"Knowledge worker" jobs may be more at risk than manual labor jobs. Robots are still very poor at dealing with unstructured situations, and progress on fixing that is very slow. Robots mechanically dexterous enough to, say, do a routine plumbing repair job don't exist yet, and the ones that are close are very complex and expensive.
On the other hand, machine learning systems are getting good at a lot of white-collar jobs that used to require human thinking. If you sit at a desk and your inputs and outputs all come in over a wire, be very afraid.
Without people working the capitalist system falls apart. I wonder how long it would take before companies are fined for having too many robots.
I don't see the point in companies buying machines to replace humans if ~40% of the population can't afford to live let alone buy whatever they are selling.
This is one big reason I'm for unconditional basic income. Its the simplest patch to our current system that solves this problem and removes barriers to innovation and productivity for humans and robots alike. As productivity increases so should basic income and eventually i think it will turn into more of a resource allocation "stamp" than money.
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 9.7 ms ] threadOn the other hand, machine learning systems are getting good at a lot of white-collar jobs that used to require human thinking. If you sit at a desk and your inputs and outputs all come in over a wire, be very afraid.
I don't see the point in companies buying machines to replace humans if ~40% of the population can't afford to live let alone buy whatever they are selling.