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posted by mrpg on Thursday December 14 2017, @11:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the robot-scare-fad dept.

Weep for the future?

Today's 6th graders will hit their prime working years in 2030.

By that time, the "robot apocalypse" could be fully upon us. Automation and artificial intelligence could have eliminated half the jobs in the United States economy.

Or, plenty of jobs could still exist, but today's students could be locked in a fierce competition for a few richly rewarded positions requiring advanced technical and interpersonal skills. Robots and algorithms would take care of what used to be solid working- and middle-class jobs. And the kids who didn't get that cutting-edge computer science course or life-changing middle school project? They'd be relegated to a series of dead-end positions, serving the elites who did.

Alternatively, maybe Bill Gates and Elon Musk and the other big names ringing the alarm are wrong. A decade from now, perhaps companies will still complain they can't find employees who can read an instruction manual and pass a drug test. Maybe workers will still be able to hold on to the American Dream, so long as they can adjust to incremental technological shifts in the workplace.

Which vision will prove correct?

30 years into the Information Revolution and schools are only just now realizing they should teach kids how to code...


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @12:07PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 15 2017, @12:07PM (#610257)

    Supply and demand loosely dictates the value of any career. Being a plumber, electrician, or mechanic is great until there are five hundred of them in two blocks (in the city) or within three miles (in a suburb). Likewise, in my particular suburbs owning a pizza shop, sandwich shop, or coffee shop was probably a good idea twenty years ago but today I can't throw a rock now without hitting one. They pop up and fold all of the time.

    If my kids want to be plumbers I won't stop them, I am sure it's still better than getting a job in retail or fast food or hotel cleaning. But I suspect a good plumber in 2030 won't make the same living relative to inflation that a good plumber in 1990 did.

    I'm trying to push my kids into code and robotics. I'm a moderately skilled developer, I've worked at a lot of things in my almost twenty years in the field. But aside from being able to swap parts in a PC I know zip about robotics, signals, and electrical motors. Learning it is on my to-do list, but my top free time priority is keeping active on Github so that employers don't overlook me because of the gray hair.