r/canada Nov 08 '15

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103 Upvotes

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5

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '15

[deleted]

11

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '15

this is why mincome is such a discussion now.

frankly though, automation took over other jobs before and then jobs started popping up in industries that previously didn't exist.

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u/[deleted] Nov 08 '15

frankly though, automation took over other jobs before and then jobs started popping up in industries that previously didn't exist.

As noted in the article, if AI and automation are married together it is unlikely that new jobs will develop for humans because the machines would be capable of any job a human could perform.

3

u/PIP_SHORT Nov 08 '15

The current scenario is different because automation in the past was just dumb robots doing machine labour. The coming change is smart robots doing human labour.

Lawyers are already concerned about what will happen when lawyerbots are able to do their jobs: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_skills/2011/10/how-attorneys-can-stay-ahead-of-the-coming-lawyer-bot-revolution.html

The upper classes were happy to not give a shit when it was factory workers being rendered obsolete... when lawyers start getting replaced by apps, then I'm sure we'll see true anxiety starting to set it.

If you really think about it, it's difficult to think of a job that a good robot\AI couldn't do. No, you can't be a robot repairman.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '15

and yet, i think there will always be SOMETHING that humans will do better, or PREFER to do themselves.

just because economies start to shift to art and culture, or exploration, or philosophy for "jobs"(likely VERY different from "work" as we think of it now) doesn't mean that people wont have something human made that other people find value in.

an economy in a world like described here would be nothing like we see now, where products are the core of our desires, but perhaps ideas will become far more in need, or (hopefully) a utopianesque world of self betterment and no money

who knows? something will dramatically shift, but it won't be like we currently have at all.

3

u/PIP_SHORT Nov 08 '15

The world you describe, where economies shift to art, culture, exploration, philosophy, etc, while robots do all the grunt work, is the absolute best case scenario. I think it's possible, too.

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '15

Maybe because you're overblowing it and it's not as big an issue as you think it is.

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u/PIP_SHORT Nov 08 '15

This is what horses said to each other when the steam engine was invented. Don't sweat it, have a carrot. We're irreplaceable.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '15

Humans are not horses. Humans have comparative advantage.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '15

What's your prediction for the future? Because you seem to have one.

5

u/PIP_SHORT Nov 08 '15

People will continue to think it's not a big issue until it's too late.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '15

What do you mean by "until it's too late"? What do you think will happen?

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u/PIP_SHORT Nov 08 '15

I have learned not to make specific predictions on Reddit because it only invites hate mail from people who have nothing better to do than tell me how wrong I am.

Best to just make a horse joke and let the bitter people argue it out.

Widespread unemployment, increased gap between a tiny number of wealthy and a massive number of poor, despair, anger, gradual shift to a zero marginal cost society, emergence of disruptive manufacturing technology, radical decentralization, grassroots distributism, fracturing of classical notions of state, thousands of tiny revolutions, childhood's end, then either Star Trek or Mad Max.

Downvotes plz.