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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder how long it will be before machines/robots replace people in most work?

15 replies

ophelia275 · 13/10/2013 09:56

I've been reading a lot about how quickly machines are now replacing people in work, not just in manual jobs but even "middle class" jobs as machines become more and more "intelligent". The pace of this replacement is increasing rapidly.

Will we see record unemployment as jobs are outsourced to machines? I think it is a possibility, sadly.

Everyone has thought about the benefits of machines doing all the work and the profit from not having to pay people but nobody has thought about the social consequences.

OP posts:
wannabedomesticgoddess · 13/10/2013 10:00

I agree. Its scary.

There are now these new petrol forecourts that are not manned at all. You have to put your card into the machine at the pump. That's a lot of jobs just cancelled out. Gone.

TEErickOrTEEreat · 13/10/2013 10:01

They've been talking about this issue for nearly 100 years. I really wouldn't fret.

CaptainSweatPants · 13/10/2013 10:02

Well if you think of the staff needed to help people use self service machines in supermarkets & libraries I wouldn't worry too much

MortifiedAdams · 13/10/2013 10:03

My work (Hotel) is introducing an App to pre check in. It still requires staff to prepare the check in in advance, but reduces the face to face interaction. And I fear its a stop gap to a self check.in machine.

pixiepotter · 13/10/2013 10:08

They've been talking about this issue for nearly 100 years. I really wouldn't fret.

..think how many jobs have been replaced by technology in every sector!

Lonecatwithkitten · 13/10/2013 10:24

There are still plenty of jobs that require a level of 'art' rather than science and or gut instinct that no machine can replicate. Then there are all the jobs that require empathy again something machine could not replicate. My job needs all of these.

TEErickOrTEEreat · 13/10/2013 10:28

Name one that has been 100% replaced that requires no human at all involved.

UrbaneLandlord · 13/10/2013 10:28

I'm just worried that these new-fangled telephones will catch on. What will become of all the messenger boys?

Original poster
ophelia275 · 13/10/2013 10:31

Lonecat - from what I have been reading it will not be long before the "technological singularity" when it is postulated that machines will develop some human traits like empathy/logic/reasoning. This is what is scary. Once there is a point of no return and machines develop "consciousness" of sorts. Then it all becomes a philosophical question of what constitutes life but hell. Google "technological singularity" for more information.

OP posts:
Alisvolatpropiis · 13/10/2013 10:34

Check out jobs in supermarkets will go first.

Self scan is replacing people at an astonishing rate.

Lonecatwithkitten · 13/10/2013 10:37

Orphelia there are certain aspects of my job I know a machine could not replace.

oliveoctagon · 13/10/2013 10:50

It will never happen in my job. There are no parts in my job that can be replaced by a machine.

HeadsDownThumbsUp · 13/10/2013 11:19

Ooh no! Not the middle class jobs! Never mind those silly rustic, manual working class jobs....

It's true though, lots of middle class workers are in for a bit of a shock. It will probably hit the legal industry first. It costs a reasonable amount to have a trainee solicitor examine contracts before escalating any issues they find. A lot of this work is going to be outsourced overseas, or handled by software.

See also due diligence. Software.

Graduate level entrypaths to many professions are going to narrow very sharply, very soon.

WMittens · 13/10/2013 12:03

They've been talking about this issue for nearly 100 years. I really wouldn't fret.

Over 200-250 years, I would have thought. I had to google it, but the Industrial Revolution was quoted as starting about 1760.

I just about remember the furore when car manufacturing became much more automated (as in robotised, not Henry Ford's mass-production lines in 1910) and we didn't suffer the mass unemployment that people feared.

Jobs don't disappear due to technological advances, they simply move to different sectors. Robots do all the manual labour? Who designs, programs, updates, maintains these robots?

As someone said above, software is always going to fall to a human, and look at the likes of Google, Facebook et al and the number of people they now employ. Innovation and (original) creation will always come from humans.

RedHelenB · 13/10/2013 13:32

What gets my goat is that we were promised all this leisure time in the 80's due to all the new computers & tech innovations but in reality people are still working v hard & full time + hours. i would argue that in some cases (eg. teaching) technology has created more work!

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