New Technology Destroying Jobs
Jefferson
Posts: 3,736 Forum Member
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And not just the jobs of the lower classes. It will "hollow out" a lot of middle class jobs as well, with the jobs of such as teachers, lawyers, doctors and accountants already targeted, as well as lower status jobs like lorry driving.
You may recall a Labour politician the other month, Stella Creasy, made the claim that if we didn't have mass immigration those already here would have to increase the number of children they are having, to fill all the job vacancies. She doesn't seem to have heard the times they are a changin'.
Up to fairly recently the middle class have been pretty well insulated from the increase in new technologies but that will very soon not be the case. New internet based companies worth billions are sprouting up, but staffing levels only reach a few dozen.
So, my questions are, are you all aware of this new developmenf - there's not a lot been mentioned in the mainstream media. And any thoughts about it?
You may recall a Labour politician the other month, Stella Creasy, made the claim that if we didn't have mass immigration those already here would have to increase the number of children they are having, to fill all the job vacancies. She doesn't seem to have heard the times they are a changin'.
Up to fairly recently the middle class have been pretty well insulated from the increase in new technologies but that will very soon not be the case. New internet based companies worth billions are sprouting up, but staffing levels only reach a few dozen.
So, my questions are, are you all aware of this new developmenf - there's not a lot been mentioned in the mainstream media. And any thoughts about it?
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Yes poor old Victor Meldrew was replaced by a box way back in 1990
I don't believe it :-D
I wasn't aware of this new development at all. Why should anyone bother with an education anymore?
Unfortunately some people think that once they leave school (or higher education) that's it and they expect to spend the rest of their lives in the same job or at least the same career.
Having written that though, one development that concerns me a little is in software development. There are signs that computers are approaching the point where they can program themselves. In a lot of areas it's gone from telling them what to do to just telling them what you want (or almost). Now personally I'm not fussed because I should be retired before that shitstorm hits but there's a wider concern. Given how central computers now are to our civilisation and even our culture the idea that they can program themselves better than we can is disturbing. Look up 'Singularity' on Wikipedia :-/
Which companies worth billions are only staffed by a few people?
Lawyers, accountants, teachers. All professions that require judgement, knowledge, experience, discernment. Nothing that can be replaced by AI.
Neither did Mrs Warboys
We cant just say, they can programme the machines, because some people will never be able to do that, for example.
i could reasonably see a scenario in the next 50 years where we have automated cars, that could lead to driverless taxis, deliveries, road sweepers etc, all those jobs could become redundent.
that in itself is no huge thing, but thats a small part of the picture, when you look across all sectors and imagine no one would drive anything, no checkout staff, no postmen, no meter readers, no parking attendants, no grass cutters, no fruit pickers, the list goes on.
Im not saying progress is a bad thing but their will be a point when society needs to change, as with more and more jobs being taken care of by machinery, new paying jobs that they can do will need to be created.
At least for the moment. Until my laptop decides to suddenly take up tap dancing or something, I don't think we need to worry.
...will be?
So what robots program themselves, because i don't know of any? Plenty of software engineers about. You need them about anyway when things inevitably go wrong.
I know from experience of working i a factory that every single time a new machine was brought in that would allegedly cause job losses, the reality was that new posts were created. These machines helped to increase production which meant that more people were needed to supply the raw materials and to pack up the finished goods. More inspectors were required for quality and inspection purposes and more delivery drivers were needed to take the goods to where they would be sold.
Yes, some jobs will be lost, but as production increases more people will be employed to feed that extra production.
And similarly in the more professional middle class jobs. They will still be working but the nature of their jobs will be to be more service orientated rather than sitting at machines.
Unlikely, robots are much harder to control.
This is different.
But I'm not surprised so (relatively) few people have heard the news. The mainstream media have been very quiet about it - for now at least.
I haven't got any links but one or two others others must have heard about this?
You need to explain how it's different and provide some supporting evidence for me to give your claims any credence. Chuck few links our way :-)
Heard about it where? The pub? Because tbh at my local they are all excited about the latest discovery of how to turn lead into gold and the unicorn colony discovered in a hill made of emeralds in Wales. No links for that either though, sorry
It's down to the ever evolving sophisticated computer power and advances in robotics.
How does AI emulate judgement?
Let's take accountants - sure they have moved on from book ledgers and pens to spreadsheets/databases/large scale relational databases. How can you possibly conceive that AI can replace a Tax Accountant?
We're no-where near that point, if anything the man power required in software development is getting higher as the tools become more powerful and hardware less costly so it now becomes feasible to do more systems for companies who previously could not have gained benefit. There is also the shift in some cases to mobile computing which is another boost to software development.
If any one loses a job because of software development, it's nearly always because of some software improvement that enables a company to automate more of their processes and thus can run with less staff.