Posted on 05/20/2016 8:07:49 AM PDT by rktman
Harari calls it “the rise of the useless class” and ranks it as one of the most dire threats of the 21st century. In a nutshell, as artificial intelligence gets smarter, more humans are pushed out of the job market. No one knows what to study at college, because no one knows what skills learned at 20 will be relevant at 40. Before you know it, billions of people are useless, not through chance but by definition.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Liberal millenials?
Well, yes, and as he points out, the wolf did finally come. But in this case that may not be the best analogy. What happens with technological progress in general is that old roles - manual peasant farming, for example - tend to disappear and the people filling don't die out, they adapt. Quite a few people - Marx, for one - felt that some sort of end state was possible when, in turn, the manufacturing jobs they migrated to were themselves subsumed. It doesn't appear to have worked out like that.
The article author's point is that the rate of technological progress (which is not the same thing) makes it difficult to anticipate in advance what field to study, and my own career is proof of that; it simply didn't exist when I was an undergraduate, much less a high school student. It turns out to be a relatively minor inconvenience so long as one realizes that the study is never going to stop. Call that an adaptation if you like.
As long as we don’t unleash the zombie apocalypse by seeing consciousness where it is not, we will continue to create better tools which will enable us to do more things, like space exploration for example. We are just at a point where we need to be adaptable, not overly regimented and pigeon-holed by big data.
A lot of people don’t have the native ability to learn the trades, to a worthwhile level.
What skills will be needed after a massive EMP bomb is released?
We’ll be back to needing horses and hand saws.
God doesn’t think they are useless.
Handouts without work and illegitimate children are destroying the country.
Bingo. Trivium and quadrivium. Machines can perform processes and routines. Only people can think.
According to James Burke on "Connections", you'd better have a plow lying around somewhere.
Malthusianism has been incorrect 100% of the time, and will continue to be incorrect 100% of the time.
“AI can’t build roads or fix a heater.”
Believe it or not, there was actually a debate about whether it was better for third world countries to build their roads using hand labor or machines. It was feared that using machines would increase unemployment and decrease distribution of wages.
The skilled trades like plumbing, mechanical repair, HVAC, electrician - those jobs remain in just as high a demand and become even more important when robots can do a lot of basic repetitive labor.
The guy who can fix the robots will get paid REAL well.
The Great Shift Toward Automation and the Future of Employment
http://hubpages.com/business/The-Great-Shift-and-the-Future-of-Employment
Actually road building is mostly automated already, and between reliability and replaceability fixing heaters is become an unnecessary activity.
“Actually road building is mostly automated already”
That’s what my husband is doing up in Canada right now.
There’s still a few people necessary. But those big road machines have cut crew size by dozens and get a lot more road laid.
And then along comes a robot that repairs other robots.
And it doesn't need to be paid, fed, housed or clothed.
It doesn't need air, water, a shower or a bathroom.
It doesn't complain, file grievances, take vacations or sick time.
It never leaves work early, comes in late, or fails to come to work at all.
It never comes to work stoned or hungover and never falls asleep on the job.
It never tries to diddle the secretary or the bosses wife.
It takes a few shots of 3 in 1 oil now and then and it's good to go.
Watch this automatic track laying machine
Think about how many jobs it eliminates.
VIDEO LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MKcTbYDP7w
I saw a video of this once. Still had humans hanging around though.
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