Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#21

Post by jackcosgrove » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:05 PM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #17

Eventually technology should kill pretty much all of the jobs. Human time and energy should be spent on what they find interesting, not on mundane stuff such as farming, housing, construction, database plumbing - all of which could be easily automated. No human should have to work to pay bills because there should be no bills. That should be the promise of technology. Only jobs left for humans should be things that r…

If it were still up and running, I'd link you to regretsy.com for a primer on most people's level of creativity. But it's gone so now all I can say is that it showed the worst "user-generated stuff" people posted to Etsy.

Not buying it - we have specialization and professionalization in part to maintain quality of work. Everyone cannot be, and should not be, an artist.

Anyways, if no one had to work, most people would just do drugs.

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#22

Post by jackcosgrove » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:07 PM UTC

Spooks wrote: post #10

Animats wrote: post #2

If your connection to the world is via a phone and computer, you will be replaced.

Not sure that statement is true (I actually think it's almost the opposite). For example if programmers are replaced, who will create the programs for the machines? I imagine even after the first wave of robot overloads, they will want a version 2.0. If you are a web designer, your connection is through a computer. Not sure robots can be creative (not yet anyways) If you are a sales person, your connection will be th…

Yes, programmer will be the last job.

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#23

Post by sytelus » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:14 PM UTC

jackcosgrove wrote: post #21

sytelus wrote: post #17

Eventually technology should kill pretty much all of the jobs. Human time and energy should be spent on what they find interesting, not on mundane stuff such as farming, housing, construction, database plumbing - all of which could be easily automated. No human should have to work to pay bills because there should be no bills. That should be the promise of technology. Only jobs left for humans should be things that r…

If it were still up and running, I'd link you to regretsy.com for a primer on most people's level of creativity. But it's gone so now all I can say is that it showed the worst "user-generated stuff" people posted to Etsy. Not buying it - we have specialization and professionalization in part to maintain quality of work. Everyone cannot be, and should not be, an artist. Anyways, if no one had to work, most people woul…

No one says everybody needs to be creative or artists or mathematicians or scientists. All I'm saying is human life is too precious to keep assembling iPhones for 12 hours a day or bag groceries at Walmart. I think assertion that everyone start doing drugs if they need not do jobs shows utter and incomprehensible ignorance. Sure, not all are creative but that's not the requirement to have a life without mandatory jobs you don't want to do. People may turn in to beach bums or surfers or just hippy wanderers - whatever. It's their life they got one shot at living and it's still better activity than forcing them to flip burgers mechanically at McDonnalds 10 hours a day.

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#24

Post by kaybe » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:14 PM UTC

jackcosgrove wrote: post #21

sytelus wrote: post #17

Eventually technology should kill pretty much all of the jobs. Human time and energy should be spent on what they find interesting, not on mundane stuff such as farming, housing, construction, database plumbing - all of which could be easily automated. No human should have to work to pay bills because there should be no bills. That should be the promise of technology. Only jobs left for humans should be things that r…

If it were still up and running, I'd link you to regretsy.com for a primer on most people's level of creativity. But it's gone so now all I can say is that it showed the worst "user-generated stuff" people posted to Etsy. Not buying it - we have specialization and professionalization in part to maintain quality of work. Everyone cannot be, and should not be, an artist. Anyways, if no one had to work, most people woul…

If they had fun making it, why not? Not everyone will go to the Olympics..

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#25

Post by bcook » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:15 PM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #17

Eventually technology should kill pretty much all of the jobs. Human time and energy should be spent on what they find interesting, not on mundane stuff such as farming, housing, construction, database plumbing - all of which could be easily automated. No human should have to work to pay bills because there should be no bills. That should be the promise of technology. Only jobs left for humans should be things that r…

Some people find farming, construction, housing, etc interesting. Something like cleaning toilets... the robots can have that. :)

Though, I must say that I subscribe to the notion that creating AI will very likely be the last big impact we will have on history. We will just live while AI will thrive.

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#26

Post by forgottenpass » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:15 PM UTC

jackcosgrove wrote: post #21

sytelus wrote: post #17

Eventually technology should kill pretty much all of the jobs. Human time and energy should be spent on what they find interesting, not on mundane stuff such as farming, housing, construction, database plumbing - all of which could be easily automated. No human should have to work to pay bills because there should be no bills. That should be the promise of technology. Only jobs left for humans should be things that r…

If it were still up and running, I'd link you to regretsy.com for a primer on most people's level of creativity. But it's gone so now all I can say is that it showed the worst "user-generated stuff" people posted to Etsy. Not buying it - we have specialization and professionalization in part to maintain quality of work. Everyone cannot be, and should not be, an artist. Anyways, if no one had to work, most people woul…

Anyways, if no one had to work, most people would just do drugs.

And when people do have to work, they just alternate between drugs that make them better workers, and drugs that let them forget work.

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#27

Post by aswanson » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:28 PM UTC

There was a sci fi book by (Niven?) mentioned to me by a friend about a future society where the songmakers where the most important. Anyone know the book title?

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#28

Post by jackcosgrove » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:29 PM UTC

kaybe wrote: post #24

jackcosgrove wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it were still up and running, I'd link you to regretsy.com for a primer on most people's level of creativity. But it's gone so now all I can say is that it showed the worst "user-generated stuff" people posted to Etsy. Not buying it - we have specialization and professionalization in part to maintain quality of work. Everyone cannot be, and should not be, an artist. Anyways, if no one had to work, most people woul…

If they had fun making it, why not? Not everyone will go to the Olympics..

People aren't thinking enough about what life would be like with no responsibilities. The sort of internal reward you're describing would be hollow because people would still see others' work that was better than theirs, and they would feel jealous. And ultimately everyone would know that it was all a sham, and that humanity was unnecessary and living in a zoo of its own creation.

Most of my sense of self comes from overcoming obstacles, and I'm sure a lot of people would agree with that sentiment. I'm all for automation and AI doing the grunt work, but I don't want to live in a zoo. We should take the benefits of automation and continue to struggle and exert ourselves, and seek out greater challenges than we could before. Automation as an escape from work? I'll pass.

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#29

Post by lazaroclapp » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:30 PM UTC

bcook wrote: post #25

sytelus wrote: post #17

Eventually technology should kill pretty much all of the jobs. Human time and energy should be spent on what they find interesting, not on mundane stuff such as farming, housing, construction, database plumbing - all of which could be easily automated. No human should have to work to pay bills because there should be no bills. That should be the promise of technology. Only jobs left for humans should be things that r…

Some people find farming, construction, housing, etc interesting. Something like cleaning toilets... the robots can have that. :) Though, I must say that I subscribe to the notion that creating AI will very likely be the last big impact we will have on history. We will just live while AI will thrive.

Plenty of people now a days find knitting interesting, and continue to indulge in it. Despite the fact that industrialization, automation and globalization has made home knitting in developed countries utterly unable to compete at a commercial level. Same for a lot of things in the maker movement.

The people whose hobby is farming, building or something else of the sort would be quite able to keep doing that in a post-scarcity robot utopia (assuming we really get there). It would just not be something they do for commercial gain.

Re: Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs

#30

Post by Florin_Andrei » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:38 PM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #17

Eventually technology should kill pretty much all of the jobs. Human time and energy should be spent on what they find interesting, not on mundane stuff such as farming, housing, construction, database plumbing - all of which could be easily automated. No human should have to work to pay bills because there should be no bills. That should be the promise of technology. Only jobs left for humans should be things that r…

> Universe has plenty of space

True, but that might actually be the challenge. There's too much space out there.

I live in California. Let's say the Sun is a soccer ball right here next to me. Then the Earth is a large grain of sand a few meters away. Jupiter is a marble a few blocks down the road. Speed of light is like an ant running.

And the nearest star is another soccer ball way out in Greenland. Think about that for a second.

http://florin.myip.org/blog/i-had-no-idea-just-how-big-solar...

To get out of the confines of the solar system, we need some massive breakthrough. Probably entirely new physics.