Harold Squared Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 It will happen, count on it. Robots work cheap and do not complain, let alone organize into unions. They react faster and do only what their program specifies, no deviation, no fatigue, no human frailty. No discrimination, no sexual harassment, no maternity leave or substance abuse on or off the job. You are already obsolete, have a nice day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Except, no. http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/06/04/the-robots-are-not-coming/ https://hbr.org/2015/06/robots-seem-to-be-improving-productivity-not-costing-jobs http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/16/technology/robots-jobs/ http://www.vox.com/2015/7/27/9038829/automation-myth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 You have a robot that can do atomic physics R&D? Where is it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sensei Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 (edited) It will happen, count on it. Robots work cheap and do not complain, let alone organize into unions. They react faster and do only what their program specifies, no deviation, no fatigue, no human frailty. No discrimination, no sexual harassment, no maternity leave or substance abuse on or off the job. If by "job" you meant something not requiring intelligence, right. That's good "job" for robots. Humans should learn interesting and valuable things, and then use what they learned in productive way. Moving boxes from one place to other place (f.e. warehouse), and similar muscle requiring jobs, are degenerating for humans. You are already obsolete, have a nice day. I am indispensable.. Somebody will have to program these robots, so they will know what to do. Edited July 30, 2015 by Sensei 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endy0816 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Some jobs. Others are resistant and possibly even automation proof to varying degrees. I would be careful saying impossible for the more intellectual work. Programs can rapidly produce results based on selection criteria. What will probably remain necessary though is having a human being decide the selection criteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiveworlds Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 You have a robot that can do atomic physics R&D? Where is it? The problem is not everybody is capable of doing atomic physics R&D or would be trusted in doing so. Some people only know how to sell flowers or cut hair. Most jobs cost money to learn how to do and not everybody can afford to learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sensei Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Most jobs cost money to learn how to do and not everybody can afford to learn. That's one of problems in US. Learning should be free. Otherwise it's straight route to creation of castes. People without money will be excluded from gaining knowledge, and remaining in their caste for generations. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainPanic Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 It will happen, count on it. Robots work cheap and do not complain, let alone organize into unions. If all robots are owned by a few large corporations (which is quite likely) they already have a union. Except in their case, their union is a large corporate organisation, and the union leader of the CEO of that corporation. But they most definitely have a since organisation representing them! More generally: Of course jobs get automated. Just like most conveyor belt jobs and phone operators connecting the lines were already automated, some other jobs will be automated too. For example, car drivers (taxi, truck, or private drivers) may be automated. All those jobs lost in the past did not lead to unemployment... and future automation will not lead to unemployment either. But you will need a good education to remain of value for the economy, and to ensure a good income for yourself. In the end, it is a simple matter of costs: people cost a certain amount of money, and so does a robot. Robots do not need a salary, but their initial purchase cost may be high, and in some cases maintenance can be costly too. And don't forget that people can be really cheap. Self-checkouts in supermarkets have existed for about a decade how. However, at least in the Netherlands the large majority of supermarkets still employ cashiers. Why? Because they only cost 5 euro/hour, and are just too cheap to fully automate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiveworlds Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 However, at least in the Netherlands the large majority of supermarkets still employ cashiers. Why? Because they only cost 5 euro/hour, and are just too cheap to fully automate. That's below minimum wage and I thought the reason was because people simply wouldn't shop there any-more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 The problem is not everybody is capable of doing atomic physics R&D or would be trusted in doing so. Some people only know how to sell flowers or cut hair. Most jobs cost money to learn how to do and not everybody can afford to learn. Though true, it's irrelevant to the discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainPanic Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 That's below minimum wage and I thought the reason was because people simply wouldn't shop there any-more. No, the supermarkets just (legally) employ 16-year-olds, whose minimum wage is significantly lower than that of adults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endy0816 Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 No, the supermarkets just (legally) employ 16-year-olds, whose minimum wage is significantly lower than that of adults. I often feel that other countries get all the intelligent laws... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overtone Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 (edited) If all jobs were to require education - not just the credentials, but the actual intellectual development - the US wouldl have 50% permanent unemployment. In my experience, the easiest jobs to automate seem to be the semi-intellectual ones. "Calculator" used to be full time skilled job, one that required considerable education. A lot of blue collar uneducated jobs have proven remarkably difficult to automate. But there seems to be an odd sort of class or status factor working here: a huge amount of effort has been put into automating heavy janitorial work, construction jobs, meat cutting, painting, that kind of stuff, despite the continuing paucity of real success. Less effort seems to be directed at automating higher status intellectual jobs, despite the strong returns and great inroads from the little devoted so far. There's a couple of apparently quite effective psychotherapy bots available, but we're a long way from a robot that can roof a house or plumb a sink. So the future, which one might expect from current successful applications to populate the midlevel executive offices with quietly humming screens and occasional generated voice calls, will probably instead feature a radical restructuring of bluecollar and low level jobs to fit what a robot can do. Because that's the other side of automation - it changes the job, including the expectations of results. People accept dirtier clothing for the convenience of an automated washer, they will learn to simplify and arrange their landscaping so an automated mower can handle the task. Edited July 30, 2015 by overtone 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonDie Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 Robots will make your job easier. The guy next to you takes your job now that his is too easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Cuthber Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 It will happen, count on it. Robots work cheap and do not complain, let alone organize into unions. They react faster and do only what their program specifies, no deviation, no fatigue, no human frailty. No discrimination, no sexual harassment, no maternity leave or substance abuse on or off the job. You are already obsolete, have a nice day. A statement like "You are already obsolete, have a nice day." suggests to me tha the author is trolling. After all, he must know that many or most of the people who post here are not involved in repetitive manual labour or whatever. So,until there's a robot that can do complicated creative work, he's plainly wrong; and he should know it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overtone Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 After all, he must know that many or most of the people who post here are not involved in repetitive manual labour or whatever. Right now it's fair to say robots are closer to replacing radiologists than orderlies, closer to replacing jet pilots than backhoe operators. For example. It turns out that people in general have vague and confused and socially biased conceptions about what is involved in manual vs intellectual work. A lot of manual labor is easy for people because we are well designed for it, and a lot of intellectual work is difficult because humans are poorly designed to do it. It's that latter category, the work (manual or intellectual) that humans are poorly designed for, that robots are most likely to take over. And there are two approaches available - make the robot to fit the job, make the job to fit the robot. From the capital investor's point of view, the second is often the more profitable and easier accomplished. That is in contrast to humans, for which the first approach has been the more commonly preferred. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten oz Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 The more jobs that can be done by machines the more we humans are freed to do other things. I am glad for all the automation we have today and hope we develop more in the future. Without the vast majority of all employment would labor. The human body(and mind) did not evolve to merely be assembly line peices. As for software that can assist with more intellectual work, terrific. Some things would simply take too long for a human to calculate. Again, have machines do it for us frees us to do other things. It is a net positive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endy0816 Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Yeah, we can certainly imagine a world where the conversion of scarce resources into goods and services is handed entirely by machines and then apportioned according to societal values. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phi for All Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 It will happen, count on it. Robots work cheap and do not complain, let alone organize into unions. They react faster and do only what their program specifies, no deviation, no fatigue, no human frailty. No discrimination, no sexual harassment, no maternity leave or substance abuse on or off the job. You are already obsolete, have a nice day. If I were in corporate management, and I wanted to continue my corporation's practices of minimum benefits for average workers and sub-par compensation (so the top guys like me get more), this is the kind of propaganda I would create. Puts them in their place, let's them know they should be grateful for even having a job, and keeps them from complaining because they're so afraid I will replace them with a machine. I would probably use the same marketing team that came up with that excellent campaign against AGW. Those guys are the best when it comes to fear, delay, and obfuscation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold Squared Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 (edited) Soon robots will program robots. They will do physics and everything better, faster, and cheaper. As a matter of fact, the more time it takes to "educate"(program) you, the greater the incentive to replace you with a machine is. You are obsolete, minimum wage or not. No coincidence, just fact. If I were in corporate management, and I wanted to continue my corporation's practices of minimum benefits for average workers and sub-par compensation (so the top guys like me get more), this is the kind of propaganda I would create. Puts them in their place, let's them know they should be grateful for even having a job, and keeps them from complaining because they're so afraid I will replace them with a machine. I would probably use the same marketing team that came up with that excellent campaign against AGW. Those guys are the best when it comes to fear, delay, and obfuscation. If you were in corporate management you would optimize profits as is your sole responsibility, until you got replaced by a robot too. None of them exhale the carbon dioxide, obfuscate that. They are even greener than thou. Little mechanical humor there, take it or leave it. Though true, it's irrelevant to the discussion. "Irrelevant"? How so? We have robot pharmacists, robot surgeons, robot pilots, all immune to fatigue and capable of being upgraded to nearly error proof in performance.What human can you say that of? Edited August 6, 2015 by Harold Squared Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 "Irrelevant"? How so? We have robot pharmacists, robot surgeons, robot pilots, all immune to fatigue and capable of being upgraded to nearly error proof in performance. What human can you say that of? How is that relevant to the comment that not everyone is capable of becoming a physicist, or that not everyone can afford an education? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prometheus Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 As a matter of fact, the more time it takes to "educate"(program) you, the greater the incentive to replace you with a machine is. Are you confusing your opinion for fact or do you have evidence of this 'fact'? If so could you share it with us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 I think perhaps robots have already taken over the job of trolling on the internet in discussion forums. Make bold claims but never back it up with justification that exceeds their AI capacity. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold Squared Posted August 7, 2015 Author Share Posted August 7, 2015 As to Phi's claim that opponents of the AGW hypothesis are "the best when it comes to fear", I beg to differ. In general such persons tend to take the view that there is no cause for alarm and/or that whatever changes in climate may lay in wait, human ingenuity will enable us to cope adequately. AGW proponents, on the other hand, tend to claim that doom lurks somewhere in the immediate future, or the shadowy past, perhaps, and that only drastic measures will possibly ameliorate utter catastrophe. Repent, repent, etc. I understand that they are reaching out to fundamentalist Christian sects to explore common strategies, correct me, if I am wrong. And please pardon the digression, all. Returning to the topic, this very site must defend itself from spam bots, so the battle for tomorrow has actually begun. I think perhaps robots have already taken over the job of trolling on the internet in discussion forums. Make bold claims but never back it up with justification that exceeds their AI capacity. Good morning sir, I hope you are well. I would like to chat longer today but I am studying for my Turing Test, lol. Are you confusing your opinion for fact or do you have evidence of this 'fact'? If so could you share it with us? Proverbially, "time is money". Does it take decades to program any robot? Contrast this with the education of human larvae and draw your own conclusions. Thank you all for your comments! How is that relevant to the comment that not everyone is capable of becoming a physicist, or that not everyone can afford an education? One last response.The topic is the superiority of robots vs humans. Arguably, the superior quality control possible with robots vs the haphazard nature of human talents and irrational distribution of resources is a point in favor of robots, hence, relevant. Again, your comments are much appreciated. Good day to all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimreepr Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 (edited) Since robots are only superior in repetitive basic tasks, the haphazard nature of human talents is clearly superior since that nature includes the invention of robots. Edited August 7, 2015 by dimreepr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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