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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not be concerned that technology will destroy jobs...

116 replies

coconuttella · 03/07/2017 07:04

It seems to be in vogue to predict that swathes of the workforce will soon be replaced by technology, leaving an army of jobless... However, hasn't technology been doing this for at least 200 years, going way back to the Luddites?.... with people re-training into jobs that are generally more productive and less repetitive and less manual. Why do we people feel it is different this time?

OP posts:

MrBobDobalina · 03/07/2017 07:05

Because the machines are able to do the brainwork now!

bbpp · 03/07/2017 07:10

It's not just manual jobs, though. With artificial intelligence you could have algorithms solving court cases, doing companies accounts, even diagnosing medical conditions and conducting surgery. AI have the potential to be more intelligent, accurate and cheaper than any human could be - and I don't think if you had someone like Musk on the verge of creating that he wouldn't go all the way.

sweetbitter · 03/07/2017 07:21

It will still require a big leap for computers to be as good or better at doing EVERYTHING that humans can do, but if progress continues at current rates it looks likely that eventually they will get there. Predictions as to when art wildly, some say it could be as little as 50 years time. Though others say it might never happen.

Best case scenario we can all live lives of perfect social equality and leisure, dedicated to relationships, the arts and personal happiness, while computers do all the work.

Worst case scenario the machines look at us, scratch their heads, and wipe us all out immediately.

CloudPerson · 03/07/2017 07:25

Aren't people like Musk, Hawking etc advising against developing intelligent AI, because a self teaching machine is likely to destroy humans?

Original poster

coconuttella · 03/07/2017 07:31

But we've had a steady improvement in technology for years and years with "brainwork" too. the same prophecies were made in the 60s.... they proved completely false.

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sweetbitter · 03/07/2017 07:32

waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html

This is long but very compelling, and explains how the AI revolution could work very well.

CloudPerson · 03/07/2017 07:57

Coco, we've had more than steady improvement though, technology has skyrocketed in the last few years alone, probably more than in the period covering the 60s to the 90s.

Thanks for the link sweet, will read it later. Boyinaband on YouTube has a video about this too, will go and find it.

CloudPerson · 03/07/2017 07:59

Here

PratStick · 03/07/2017 08:00

And since that time some people have not been able to retrain and find good work.

ShotsFired · 03/07/2017 08:00

Technology will wipe out jobs, for sure. But current research and predictions generally indicate that it will create more (and more fulfilling, less menial etc) than it removes. Some jobs that are obvious, and some that we haven't even thought of yet.

We are going great guns but we are still an age away from everyday life with HAL.

PratStick · 03/07/2017 08:01

Also many jobs that get wiped are the ones that can be done by someone without much training. Meaning it's the poor who lose out so they can buy some more shit made by a rich person

Fitzsimmons · 03/07/2017 08:08

DH works in machine vision / robotics. He thinks the current advances in AI are a game changer for jobs. Both our preschool aged DC will be learning to code as soon as they're able to ensure they are employable.

Original poster

coconuttella · 03/07/2017 08:15

Coco, we've had more than steady improvement though, technology has skyrocketed in the last few years alone, probably more than in the period covering the 60s to the 90s.

And yet unemployment isn't a particular problem!

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Original poster

coconuttella · 03/07/2017 08:19

And since that time some people have not been able to retrain and find good work.

But if we'd not had these advances we'd all be living a harsh, short medieval life... And many of the manual jobs replaced by machinery/technology that existed were hardly 'good jobs', anything but!

OP posts:

Original poster

coconuttella · 03/07/2017 08:21

Also many jobs that get wiped are the ones that can be done by someone without much training. Meaning it's the poor who lose out so they can buy some more shit made by a rich person

This has been the case for 200 years or more... yet the plight of the "poor" has improved immeasurably since then! The positives far outweigh the negatives.

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2014newme · 03/07/2017 08:24

I work in a business that will ultimately replace 60 000 people with automation.
You are naive op.

2014newme · 03/07/2017 08:25

Hairdressers and pub landlords are said to be the least likely to be replaced

TheDowagerCuntess · 03/07/2017 08:25

Where I am, digital technology has just been announced as part of the curriculum - coding, etc. It will be compulsory from 2020 (primary and secondary), after two years of consultation. My eldest will be 11 then.

This is something that today's generation needs to know. We have no real concept of the jobs they will be doing, and what sort of skills will be needed for those jobs.

As a parent, it's hard to know how to support and guide them.

Eve · 03/07/2017 08:26

Someone has to program the robotics, repair when they go wrong, make the parts, build the parts ....etc etc.

20 years ago there was no internet, there was no cloud, companies like Kodak are no longer needed, companies like google are. Change happens.

Original poster

coconuttella · 03/07/2017 08:28

I work in a business that will ultimately replace 60 000 people with automation.
You are naive op.

I don't know what your business is, but I'd bet that it didn't even exist (or if it did so, in a very different form) 100 years ago... at a time when people were also having their jobs taken away by automation... only to have new ones not yet envisaged created! There's no reason to think that won't happen now.

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Original poster

coconuttella · 03/07/2017 08:29

"not previously envisaged" rather

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BossWitch · 03/07/2017 08:29

I remember reading something about this that said the problem lies in the type of work that computers / AI can do. High level reasoning, data crunching, prediction, analysis can be or will soon be able to be done better by a computer than by a person. But "simple" manual tasks cant be mastered by robotics as it is now or as it is predicted to be any time soon. Which means rather than AI technology taking away the drudge work, it has the potential to decimate the professions and all but wipe out the middle classes. Essentially, you can (already) have a computer programme that runs air traffic control better than a human, but no-one yet has been able to make a robot that can clean a toilet. So instead of a Jetsons-style future where we all zip off to lovely jobs that challenge our brains and a interesting and fulfilling while the robot cleans the house and cooks dinner, we could have the opposite - we clean and service the machines.

MrBobDobalina · 03/07/2017 08:31

I thought you were asking a serious question, but it seems like you want to have a debate

CloudPerson · 03/07/2017 08:33

I think the rise in robotic job replacing technology is largely affecting unskilled workers, and people whose strengths lie in more manual employ.
Not to get political, but at the moment it's affecting those who are least valued, the people who rely on these jobs that aren't seen as good, migrants, people who for whatever reasons have not engaged with education. These are potential workers that people love to hate, so it's not going to be seen as an issue. In the next few years I think it will prove to be a problem, particularly to those on low wages.

TheDowagerCuntess · 03/07/2017 08:43

At the moment, menial jobs are under threat, but I think BossWitch is right.

Soon, computers will be able to analyse risk and provide legal advice better than humans, for example.

It won't just be menial workers under threat.

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