Workplace Automation

[zion zig zag]

What a depressing topic.

No kidding. If I didn't have kids I probably wouldn't give much of a shit. I could pull the rip cord and retire to whatever 2nd world country was insulated from the drama. But having to worry about what they will do adds a whole other dimension.

[SKIP IN7RO]

https://i.imgur.com/5XKUoz5.gifv

This guy trucks

[summit]

AI designs a better AI
http://www.sciencealert.com/google-s...made-by-humans

[dunfree]

No kidding. If I didn't have kids I probably wouldn't give much of a shit. I could pull the rip cord and retire to whatever 2nd world country was insulated from the drama. But having to worry about what they will do adds a whole other dimension.

Unless you've built up a stash of financial capital (which you'll need to manage, and manage well) you aren't insulated from it. if it shakes up like some of us doomsayers think there'll be some big winners and some big losers. Right now the big winners on a nation level appear to be the taxhavens/city states - Luxembourg, Monaco, Singapore, Switzerland. Who knows if that will hold.

[Supermoon]

https://youtu.be/fRj34o4hN4I

[riser4]

The fancy trash truck did our route today. One person. Big robot arm to grab the cans. If you put them in the right place. I can't decide if I want to put out the cans so the grabber can't get them. It'll suck for a single driver and they'll probably just get mad at him instead of sending two persons. Add a self driving truck in a few years and then what will those guys do for work?

[Todd Zander]

The fancy trash truck did our route today. One person. Big robot arm to grab the cans. If you put them in the right place. I can't decide if I want to put out the cans so the grabber can't get them. It'll suck for a single driver and they'll probably just get mad at him instead of sending two persons. Add a self driving truck in a few years and then what will those guys do for work?

dude, those have been around for over 15 years.

and they just skip you if you're a dick about the can placement.

[riser4]

dude, those have been around for over 15 years.

and they just skip you if you're a dick about the can placement.

Dude. I live in a small town. They're new on this route. That's the fucking point.

[GeezerSteve]

Has anyone mention Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut? Get a PhD, or fill potholes.

Ha. I read that 40 years ago. Vonnegut, like George Carlin, George Orwell and others, saw and had the ability to duly communicate societal trends we could not see. I've pondered re-reading Vonnegut's works and your post might be the spark.

[GoldMember]

^^ Read Toffler's, The Third Wave, if you haven't already. I presume that you have, actually. That was an eye-opener for me when I was about 20. He's been proven mostly right so far.

[goldengatestinx]

Well hopefully, per Issac Asimov and his rules/laws of Robotics, I hope we are smart enough to program the machines not to harm us or we will be eventually fucked right good.

Beat them once in Terminator...can do it again.

[Alaskan Rover]

Adapt. Learn how to program robots and fix them.

Or break them so you can fix them.

But seriously, one tech they are working on is robots that repair each other. And AI-enabled systems are getting much better at actually coding their own programs. (See the 'Google AI creating its own AI' thread.)

Machine learning....it ain't sci-fi anymore.

[goldengatestinx]

If I was a young person I would t train to drive trucks. Those are the first jobs that will go. Long haul truck driving is already pretty well handled by self driving vehicles.

Where are these self driving vehicles? We drove CO to WNY and back over Thanksgiving and saw not one truck self driving.

[Supermoon]

Where are these self driving vehicles? We drove CO to WNY and back over Thanksgiving and saw not one truck self driving.

I don't think it's in place yet, but the self driving systems can basically handle all freeway driving at this point, so long haul trucking is thought to be the first wave of jobs to be lost. Many people think in five years there will be virtually no new trucking jobs.

[GoldMember]

Here's a company that's using them in a pilot (or lack thereof) program between El Paso and Palm Desert, hauling appliances.

https://www.wired.com/story/embark-s...ck-deliveries/

[GeezerSteve]

^^ Read Toffler's, The Third Wave, if you haven't already. I presume that you have, actually.

I read it soon after publication. I had read his prior work, Future Shock, a few years before as college class requirement.

If those books opened your eyes, I recommend Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle.

[old goat]

So how are corporations going to spend their brand new massive tax cut? Among other things (like putting it in off shore bank accounts and paying for hookers and blow)--they'll automate everything they can and lay off a bunch of workers.

[skaredshtles]

I don't think it's in place yet, but the self driving systems can basically handle all freeway driving at this point, so long haul trucking is thought to be the first wave of jobs to be lost. Many people think in five years there will be virtually no new trucking jobs.

Yup. If a truck can drive down I-25 from Fort Collins to the Springs in the middle of the day by itself... their time has come:

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/29...-world-record/

[Mazderati]

This is pretty good. A point is made about the exponential increase in productivity realized sometime around 1980 and how instead of tapering work week hours and increasing vacation, the benefits of increased productivity were and continue to be directed toward company coffers. The complete restructuring of the tax system (reduced workers = reduced taxes) was also interesting. Good chance we're fucked short term.

https://www.amazon.com/Automation-Fu.../dp/B06X41LK34

The irony of an Amazon link is not lost.