Machines taking over jobs

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: artikk

Originally posted by: spidey07
There are still many things machines just can't do and probably won't be able to for hundreds of years, work that needs a judgement call rather than a repetitive task or maneuvering with high precision based on current conditions. Agriculture/cultivating come to mind. Machines are just tools to do the job - throw them something they don't know what to do with and they stop.

adaptive and evolving ai

Understood. Let me know when it is as good as a human.

 

[BladeVenom]

I blame the industrial revolution.

 

[Wheezer]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
So get a job fixing the machines...or programming them.

 

[Modelworks]

Someone has been watching Wall-E too much

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: artikk

Originally posted by: spidey07
There are still many things machines just can't do and probably won't be able to for hundreds of years, work that needs a judgement call rather than a repetitive task or maneuvering with high precision based on current conditions. Agriculture/cultivating come to mind. Machines are just tools to do the job - throw them something they don't know what to do with and they stop.

adaptive and evolving ai

Understood. Let me know when it is as good as a human.

Yeah, plus, if anyone has ever been in a DC (going back to the OP's example), they are already heavily automated. I'm not sure how well it would work when the volume increases. The example would work in a place that ships out small packages, but I question it working at somewhere like a retail/warehouse/wholesale type of situation. Wholesale would be a bit different though, since they typically just send whole pallets. I mean, you shop off of them.

 

[rh71]

On August 29, 1997, Skynet became self-aware. In a panic, they tried to pull the plug.

 

[acheron]

Are we giving the robots that run our society too much power?

 

[ghostman]

I don't find this worrisome at all. Machines taking over jobs has always been considered a "problem," but it has never really played out that way. Will people lose job due to automation? Yes, in the short term for a small group perhaps. But new types of jobs crop up all the time. So instead of having an assembly line of people building cars by hand, you now have an assembly line to build the machines to build cars. The result in this case isn't lost jobs, but more cars. Of course, it doesn't always work out that cleanly, but the general idea is the same in the macro scale.

We used to need people to manually switch phone calls, operate elevators, solder electronic components. We don't see ex-switchboard or elevator operators lining up for unemployment benefits.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: Legendary
Who will make the machines?

Machines, actually.

One of the professors in the mechanical engineering department at Cornell is working on machines that build copies of themselves, and even cooler he's doing work on 3d printing technology that can print fully assembled ready-to-go robots.

he can print batteries, transistors, and simple actuators already. It's only a matter of time before you have printers printing robots to build bigger printers.

The best part is that the even acknowledges the doomsday-of-humanity implications of his work.

 

[invidia]

Strong AI is artificial intelligence with self-consciousness and self-awareness. It is only a matter of time before we will start replicating androids to replace blue collar work. Then we move on to white-collar.

 

[Albatross]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

Originally posted by: albatross
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
They take away the very low paid hard labour jobs but replace them with high paying jobs.

ex: instead of needing 10 monkeys from India doing some repetitious task for 0.15/hour you have 2 engineers making 30/hour maintaining those machines and making sure they're running. Even higher paying jobs are then available for the company that makes the machines.

Basically it cuts out the really crappy low paying jobs but adds more good jobs, in a way. Not exactly 100% a good thing as a crappy job is better then none, but at same time at least from a company perspective it increases quality and overall worker happiness.

Now if we found a way to automate tech support, India is completely screwed royally. And think that's not far off... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivk8Ez9pwCU

engineers dont do maintenance. basic maintenance workers dont usually make 30 bucks an hour.

my job is pretty much protected from being taken over by robots. i write and load automation programs into industrial computers.

 

[Aberforth]

Originally posted by: invidia
Strong AI is artificial intelligence with self-consciousness and self-awareness. It is only a matter of time before we will start replicating androids to replace blue collar work. Then we move on to white-collar.

That's not possible, you don't know what consciousness is, AI's cannot develop self-awareness without a predetermined macro of human intelligence and will continue along in that pattern only, so basically it's not self awareness, it's just recorded macros of what humans want (greed). However I do agree that comfort of technology will degenerate the human mind eventually causing devolution.

 

[dullard]

1) It is impossible to stop this progression. You can only delay it. For example, the one machine per person contracts at the auto manufacturers delayed having too many machines. But you see where that got them, now all workers may lose their jobs rather than just a few if they allowed the Big 3 to be more efficient.

2) What is the problem? In the long term, machines will do almost everything. All we have to do is sit back, relax, and let the machines bring us food and entertainment. Sure, there would be no jobs. But, hey, isn't that a GOOD thing? We can have 365 days a year for pursuing our interests. No one would have to do much work. We can end the ideas of jobs, wages, money, shopping, etc. because the robots will do that stuff for us. Sure, this is a long way off. But, it is a wonderful end goal.

 

[soulcougher73]

Yeah machines are taking over and it will just get worse. Someday 95% of the jobs will be done by machines and only 5% of the population will have jobs fixing those machines. The others will be jobless. Away with these bad creations.

 

[Q]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/...spapers-downturn_N.htm