Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
To add a simple date to a tombstone in the late 90s, Ron Richard, an engraver based in Southern Massachusetts, would trace the numbers onto a sheet of rubber and cut them out with an X-acto knife. By the time he'd placed the stencil onto the stone and run over it with his sandblaster (sand bounces off of the rubber portions of the stencil and carves rock exposed in the voids in between), about 20 minutes had passed.
Today, the same process takes Richard about five minutes. "It's far, far different," Richard says of his job nearly 20 years after he started his business, Northeast Stonewriters.
Richard now uses his laptop computer, which he brings with him to the cemetery, to lay out the text he wants to engrave. He uses a specialized printer, designed for the sign industry, to cut the rubber stencil according to the appropriate sizes and fonts.
Engravers and etchers like Richard, according to a survey by the US Department of Labor, now have the most automated occupation in the United States.
In the context of the current narrative of robots and software taking over jobs, this sounds like a sad story. But when I called a handful of etchers and engravers who have been in the business for decades, that's not the story they told me.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday May 17 2017, @03:39AM (8 children)
Sounds like a CNC operator. Maybe not with a proper rig that can do full-size six-axis, but somebody still needs to come set up and align the machine. Though depending on the situation, gravestones might be a slow business even if you can do more in a given time frame.
Time to diversify the portfolio -- tools, leather, guns, whatever. Or just do what you can by hand at a 600% markup, because there's no shortage of trust-fund hipster babies who need a piece to brag about their hand-made bullshit they didn't actually make for the next few years.
Tattoos are a form of engraving. A simple engraver is not unlike a prison-improvised tattoo machine -- a sharp needle coupled axially to an electric motor coupled to an unbalanced weight. Perhaps, and this is my idea, don't you dare steal it, is that tattoos are next to be mechanized! Now that would be a sad state of affairs, but the built-in spellchecking feature would at least eliminate all the "I love you Sweathearts" out there!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:53AM
How about "typesetter"? The most automated professions are those which are no longer professions.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 4, Touché) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:40AM (1 child)
I can see it now, "I love you Sweathearts" with a red underline on the Sweathearts.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:57PM
Given how people have been naming their khyhydds, DO NOT turn on auto-correct!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 17 2017, @02:06PM (2 children)
Software spellcheckers should be banned! They are just one more form of computers taking away jobs. Computer automation replaces jobs of poor, uneducated workers. We need to keep uneducated people employed -- as spell checkers.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:23PM (1 child)
If they are uneducated, how are they qualified as a spell checker? Call in the H-1Bs!
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:29PM
If ability to read and write are not a requirement to become president, then why should it be a requirement to be a spellchecker? Just sayin'
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:13PM (1 child)
but the built-in spellchecking feature would at least eliminate all the "I love you Sweathearts" out there!
This would be a terrible development. Why would you actively reduce available entertainment? Do we not suffer enough?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday May 17 2017, @11:17PM
This girl [thehollywoodgossip.com] at least has. Or maybe, to victim-blame, she hasn't suffered enough yet.
(Score: 2) by julian on Wednesday May 17 2017, @03:43AM (7 children)
They all should have gone out of business from rationality, instead of automation.
Engraving a tombstone is a lot of work for some bullshit monument to a corpse. According to my will, my body will be used for whatever organs are still functional, and then for dissection by med students who will hopefully learn something and keep the next generation alive.
It's a travesty that some people incinerate their corpse instead of letting it be used by the living.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by vux984 on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:04AM (5 children)
Engraving a tombstone is a lot of work for some bullshit monument to a corpse.
A memorial stone is orthogonal to there being a burial; you can have one without the other.
It's a travesty that some people incinerate their corpse instead of letting it be used by the living.
Incineration gets it out of the way in a relatively clean and efficient way. More people should leave their corpes to science, but not everyone should. Hell.. they are even a bit picky about what they want... "A good cadaver is generally young, fully intact and not too obese or riddled with disease." So... ideally... they want the cadavers of people who probably shouldn't be dead. ;) In any case, a LOT of dead people aren't going to qualify to be a medical cadaver even if they wanted to.
(Score: 2) by julian on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:32AM (3 children)
How dare you, my older-millennial body is certainly worthy of being examined by teenagers who think they're smart enough to cut into living humans
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday May 17 2017, @08:08AM (1 child)
One could probably learn a lot taking apart a body riddled by disease.
See what alcohol did to this liver? Look at those lungs... can you imagine those were in a living body? Guess these belonged to the Marlboro Man.
I have learned a lot from taking apart failed things. Probably more than taking apart perfectly operating things. I received insight on what made them fail. So, hopefully, I do not make the same mistake.
Or I'll more readily recognize the situation should I see it again.
Thanks, Julian... I am also in your camp.
I won't be here anymore and I won't need it, but maybe someone else needs a spare part. I know others can learn by disassembly, just as I have learned the same way.
When they get through taking me apart, and trying to figure out what made me tick, then they can do the burning bit. Save the ashes though... it makes good fertilizer. Maybe part of me will be reborn as a tree.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 17 2017, @07:00PM
My sister was always pretty amazed at seeing the MD students who light a cigarette, right after dissecting the black lungs of a smoker's corpse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:59PM
How dare you, my older-millennial body is certainly worthy of being examined by teenagers who think they're smart enough to cut into living humans
Don't worry, this guy's got you covered [youtube.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @08:39AM
undignified use of corpses documented for science research.
There is a difference between wanting your corpse to be optionally used for the advancement of science, and it being used either as a test subject for medical students (common) or divvied up into jars for entertainment/sale to collectors/etc. (Less common, but I've seen a few horrible news articles on activities like this coming to light.)
Personally I am not worried about my corpse (unless it ends up like Beetlejuice with your corpse affecting you in the afterlife, or like some other horror movies where a persons soul was just tied in the vicinity of it so they saw all the horrible things people were doing to it afterwards.)
(Score: 1) by Gault.Drakkor on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:49PM
Historians, genealogists I would expect like them, because you have well defined records. Engraved in stone no less.
Of course funerals, markers etc are not for the dead. They are for the living.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday May 17 2017, @03:55AM (5 children)
Engravers and etchers like Richard, according to a survey by the US Department of Labor, now have the most automated occupation in the United States.
If he's still got a job, and he still has to shlep his equipment somewhere its not automated all that much. Sure he has better tools, works faster.
But he's still doing it.
If the company owner comes in to work to oil the machinery once a week, or add raw materials once a day, that's probably more automated, so much so there is not many jobs left.
By the same token, those jobs that have been totally take taken over by machinery no longer employ laborers and therefore disappear from view of the Department of Labor.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:20AM (2 children)
But.. Think of the chimney sweeps
And the weavers,
And the dyers,
And...
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @12:53PM (1 child)
But.. Think of the chimney sweeps
Chimney Sweeps still exist, just not quite in the Mary Poppins sense. They're the people you call when your need the brickwork touched up on your chimney or an entirely new one built. Many of them handle steel flue pipes as well as it's a somewhat different type of install from regular ductwork with more safety codes and considerations.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday May 17 2017, @01:12PM
Chimney Sweeps still exist, just not quite in the Mary Poppins sense. They're the people you call when your need the brickwork touched up on your chimney or an entirely new one built.
Or... ya know, have your chimney swept. People who have actual fireplaces that they use regularly in their houses still need to have their chimneys swept periodically for safety reasons. They have equipment now that makes chimneys much easier to clean (and greatly decreases the mess), so you no longer need 4-year-olds to climb into the chimneys... but lots of people still have chimneys swept regularly.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 17 2017, @05:55AM (1 child)
Indeed. Look up how things like screws and springs are made.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:52PM
It is mesmerizing to watch.
(Score: 5, Funny) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:24AM (2 children)
Somebody has to say it: Tombstone engraving, a dying business.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:43AM (1 child)
One foot in the Engrave.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:15AM
The Vicar of Dibl.... Wait....
.... What? Farty Towels?????
..................what?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @07:19AM (3 children)
I thought DevOps automation was the most automated profession. How else do you explain the overwhelming demand for H1B street shitting indo chimp DevOps to push cloudy buttons.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 17 2017, @02:14PM (2 children)
One day they will automate cleaning up after the horses. Then horse and buggy drivers will only have to drive. What a day that will be. One of these days.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday May 18 2017, @07:21AM (1 child)
Vaguely visable here: http://c7.alamy.com/comp/E570M7/horse-and-carriage-in-tallinn-with-two-beautiful-drivers-E570M7.jpg
http://blog.bestapartments.ee/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014-05-14-12.43.16.jpg
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 18 2017, @04:52PM
I sure hope they patented such a valuable and labor saving innovation.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday May 17 2017, @01:06PM
When I went to the makerspace TechShop sandblast engraving was very popular. Here is an instructable how to do it yourself:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Engraving-using-a-sandblaster-and-vinyl-stencil/ [instructables.com]
Even without a makerspace, you could setup a budget operation for probably 300 USD, as all you need is a sandblaster, vinyl cutter, safety supplies, and materials. Between Harbor Freight and Ebay, a hobbiest can get started easily.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:36PM (3 children)
Wouldn't programming be the most automated profession? Do programmers compile by hand these days or doesn't that count?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 17 2017, @07:06PM
You still have to make programming decisions.
Bank teller is a pretty good candidate: they are following simple instructions based on what the customer and computer say, so automatically that most have been replaced by machines.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @07:16PM
That would be coding.
(Score: 1) by toddestan on Wednesday May 17 2017, @11:13PM
People still program though. The most automated professions don't exist anymore because we've completely automated them away - such as elevator operator, or computer*.
*Computer used to be a profession, where your entire job was to do computations. Usually under the direction of someone who told you exactly what you needed to compute, so you were basically doing the drudge work so someone else didn't have to. Obviously this is all done electronically now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @09:07PM
A key part of this is that engravers are artisans. Sure the average trophy engraving is pretty generic. But past that its all custom work.
You can't automate artistry and creativity (yet) so its no wonder employment was sustained.
But anybody working on an assembly line, driving a truck, mopping floors, flipping burgers at McDonalds or a thousand other low-skill, zero-creativity jobs is at risk.