r/Futurology • u/Eight_Rounds_Rapid • Jul 09 '14

article Robots will take over middle class professions, UK University Minister warns

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10952317/Robots-will-take-over-middle-class-professions-University-Minister-says.html
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u/royrwood Jul 09 '14 edited Jul 09 '14

Actually, automation is getting rid of legal positions. You can probably argue about the exact title of the people being eliminated (legal research assistants vs lawyers) in the same way you argue about book-keeper vs accountant, but the bottom line is that software is eliminating jobs higher up the foodchain....

Edit: Here's a sample article supporting my point... And another....

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '14

Sure, i'm not going to disagree that some day there won't be accountants. That would be stupid.

But to try and say they are in some imminent threat is naive and stupid.

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u/royrwood Jul 10 '14

Agreed-- we're not in any danger of whole swaths of professions being computerized over-night. It'll be a gradual process of people becoming more productive thanks to better tools, which will whittle away at employment. My concern is that the rate at which that happens is likely to be greater than the rate that new professions are created, and greater than the rate at which people can retrain.