17 ms·
Automation and the mass annihilation of jobs will be the biggest story of the next five years.
by contextual 13y ago
Automation and the mass annihilation of jobs will be the biggest story of the next five years.
- mooreds 13y agoI remember reading a story in Analog science fiction about just this scenario: inexpensive, multi purpose robots (and the riots they caused when people realized they could be replaced). The solution? Have each robot owned by one, and only one, human being, who could lease out the robot's "labor" as they wished. I doubt that solution is possible, but I do think the issues the story raised are going to be, as you put it, "the biggest story" of the near future. (I wish I could remember the name of that story!)
- rett12 13y agoThis one is similar: http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
- mooreds 13y agoI love that story--the contrast between the US and Australia illustrates the fact that it really is a political choice how to spend fantastic wealth that automation gives us. (It's not only a political choice, there are moral components as well.)
- _random_ 13y agoGovernment wouldn't even limit real estate ownership to one per person...
- anonymfus 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means_of_production#Marxian_economic_analysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Means_of_production#Marxian_eco...
- Houshalter 13y agoBut why only one? It might be optimal to have many more robots than humans.
- mooreds 13y agoI think the point was to make sure that capital wasn't going to replace labor via automation.
- malka 13y agosoon : the Butlerian Jihad
- rimantas 13y agoWhat is different now, compared to five years ago? Did I miss some major break-through?
- randallsquared 13y agoYou didn't. It's just the usual exponential growth finally produced enough computing power that formerly nearly-impossible things have become tantalizingly practical.