Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

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...


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Friday December 15 2017, @08:35PM (1 child)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Friday December 15 2017, @08:35PM (#610440) Journal

    At least in capitalism those who refuse to work are still allowed to live.

    Wrong. The reason they can survive in our world is precisely that our world is not completely capitalist (not even in the USA), but has some socialist elements in them. In a pure capitalist world, they would have no income, and thus no way to get food.

    Well, unless they happen to own capital. Then they can be lazy as hell, as their money "works for them".

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Friday December 15 2017, @11:55PM

    by Sulla (5173) on Friday December 15 2017, @11:55PM (#610555) Journal

    The biggest difference between marxism and capitalism for the person who refuses to work is that while capitalism gives him nothing, marxism would give him a bullet.

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam