* Posts by Shocked

1 publicly visible post • joined 29 Mar 2017

Robots are killing jobs after all, apparently: One droid equals 5.6 workers

Shocked

I'm shocked by the low number replaced. I worked in manufacturing for nearly 30 years and I would have guessed the number to already be much higher than 5.6.

Still, the question is, I suppose, who is being replaced, what is the job function being replaced and what is the next job to be replaced. Production line functions relating to repetitive jobs are probably quite easy to automate today. However, design functions are less so. Furthermore, in my experience, machines can make millions of the same thing, all with the same error. So there will remain a residual benefit from human oversight for some time to come, but not forever.

But in the end, with the ever-increasing sophistication of computers, what is there that people can do that machines will never be able to do? I suspect in the long term, the answer to that is nothing. After all, if machines can now compose decent music, what's next? How big is the leap from the special effects through CGI in the film-making industry to cutting out the operator entirely by desigining a machine to do the whole job. Then, if you can do that, get the machines to design other machines.

A long time into the future perhaps but something our society needs to think about from now on. Western society revolved about working to gain income. Developing countries seek advancement through lower wages. None of that works the same in a completely automated future.

I don't think this is necessarily bad. I just think that there needs to be some good future that can be offered to everyone.