A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs? • Hacker News Board

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#231

Post by m0llusk » Tue, Oct 10, 2017, 3:33 PM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #215

ErrantX wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about if there are a group of people who cannot do mid-to-high skilled jobs (whilst potentially controversial, I think this is accurate)? If we replace all of those jobs what do they do? I have always thought there is a far-future dystopian story in that somewhere; society has evolved IT and automation to the extent that only the top 25% of individuals actually "work" and everyone else has leisure. The 25% decid…

The 75% should only be provided with little more than bare essentials. An apartment, food, and health care, with a small allowance for niceties. The 25% that actually work should be rewarded with luxuries. Financial means to travel, own their own house, drive a nice car, etc.

But human life is dynamic. The most productive and innovative contributors start out as drooling infants and up as feeble elders. Society has to support more than high earners and their favorites.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#232

Post by Sohcahtoa82 » Tue, Oct 10, 2017, 5:58 PM UTC

m0llusk wrote: post #231

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 75% should only be provided with little more than bare essentials. An apartment, food, and health care, with a small allowance for niceties. The 25% that actually work should be rewarded with luxuries. Financial means to travel, own their own house, drive a nice car, etc.

But human life is dynamic. The most productive and innovative contributors start out as drooling infants and up as feeble elders. Society has to support more than high earners and their favorites.

Certainly. And we'll support the drooling infants and feeble elders.

And we'd also provide the opportunities for people to learn what is necessary to move from the 75% to the 25%.

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#233

Post by gehwartzen » Wed, Oct 11, 2017, 3:23 AM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #215

ErrantX wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about if there are a group of people who cannot do mid-to-high skilled jobs (whilst potentially controversial, I think this is accurate)? If we replace all of those jobs what do they do? I have always thought there is a far-future dystopian story in that somewhere; society has evolved IT and automation to the extent that only the top 25% of individuals actually "work" and everyone else has leisure. The 25% decid…

The 75% should only be provided with little more than bare essentials. An apartment, food, and health care, with a small allowance for niceties. The 25% that actually work should be rewarded with luxuries. Financial means to travel, own their own house, drive a nice car, etc.

Who do the 25% sell all their custom salads to? Automation is great at producing consumer goods not so much at producing luxury goods. One would think that the problem of not enough consumers to buy the stuff automation produces would be a self limiting mechanism. A UBI doesnt really address the problem either because it is essentially just taking money from those that own the automation equipment and giving it to those that don't so they can turn around and buy stuff from the automation equipment :/

Re: A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?

#234

Post by valvar » Wed, Oct 11, 2017, 5:33 AM UTC

annabellish wrote: post #157

brink wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe he's being downvoted because some believe that there should be a balance between political correctness and skin thickness rather than just full on PC. (This includes me.)

It's a lot easier to have a thick skin when you're in a demographic nobody discriminates against.

There is no such thing. Every demographic gets discriminated against in some way or another, in ways that are not always directly comparable. Self-victimization, I'm sure, will be of great help.