To wonder what will happen when there are no iobs

[rainandfire]

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

The medieval great warming period was abou 950-1200. Any population increase then was more than wiped out by the Black Death a few centuries later. And then came the Little Ice Age anyway.
What has that go to do with anything though?

An example of a time before the industrial revolution when people were not starving?

Or is your toothless serf all you care to discuss?

You don't need cars talking to each other.

Yes you do for efficiency. Without them talking to eachother, they'll never achieve the whole point of them, i.e. efficient use of the road. The whole point is to vary their speeds to avoid congestion, reduce fuel consumption, etc. They need to know what's happening throughout the full journey to achieve that, and that means them talking to eachother either directly or via an intermediary system. It means them knowing the car immediately in front is slowing down hastily so they too can slow down a fraction of second later, i.e. far faster than human reaction time thus allowing them to travel closer together, thus making more use of road space.

Throw a few "old" cars into the mix and it'll descend into chaos.

If they're going to be "stand alone", they're completely pointless as they'll be working line of sight just like a human driver.

I somehow doubt that being a peasant serf tied to one small bit of land for your entire life, eating a bland diet of local grain and vegetable, bathing yearly and having no teeth, watching half your children die in infancy and relying on leeches and prayer in place of healthcare really made for good mental health.

You'd know no different. Rather than getting depressed about your children who died, you'd be thankful of the ones who survived. How can you be depressed about not eating caviar if you'd never tasted it and didn't know it existed. So much of current mental health problems arise from comparing ourselves to others and media imagery of what others have and can do. Ignorance really can be bliss!

A lot of people will work in IT, and it will be badly paid because everyone can do it.

I'm hoping for a hand-made revolution and hoping people support small businesses more, instead of buying mass-produced, production line rubbish. I don't think machines can ever replace the human touch or imagination.

Badbadbunny are you a parent?

I think your post wins the prize for the most shockingly insensitive post I've ever read on MN and I've been here a good while.

I just don't know where to start. Do you really think people living in dire poverty (in real terms not comparative) don't mourn their children? That mothers who carried a child to term and loved that child to see them die aged 2 (or whatever) don't hold their grief for the rest of their lives?

And you're comparing not having lost a child to tasting fucking cavier? That's monstrous.

How old are you? If you're a teen with no life experience I'll let you off with saying you've got a lot to learn.

Anyone else - this is inexcusably cruel thinking. Can you see that?

Then we will have a utopian society where trivial work is done by machines and people are free to pursue arts, enjoying nature, developing their potential and nurturing others... as it should be.

Do you really think most people find 'meaning' in their paid work?!

I've read an interesting theory about driverless cars... that in the event an accident is going to happen, they will be fitted with equipment that can determine who the occupants of the other potentially involved vehicles are, and the car will then make a decision about which other car to crash into based on that information...

I don't believe this will happen. What would be the point? Heinz say, automate all their jobs. Who can then buy their products? They would be depriving themselves of a market to sell to.

Basic economics ain't it? Makes more sense to pay a man to dig a hole and a second man to fill it in than both to be idle....

Anyone else - this is inexcusably cruel thinking. Can you see that?

I think that it would indeed be difficult to miss caviar if you have never had it.

Although, it could be that people ate quite a lot of fishery product before the industrial revolution.

I think raisinsarenottheonlyfruit you are putting modern sensibilities on the past. So many children died in the past before the age of 5 that it was not out of the ordinary. That's not to say that people wouldn't have been sad, but it was a fact of life. Furthermore nearly everyone had a belief in God which was a help to them.

Anyway, I think the advantage of being a past peasant over a future peasant, is purpose . As I mentioned upthread, lack of purpose is dangerous. And there will be millions who will be born with no hope of upward trajectory. Why educate people then? Why give them healthcare? Why house them? It's all a bit frightening.

@makeourfuture Antibiotics are ceasing to work. We have been living in a bubble for the past 79 years and will soon go back to the days when people died from paper cuts and STIs.
Look up antibiotics apocalypse.

nothingrhymes
There was a driverless car accident which resulted in a fatality the car misread a white van as sky and accelerated the poor "driver" into it.
If you read the final report into that incident, the car was completely exonerated.
The driver was watching videos with headphones on for 35 minutes and overriding the warning signals the car kept trying to give him.
Short of pulling over and refusing to go further, the car could have done little more to save him.
The Tesla system is an "autopilot" system - designed to have an alert human keeping an overview.
The legalities of having cars that can carry people unfit to drive are a long way off being sorted.

Heinz say, automate all their jobs.

We're already nearly there. If you watch the food factory documentaries on TV, you'd see just how few humans are involved in the production of Heinz beans, crisps or breakfast cereals. The technology and robotics are fascinating. Huge factories with barely a handful of people supervising the control panels.

Look up antibiotics apocalypse

Well that was cheerful reading.

That's my point badbunny. Yet there are still jobs.

Yes you do for efficiency. Without them talking to eachother, they'll never achieve the whole point of them, i.e. efficient use of the road. The whole point is to vary their speeds to avoid congestion, reduce fuel consumption, etc.

I would have thought the more obvious benefit of driverless cars is that they don't need a driver?

So that means they don't have to park at the start of end of the journey, which means both those places can be places where there is no parking. As a car-owning Londoner, there are journeys I make on public transport because the issue of parking makes using the car a bad idea.

Secondly, people other than the very rich will not own driverless cars, it will be much cheaper to use taxis. What proportion of a taxi journey cost currently goes to paying the human driver, as opposed to fuel and wear and tear on the car? A driverless taxi will be hugely cheaper than current taxis because no driver needs to be paid, and cheaper per mile than driving in an owned car, because all depreciation and maintenance costs will be shared with all the other users of a taxi that is in use for far more hours each day than the average privately owned car is now.

Although, it could be that people ate quite a lot of fishery product before the industrial revolution
Only the people who actually lived at the source, and sometimes not even then.

A driverless taxi will be hugely cheaper than current taxis because no driver needs to be paid, and cheaper per mile than driving in an owned car, because all depreciation and maintenance costs will be shared with all the other users of a taxi that is in use for far more hours each day than the average privately owned car is now

For the owner of the taxi, yes. For the customer? Unlikely.

Most taxis are on the road 24 hours a day
three or four drivers share a car
I cannot see driverless making a huge dent

and out in rural areas, part of the point of community buses is the fact that the driver knows that Mildred is meant to get on at 10:30 on a Tuesday and will alert the neighbours/police/health workers if her post from the day before is still in her letter box
not many AIs are up to that level of lateral thinking

Technology will also create jobs . AI is not creative so demand for all sorts of creative roles will increase .

New jobs are created all the time - think of bloggers - did not exist 10 years back

I worry that as we become inurred to jobs being replaced by robots, we won't question it, we will swallow being told that it's more efficient/streamlined or whatever. I'm thinking in particular of jobs like triage nurses, teachers (just sit rooms full of children in front of one skype instructor). We will only get the personal touch at a price- it's already happening.

At some point driverless cars wil be affordable to the individual. I live in a country town and the public transport is appalling. Even the train, l alone the buses. I needed to go to one of the villages every Monday evening for choir. Yes, there was a bus at 2.15 which got me there at 3.45. Choir started at 7 and ended at 9. The next bus home was on Wednesday morrning at 8ish. No singing for me then.

I want a small driverless car, electric, a bit like a Smart. I could get it on Motability. I can’t drive myself due to disability, so am stuck with public transport or lifts.

I see no reason why there could only be ‘fleets’ of them. One day everyone in the countryside will have them if just to be able to socialise! Our last train home from the city is at 9.30pm You can’t go to the many theatres there, or venues, see a show, go for a meal and a few drinks unless you drive.

Oh, and taxis are not affordable. 40 quid to get to work, 15 minutes drive. 70 quid to get home from city, 30 mins, heaven knows how much that would be around Christmas at night.

Oh, and taxis are not affordable.

What makes you think driverless cars will be any cheaper??