With AI progressing by leaps and bounds and several commercial humanoid robots developing fast, both knowledge jobs and manual labor jobs are on the edge of a major disruption. What will people do for work when robots can do all the work for far cheaper? Why bother learning anything when AI devices can give you any answer you need at any moment? And what kind of future are we heading toward? Read Tony Seba’s post on the humanoid robot revolution here: https://www.rethinkx.com/blog/rethink…
9 May 2024
By Tony Seba, Adam Dorr and Bradd Libby
In the 15 years between 1907 and 1922, horses went from providing 95% of all private vehicle-miles traveled on American roads to less than 20%. In areas like New York City, which led in the adoption of automobiles, the disruption of transportation was swift and transformative – as shown in the images below. In St. Louis, Missouri, the registered number of automobiles exceeded the registered number of horse-drawn wagons by the year 1916. But since cars travel a far greater distance per year than horse-drawn wagons for a fraction of the cost per mile, the fate of the horse as a form of transport was sealed from the first day that mass-produced automobiles rolled off the factory lines.
Now, we are on the cusp of a new disruption: physical labor performed by humanoid-form robots. Except this time, we are the horses. …
More jobs will be created, as they have been ever since computers were expected to replace all the people. I know that there are some really smart people who are worried about AI.
One thing that’s interesting is to look at different cultures and their attitudes. While some of the US population gets gripped with fear over such things and predict a dystopian future, the Japanese see friendly helpers and predict a utopian future. We will likely end up somewhere in between.
Edit to add:
I think our educational institutions will need to add courses to help people avoid falling for scams. Seeing how many people today have no critical thinking skills, I’m not optimistic. FOX news would not work on a well educated public.
Personally, I think there will be less jobs the more computers take over. For instance, there’s no more operators, because stupid machines have taken over and you can’t get a human to answer the phone anymore. There won’t be human cashiers, so that job will be gone. Unless you are a computer programmer, you’re SOL for a job.
I think the promise of AI is very overexaggerated. There’s a certain kind of spergy personality that really gets into this stuff, but beyond that I don’t know anybody who cares that much about it. That said, if those people were in charge AI will probably skynet the world.
Yes, the OP quote ignores that both horses and cars are controlled by (added this word in edit) people. Also, there are still places where horses are better. I would rather take a horse and some oats out into a field in Montana, than a 4-wheeler, gas, a spare tire, a winch, and whatever else I needed to be sure that 4-wheeler didn’t up stuck somewhere, miles from anything.
I don’t think replacing labor is the problem, it’s how we delegate thinking. We have learned to create more food with fewer people, but we still treat the labor of farming pretty much the same. just one example
Most people aren’t aware of how AI affects them. But it is in their lives. Facial and fingerprint recognition to login to ios devices. Amazon and social media sites use it to gain clicks. Medical applications are improving healthcare. Protein folding predictions, and image analysis for example. There are more examples.
You know, it never ceases to amaze me how people think that because one is a Trekkie they should therefore welcome all technology. I’m sorry, I cannot welcome technology that takes away jobs and I have yet to see new jobs develop because of machines that take over human cashiers, human maintained workers, human customer service… These things have gotten worse because of automation. We need the human contact and quite frankly, calling my pharmacy and getting an automated voice that won’t let you talk to a human really SUCKS! Give me a human! Give me a human with any form of customer service. Give me a human when I want information that the damn AI won’t give me. Give a human when I dial 411. Give me a human when I check out at the store! At the age of 52 let my husband keep the job he’s done for over 30 years until he retires. Don’t push him out and leave him searching for work, which BTW he’s been looking for several years now and no one has hired him so he can have a different job. So he’s stuck in a job he’s being pushed out of. Besides, human get things cleaner than a machine.
Oh the days of talking to a human when you dial 0…
However… you get a stupid AI that never understands what you really want. Maybe… if they fix the stupid AI voice to understand and function like a human being who sometimes has compassion, would be helpful, but I won’t be around for Data to help me with anything. Data would be a wonderful dreamy outcome, but it won’t happen within my lifetime. Give me a dime and let me dial 0 for information and get a human being until then.
Oh that wonderful sound…
BTW, I do appreciate that we do not have party lines any more. In many cases since the 70s we can just pick up the phone and dial the number instead of pausing to make sure no one else is on the line. I do appreciate having my own “communicator” on me at all times. I do appreciate certain modern technology, but I long for the days you turn on the TV and the last channel you were watching is on the Blub tube and you didn’t have to select an app to watch something. I do miss human contact when I need information about something or help with something or when something just needs that human touch. The unknowing, un-understanding, uncompassionate AI doesn’t cut it.
That’s a good response, @mriana. I do recognize the important drawbacks of dumb technology. “Dumb” in both the sense of not smart, and dumb in implementation. But it shouldn’t surprise you that most people think sci-fi fans appreciate technology’s potential. I love Star Trek - primarily the original.
At any rate, technology will continue to affect our lives and our environment. Hopefully we will learn to better control the negative externalities.
While the original Trek and I were “born” at the same time and my mother nursed me while “we” watched TOS, I love TNG. However, as I said, it will be a long time before we have a Data or even a holographic doctor like we see on TNG and VOY. The VOY doctor was not only programmed with compassion, but he evolved to understand humans even more. Even Data, while Deanna was giving birth, Pulaski tried to discourage Data from being there with De, by saying De didn’t need the cold hand of technology, but De said, “Data will be fine” because, even though she couldn’t sense him, he strived to exceed the limits of his programming and relate to humans. Unlike today’s technology. However… I do understand people’s fears of AI, but right now, AI is taking over jobs such as writers jobs (I’m a writer and I don’t want AI taking my place). Even actors are fighting AI. The fact is, we need to find reasonable places for AI in which we don’t have to have the human touch or take away from human creativity and imagination.
and that tells us what?
