To wonder what will happen when there are no iobs

[rainandfire]

When technology does everything, driving, deliveries, retail ... what will people do then?

But you are viewing through the existing lens

No, I'm viewing it as someone who actually works in this area, which is why I am commenting as I am!

Like I keep saying, it isn't just about caring jobs, is it?

And hot you might work in care but not technology.

No, I work in this specific area of technology.

You don't know what you are talking about, you're literally just making things up.

I'm not hot, it's you who keeps banging on about care!

Driverless cars are happening, retail jobs are going.

So what will happen then?

Considering we can't even fully automate street sweeping yet, I don't lie awake at night worrying about robots and automation.

Driverless cars may be possible due to technology, but in the real world, practically, they'll be very limited. To work properly, they need dedicated areas of road and you simply can't fence off enough road space nor ban cycles, traffic and pedestrians from their paths. A driverless car through a busy narrow road would never get anywhere as it would be constantly stopping for a child, dog, or whatever strayed into it's space. Maybe the infrastructure could be installed into new built cities as they're being designed/built or maybe lorry conveys may happen on motorways, but there's no way that we'll have driverless cars in every town.

As for street sweeping, I've just been walking through our village. A lovely little street sweeping machine, but walking alongside it was a bloke with a brush sweeping litter/leaves towards it from areas too narrow for it to go itself (most of the village due to narrow pavements). A classic example of how automation can help but can't actually replace.

Technology always creates a myriad of tasks we wouldn't have without technology.

Washing machines created the "need" to wash items after one wear. PhD theses used to be hand-typed and few corrections were asked for in vivas. Now they are printed corrections are an arm long. Computers need IT people. Research is always needed. All of the above need people teaching others the skills needed. There won't be a perpetuum mobile of technology.

Yes I see that pax so it disproportionately impacts the proletariat doesn't it?

No, you talked about care jobs specifically, in several posts, and you were wrong each time.
I am just answering your points, not "banging on" about anything .

Jobs disappear in one area, more are created in another. Twas ever thus. People have been "banging on" about being replaced by automation for centuries. Wagon drivers complained about trains, horse breeders complained about cars, telegram workers complained about the telephone.

But in reality, big tech move slowly, and jobs change and adapt and when some disappear, new markets appear. This doom and gloom nonsense about all the jobs disappearing is neither true or useful.

Jobs evolve. No one said 'ooh what will happen to all the navvies digging holes in the road now we have steam rollers'. We've gone from cottage industry to factories to working from home, every thing goes in cycles. Some things cannot be mechanised. A certain amount of mechanisation still requires human intervention to invent it, build it, programe it, install it, repair it. etc etc

Driverless cars are happening, retail jobs are going.

Driverless cars are being developed and will be possible, but in practical terms, the costs and inconvenience of building necessary infrastructure will mean they'll inevitably be limited to specific towns/areas.

There was a time that retail jobs didn't exist on the scale they do now. It's just evolution. The "retail" domination of town and city centres was just a mere temporary blip in the big scheme of things. Before retail took over, your city/town centre was where people lived, where factories made stuff, where warehouses stored stuff, where hospitals and doctors were located, etc. Retail pushed all that out. So towns/cities have to adapt to the next phase of our evolution.

I was answering your posts hot and I'm sorry as evidently I've made you angry.

To be honest I am not asserting anything, I'm genuinely interested.

It might be nice if I could read replies without you yelling and chest beating about care work.

Crumpets - automation and robotics already have robots who can learn. My organisation’s twenty year blueprint is a shocking read - there is an ancipation than four out of our six functions will be replaced by automatation and robotics leading to a demise of thousands of jobs. Their supervision and fact checking will be done by QC and QA automation. You say you ‘work’ in this field, but I don’t think you know much about automation if you think jobs are guaranteed. They certainly are not - which is why basic income is being actively researched by most governmental think tanks.

It does, rainandfire. But then again, blue-collar and farm type work used to be done by almost everybody and is now done by a much smaller number of people, we are probably almost at the end of the replacement already.

I suspect we'll eventually end up going the route that Elon Musk and other like him seem to be preparing for with technologies like Neural Lace, if it ever becomes viable. It won't be human versus machine but human and machine combined. We'll be people with all of our imagination and personal idiosyncrasies with the computing power of the best computers from technological implants.

There is a huge possibility that we are the last of our species as we know it. In fact, depending on how long we live and how soon this technology becomes viable and available, many of us here will be among the first of this new branch of humanity. Interesting times.

My work is already disappearing due to technology. What takes me 3-4 hours, a client can now do at the touch of a button. I have lost a couple of clients due to this. However, it still doesn't give them the skills or knowledge that I have though.

With my work, and the Government changes, I will lose some clients and gain others who are technophobes.

But I am already preparing for this, and diversifying slightly, and also attracting more clients, and moving more down the training and support route also.

A friend is being made redundant, as her job of manual processing is moving into an online basis where the staff enter their own info so she is no longer needed.

It is happening. I thought my line of work was a job for life, but not any more.

I suppose that's what I was thinking, not a discussion about individual jobs and whether they will survive or not but certainly we're less reliant on human labour?

What do you do kitkats?

Rain, you were very rude to me, and just have been again. I did not bang on about anything and have no interest in care work. I responded to points YOU MADE.

And can people stop explaining what they have googled to someone who has multiple qualifications in the field. Thanks

I read an article in the New Yorker the other week about automation in factories and warehouses. Actually leading the way in this is China, which is actually shedding workers at a huge rate. The author of the piece witnessed prototype warehouses of the Amazon variety where there were no humans on the floor at all, just a bank of humans at a panel just like Air Traffic Controllers overseeing the automated picking/packing etc.

I think the elderly problem will no longer be able to be swept under the carpet. I read something else that said that western countries will be bankrupted in 50 years by longevity. Having a job which just consists of keeping someone else alive - ie 120-year-old shells - seems really soul-destroying.

I think you are lying about your qualifications crumpets. Or at the very least they don’t map to what is actually happening in the world.

I'm sorry if you felt I was rude. I don't think I was but I am interested in the replies and I felt you were dominating the discussion by honing in on a very particular factor that was only slightly relevant and trying to imply I was stupid. (I think the latter is correct actually.)

The discussion seems to be making you angry so maybe you'd be best hiding the thread.

I agree with that lady and I do think assisted suicide is going to come in at some point soon.

And I should care about what you think why exactly?

You shouldn't but it's just I'm trying to read a thread and you're being very dominant in it.

Interesting thread op, work will probably look different but I don't think it will disappear. Some jobs will probably disappear though definitely.

I wonder if ethical concerns around the clothing and food industries will create consumer pressure for less mass produced, more labour intensive stuff. E.g. Clothes being made in uk without use of sweatshops (as far as I know clothes making currently can't be made completely via automation)

I wonder if premium 'handmade' stuff will make a comeback (popularity of etsy seems to show this)

I think there will be more jobs in tech support, tech maintenance.

Customer service will probably reduce but not disappear completely.

However there are lots of jobs I can't imagine tech ever replacing completely: acting, music, photography, cleaning, childcare, nursing, doctors, solicitors, computer programming, research science, teaching, journalism, comedy, charity work, vets, dentistry, plumbing, electrician, builder, life guard, emergency services, military, tourism (think quirky cosy cafe, or people doing talks at science museum etc), animal care, police, prison officers etc