Interesting topic. I watched a CGP Grey video about it a while back and I think he has good points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
Robots are getting smarter, faster, more versatile and less expensive very rapidly now. Humans are not. There are already self driving cars that, eventually, could put every driving job out of business. Has anyone else had trouble getting a live person when they try to call for help with their cell phone/bank account/electricity service/internet provider? That's because automated systems can do most of the same work as a person at a fraction of the price. Grocery stores are already putting lots of self check out lanes in and since those only require 1 person to handle like 8 registers, again, it saves the company a lot of money.... at the cost of 8 cashier jobs.
And it's not just a few jobs here and there. Robots can do all kinds of jobs, virtually any job that a human can do; most of them are prohibitively expensive right now. One thing I've learned about technology is that what is prohibitively expensive today will be mainstream 10 years from now. I remember, back in 2008, smart phones were just toys for rich people to show off. Now? Now you'd have a hard time finding someone with a phone that isn't a smart phone.
So, what are we going to do in another, say, 40 or 50 years when the vast majority of people are completely unemployable, not because they're lazy or unwilling to work, but because the jobs they would be doing are being taken by robots? I'm not saying we absolutely need a universal basic income, but I am saying an automated workforce IS going to come and we're going to have to figure out how the vast majority of the population is going to survive. Right now, we simply aren't ready for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
Robots are getting smarter, faster, more versatile and less expensive very rapidly now. Humans are not. There are already self driving cars that, eventually, could put every driving job out of business. Has anyone else had trouble getting a live person when they try to call for help with their cell phone/bank account/electricity service/internet provider? That's because automated systems can do most of the same work as a person at a fraction of the price. Grocery stores are already putting lots of self check out lanes in and since those only require 1 person to handle like 8 registers, again, it saves the company a lot of money.... at the cost of 8 cashier jobs.
And it's not just a few jobs here and there. Robots can do all kinds of jobs, virtually any job that a human can do; most of them are prohibitively expensive right now. One thing I've learned about technology is that what is prohibitively expensive today will be mainstream 10 years from now. I remember, back in 2008, smart phones were just toys for rich people to show off. Now? Now you'd have a hard time finding someone with a phone that isn't a smart phone.
So, what are we going to do in another, say, 40 or 50 years when the vast majority of people are completely unemployable, not because they're lazy or unwilling to work, but because the jobs they would be doing are being taken by robots? I'm not saying we absolutely need a universal basic income, but I am saying an automated workforce IS going to come and we're going to have to figure out how the vast majority of the population is going to survive. Right now, we simply aren't ready for it.
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"If you cling to something as the absolute truth and you are caught in it, when the truth comes in person to knock on your door you will refuse to let it in." ~ Siddhartha Gautama
"If you cling to something as the absolute truth and you are caught in it, when the truth comes in person to knock on your door you will refuse to let it in." ~ Siddhartha Gautama
