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Portentous changes to the work economies of India and the USA due to job automation by machines and robots continue to make headlines. Varieties of hardware and software automation are seeing implementation burgeon in both countries, as companies seek efficiency by replacing humans with machines. Wage erosion in areas previously unaffected by automation - including varieties of programming - is getting commoner while new, albeit highly specialized, engineering jobs are created. Both articles encourage educational changes mindful of these realities, though how colleges either side of the world can adapt to the blistering pace of automation is unclear.
The latest tranche of job automation news comes hot on the heels of Davos' prediction that machine automation will result in a net loss globally of over 5 million jobs prior to 2020.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Wednesday February 10 2016, @09:53AM
you are clearly not a student of history.
I cannot say that I am pretty good at history, but what I know tells me that (a) usually lords did not attempt to kill off their peasants, (b) when the black death came it killed 60% of population of Europe [historytoday.com], and (c) when certain people came to power - in Cambodia, for a recent example - they were quite efficient in killing their countrymen. Today a genetic weapon would be chosen. Or, if that's too complex, "the grey death" is an option (if you remember your Deus Ex.) Or... have you read about Flint, MI recently? And, if all else fails, a good old standby - a nuclear war - is always available. Nobody is going to ask inconvenient questions about who launched first. Plenty of territories (with zero strategic value) will remain unaffected.
you think people are just going to give up on space because there's no money in it?
First of all, all people are giving up on space simply because we cannot get up there cheaply enough, and because there is not enough wealth on the whole Earth to set up a colony on a #%$ Moon that is 3 flight days away. Mars? Forget it. Do you have an antigravity drive? Do you have controlled fusion? Do you have a transdimensional portal? I don't. Too bad, so sad. Space is closed to us until that changes.
But there is a second problem here. Who are those "people" that you are talking about? People who can fly to space do not want to. People who may want to fly cannot. How do you imagine ghetto dwellers are going to construct a spaceship? They will be busy standing in lines for their daily 500 cal portions of gruel.
Perhaps I am not an optimist. I like to be a realist. At this point there are no working mechanisms in this society of ours except the mechanism of capitalism that merges with oligarchy. That mechanism is self-sufficient. These people can fly to the Moon - but why should they? They can live just fine here, on Earth. They are *already* impoverishing population of their own countries - and they are OK with that. Probably they don't have a master plan yet, but one has to be blind to not see where their actions will bring the humanity. Perhaps a benevolent dictatorship would be the best outcome... all the alternatives are worse, and all the starry-eyed dreams of idealists are just that, dreams. Humanity is not that good at self-organizing, it constantly fragments and competes for scraps of resources. If it doesn't stop today, why would it stop, say, 50 years down the road, with oil in decline; fusion 20 years in the future, as always; global warming|cooling|no_change destroying lands; Monsanto's super-weeds taking over the fields... you can imagine your own picture of the future. Mine is pretty dark. If you would like to convince me and others like me, propose a specific path that is viable, and we can discuss it.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 10 2016, @01:47PM
You're missing the cultural effects. Once the groups are segregated and apartheid enough, they can start "othering" the other guys.
It'll look a lot like the French Revolution. To some extent the piles of dead bodies were like corporate advertising strategies today, sure 90% was wasted effort, but nobody could figure out which 10% were really effective, so go overboard.
The agony of iron and nickel distribution sounds a lot like the suffering our public library goes thru with book distribution, or our public water utility goes thru with water distribution, or our fire department goes thru with fire coverage distribution. In summary, once something becomes a boring hidden universal too-cheap-to-meter utility, its pretty much not a problem. Oh there's careers and money to be made, but nobody's running guillotines over the local public library loan policies, at least not yet.
The future is here, just unevenly distributed. The future of the USA looks a lot like Rhodesia or S.A. except our fault lines will be economic not racial (well, not primarily racial).
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday February 10 2016, @03:06PM
Yes-ish. Usually, the lords would kill off not their own peasants but not infrequently would kill off their next-door neighbor's peasants in an effort to take power from their neighbor. Or they would take or burn everything the other guys' peasants had in a chevauchee raid. But if the peasants started to seem a bit rebellious the lords could and did kill off a few to make it clear who was boss.
When the black death came, one of the reactions of the peasantry was to rebel because their lords' armies were too weak to stop them.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Wednesday February 10 2016, @10:05PM
The rest can curl up and die. And they will. Not overnight, but population control measures can seriously decimate "the useless eaters."
you are clearly not a student of history.
I cannot say that I am pretty good at history,
that's clear because people don't just curl up and die.
you think people are just going to give up on space because there's no money in it?
First of all, all people are giving up on space simply because we cannot get up there cheaply enough
and when resources are no longer limited by constructs like money?
Perhaps I am not an optimist. I like to be a realist.
...
Perhaps a benevolent dictatorship would be the best outcome...
no, you are a true pessimist. a realist would take note of the ever increasing level of automation and realize the game is changing.
If you would like to convince me and others like me, propose a specific path that is viable, and we can discuss it.
a pessimist will deny the mere possibility of anything but negative outcomes, so there is no point. perhaps you should get your meds adjusted.