[copious.abundance]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', 'Y')ou've just described what is happening right now. Question, what's in it for the 5%? How many services do they possibly need?

[prajeshbhat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')OilFinder Wrote:-

See reply to AgentR11 above. Some people will simply want to do this for the extra money, or maybe they're nerdy types who enjoy designing robots or working at control panels in factories. With the bigger paychecks they'll have bigger houses than the 95%. No different from now.

You'll probably end up with a bifurcated society with the techno-nerds at the top and everyone else below them, but since the 95% at the "bottom" will still reap the benefits of the incredible productivity of the 5% techno-nerds, they probably won't really mind.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')learly you don't understand how human societies work. If technological progress really resulted in techno-nerds reaching the top of the social pyramid, they would be running things in governments all over the world today.

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', 'Y')ou won't really be working harder than anyone else.

[Keith_McClary]

Apple suppliers are already roboticized:

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')HY am I going to want to work hard enough to provide the goods and services for the remaining 95% of the population?

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')The biggest fallacy you're pushing is the "everyone can be an iphone app designer"

[Pops]

I'm a luditte at heart.

Still, I've made most of my income from desktop publishing which is the epitome of a disruptive technology. I was an early adopter and certainly directly put one or two guys out of a good paying job (probably guys I knew or had at least met) because me and my Mac could do things they couldn't and could do it way cheaper and better and faster and still make good money - not as much as all the trades we replaces though.

And that's the trade off disruptive technologies as mentioned above, better/cheaper/faster. 20 years ago a full color flyer could cost several thousand dollars to get to press, $5/6/7k if it used custom photography - and of course much more depending on the market and how much money the client had to blow. All because lots of hands were needed.

Today it can be done for a few hundred and printed digital at Kinkos for 50¢ each. The kicker is, desktop publishing is now on the BEA list of declining professions, replaced by electronic media I guess.


But as was said above, the trade off is that everything is cheaper so you need work less - as long as you don't want everything. We own our home so we don't have rent but we can get by on very little simply because things are so cheap.

Now, if they can just install some of those 'bots at the doctor's office.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', 'S')ince I read you on this board you complain about jobs going to china. Ain't ya happy now? Jobs are coming back. There's no reason to have armies of robots sitting in china, where you can get a blackout anytime.

[davep]

So nobody's calling them iRobots yet?

[vision-master]

I Robot

[Sixstrings]

In answer to the question of sustainability of robot labor and extreme levels of efficiency in general..

Economically, eventually you put so many working people out of a job that it eats into your customer base. That would force some kind of economic balance. Also, get enough people out of work and eventually you wind up with revolution.

I know automation and robot labor can't be stopped.. but I also know efficiency gains have been so high that this is the true reason we're not creating jobs anymore. In the CNN interview the new IMF chief said exactly that -- American joblessness is because of efficiency gains. Offshoring is part of it too of course, but I said a long time ago that efficiency and automation is the other half of the equation.

So while this cannot be stopped.. and it's super cool and who doesn't like robots right.. eventually enough people are going to be put out of work that something will have to be figured out. There will have to be a new communism, there's no other possible answer to what amounts to the end of human labor.

[vision-master]

Oily does have a point.

[Sixstrings]

I'm really surprised nobody on this forum can connect the dots on the automation and efficiency issue. You laugh at singularity doomers, yet you are all early adopters of each new tech advance and latest iPad release. I'm old enough to remember when people laughed at the idea of having a personal computer in the home.

Similarly you laugh about the singularity and robot workers, yet here it is it's real -- that smiling Swiss scientist just put a million people out of work. People who have families to feed, who live in a country that doesn't even have short term unemployment comp, no welfare. What are they supposed to do now?

That's my main beef here, is that the same people who are for more efficiency and automation are against assistance for the jobless who have been displaced by automation -- and now robots with fingers for God's sake.

[Pops]

So what are you doing about it Six?

[vision-master]

I'm just surfing the wave.

Enjoying things while I'm still able.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'S')o what are you doing about it Six?

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'S')o what are you doing about it Six?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'T')he biggest fallacy you're pushing is the "everyone can be an iphone app designer" or "everyone can just be a robot engineer" myth.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'T')here are some jobs that will be around for a long while before we hear "They make a 'bot for that!"