology is replacing outsourcing, illegal immigrants, minorities, poor members of the majority, slave labor, legal immigrants, and uneducated members of the

Technology is replacing outsourcing, illegal immigrants, minorities, poor members of the majority, slave labor, legal immigrants, and uneducated members of the majority in performing tasks that no human wants to do. We aren't headed toward a Butlerian Jihad[1], but rather toward a future where everyone either makes something that other people want, or they work to sell, explain, teach, and help other people. When everything is 3d-printed, who will make the blueprints that tell printers what to print and how? How will people know about new, better items they could be printing out? Human society will never not need demand from other humans. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad Edit: "Robots took our Jerbs!!!" ;)

einhverfr 13y ago
Also I noticed tough that we don't have as many actual replacements of service or professionals as the article suggested. Robots are not replacing surgeons. They are being used by surgeons. You can't replace a lawyer with software either. These are tools for the professions and service providers, not the professionals themselves. The risk I think is that this extra complexity may pose problems down the road due to automation paradoxes and so forth.
- foobarian 13y ago
  You can't replace a lawyer with software either. Maybe not one-for-one, but one lawyer with a state of the art data mining warehouse can probably do the job that used to require multiple lawyers. Tools like automated e-discovery or linguistic analysis have shown to be useful here. Here is an article on that topic from a while back: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/science/05legal.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/science/05legal.html?pagew...
  - einhverfr 13y ago
    Which enables more complex litigation which requires more lawyers and more compliance effort.
    - jaxn 13y ago
      For the cases that need more complex litigation, but that is a small minority. Ex: We paid for clerks to transcribe a previous hearing. That could be replaced by software.
      - einhverfr 13y ago
        Is there any evidence that demand for legal services is being suppressed by technology? In the absence of such where is that efficiency going?
        jaxn 13y ago
        Demand for legal services? I don't know about that, but demand for lawyers has definitely been suppressed. When the recent downturn took effect, firms quit hiring for 2-3 years. This left multiple classes of law students unable to find jobs. The firms also cut the paid internships. The hiring hasn't returned to the previous levels and the internships are still scarce. I don't think we would be looking for a decrease in demand for the service as much as we should be looking for a decrease in demand for people to provide the service (likely due to increased efficiency by the service providers).
        einhverfr 13y ago
        So demand is being suppressed by people's ability to pay, not by the technology, right?
ximeng 13y ago
I think you mean that human society will always need services from other humans. Your argument doesn't convince me though. How will people know about new, better items they could be printing out - presumably like now through well designed websites, or in the future perhaps 3d animations, voice interfaces or robotic demonstrations. Or automated home delivery of items for trial purposes. Even if we can't replace the creation of marketing materials and new designs with artificial intelligence entirely, it's not clear that there will be significant demand for workers. The risk is that those people doing jobs nobody wants to do eventually will not even be able to do that to earn a basic income. At that point you have increasing pressure to provide welfare benefits for these people, which is unpopular among those who don't fall into the disadvantaged categories that you list.
mcantelon 13y ago
>performing tasks that no human wants to do Most humans will perform any kind of task to avoid starving/abject poverty. If there are no constructive tasks available then destructive tasks, such as crime and insurrection, will be created. Depending on the strength of the state, the end result will be either decreased mass security (parts of Mexico, for example) or a burgeoning prison population.

einhverfr 13y ago

Also I noticed tough that we don't have as many actual replacements of service or professionals as the article suggested. Robots are not replacing surgeons. They are being used by surgeons. You can't replace a lawyer with software either. These are tools for the professions and service providers, not the professionals themselves. The risk I think is that this extra complexity may pose problems down the road due to automation paradoxes and so forth.

foobarian 13y ago
You can't replace a lawyer with software either. Maybe not one-for-one, but one lawyer with a state of the art data mining warehouse can probably do the job that used to require multiple lawyers. Tools like automated e-discovery or linguistic analysis have shown to be useful here. Here is an article on that topic from a while back: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/science/05legal.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/science/05legal.html?pagew...
- einhverfr 13y ago
  Which enables more complex litigation which requires more lawyers and more compliance effort.
  - jaxn 13y ago
    For the cases that need more complex litigation, but that is a small minority. Ex: We paid for clerks to transcribe a previous hearing. That could be replaced by software.
    - einhverfr 13y ago
      Is there any evidence that demand for legal services is being suppressed by technology? In the absence of such where is that efficiency going?
      - jaxn 13y ago
        Demand for legal services? I don't know about that, but demand for lawyers has definitely been suppressed. When the recent downturn took effect, firms quit hiring for 2-3 years. This left multiple classes of law students unable to find jobs. The firms also cut the paid internships. The hiring hasn't returned to the previous levels and the internships are still scarce. I don't think we would be looking for a decrease in demand for the service as much as we should be looking for a decrease in demand for people to provide the service (likely due to increased efficiency by the service providers).
        einhverfr 13y ago
        So demand is being suppressed by people's ability to pay, not by the technology, right?

ximeng 13y ago

I think you mean that human society will always need services from other humans. Your argument doesn't convince me though. How will people know about new, better items they could be printing out - presumably like now through well designed websites, or in the future perhaps 3d animations, voice interfaces or robotic demonstrations. Or automated home delivery of items for trial purposes. Even if we can't replace the creation of marketing materials and new designs with artificial intelligence entirely, it's not clear that there will be significant demand for workers. The risk is that those people doing jobs nobody wants to do eventually will not even be able to do that to earn a basic income. At that point you have increasing pressure to provide welfare benefits for these people, which is unpopular among those who don't fall into the disadvantaged categories that you list.

mcantelon 13y ago

>performing tasks that no human wants to do Most humans will perform any kind of task to avoid starving/abject poverty. If there are no constructive tasks available then destructive tasks, such as crime and insurrection, will be created. Depending on the strength of the state, the end result will be either decreased mass security (parts of Mexico, for example) or a burgeoning prison population.