Ontopic The Automated World?
- Thread starter nukes
- Start date
I know this, it's not surprising, but totally alien too me nonetheless. It's really baked into the culture of the USA, but why do people so readily internalize it? Most people like vacation time (or I would assume) but then turn around and mock other countries where lots of vacation time is normal. It's so absurd that people are against more money and more time off from working, These are things everyone (again, assuming) wants. People complain about not making enough, but are against a min. wage increase while talking about how a rising tide lifts all boats.
I think a good bit of it traces back to our (current and historical) large Christian population. Protestant work ethic, prosperity gospel, and suffering as a reward make a convincing enough "argument", which is baked in from birth for a lot of people.
I wish people knew more about history.
Automation isn't a problem and it's coming. The problem is in how we respond to it. Just as loss of production jobs isn't a problem, the problem is we have failed to adapt to the change.
Last edited:
Fortunately there are places taking the steps towards it. So we can probably expect the USA to come around to it sometime in the 22nd century.
In a multinational with an American branch, the American sales team has no choice but to subsidize the Euro team- I was listening to the director of an American sales team discuss the tale of woe with his underlings;
"So Horst is obligated to do his 60 days holiday per year, he can never gain momentum. Hes cruising along, then BAM! Hes gotta take 15 days off- MY team has to close his sales, and HE gets the fucking commissions. We all know it's bullshit, but it's how business gets done with Europe..."
True story.
Production must happen @der Hoggz. Probably not at the American productivity rate, but certainly more than the French productivity rate.
The 40 hour workweek is a myth brought to you by unions like the UAW during the 1950s. Actual productivity is more likely at 50 hours or even closer to 60.
There are reasons management teams rarely see the light of day, the new world works 24/7 to keep productivity up.
Sure managers are only in the office 50 hours, but they field the phone and email and text every waking moment.
Automation could be a great thing and bring productivity up while freeing time for management to spend time with their families, if handled correctly.
I don't trust the powers that be to handle anything correctly.
The 40 hour workweek is a myth brought to you by unions like the UAW during the 1950s. Actual productivity is more likely at 50 hours or even closer to 60.
There are reasons management teams rarely see the light of day, the new world works 24/7 to keep productivity up.
Sure managers are only in the office 50 hours, but they field the phone and email and text every waking moment.
Automation could be a great thing and bring productivity up while freeing time for management to spend time with their families, if handled correctly.
I don't trust the powers that be to handle anything correctly.
Presumably it works in reverse when the US employees take their vacation?
Are child-labor laws a myth created by liberals?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/12/working-hours
Regardless, I was talking about loss of production in terms of deindustrialization and globalization. The US has moved to a largely service based economy, as have many developed countries. However, unlike many developed countries, the US populace doesn't spend as much as other service-based countries because we (99%) don't make enough money. Service jobs are more common than ever, and we don't pay them enough.
1. One only need to visit the nearest welfare ghetto to see what happens to humans sense of self-respect or self-worth when you break that whole exchange of labor for things deal.
2. Star trek isn't real.
3. Some highly automated robot society still needs raw materials, energy, resources, construction, maintenance, etc. of their grid or cloud or matrix or whatever it is. These things will be exploited from the 3rd world. You'll end up with some society of robot people doing whatever it is they do at the expense of a huge underclass. This situation continues long enough it will cause a split or branch in human evolution, ie: become two separate species, one of which (the robot people) lacking self-sufficiency and becoming wholly dependent on the very underclass they exploited to engage in their now failed automated utopian dystopia. The world will reset back to normal as the robot people take the place of the very livestock they extinguished and are consumed for food.
2. Star trek isn't real.
3. Some highly automated robot society still needs raw materials, energy, resources, construction, maintenance, etc. of their grid or cloud or matrix or whatever it is. These things will be exploited from the 3rd world. You'll end up with some society of robot people doing whatever it is they do at the expense of a huge underclass. This situation continues long enough it will cause a split or branch in human evolution, ie: become two separate species, one of which (the robot people) lacking self-sufficiency and becoming wholly dependent on the very underclass they exploited to engage in their now failed automated utopian dystopia. The world will reset back to normal as the robot people take the place of the very livestock they extinguished and are consumed for food.
Amstel
The Hoarse Whisperer
I can't see robots entirely replacing us. We are always looking for ways to improve our own productivity. robots improve it, not replace.
The washing machine & dryer were billed as machines that would let women relax a little instead of slaving over the laundry. Somehow, no real rest happened. Energy was just shifted.
Same with this entire line of thinking. ZOMG the microwave! the computer!
We're still doing stuff.
The washing machine & dryer were billed as machines that would let women relax a little instead of slaving over the laundry. Somehow, no real rest happened. Energy was just shifted.
Same with this entire line of thinking. ZOMG the microwave! the computer!
We're still doing stuff.
Amstel
The Hoarse Whisperer
I think too, almost all things have a salesman to pitch it. Even online. Someone needs ad copy, someone needs to compare pricing, present value. Create better performance, delivery and ratings. We're constantly being sold something.
When I shop online for something, it's generally because someone at sometime sold me on that idea or product. After that, I start looking at online pitches to determine quality.
bluenile does wholesale diamonds online pretty successfully. Cars are being sold online now with buyback guarantees. I think a lot of the 'hands on' is necessary for people who don't entirely understand the product yet and need to see it or need to see a comparison.
You clearly have no understanding of what's happening in poverty stricken areas.
Raw materials can be mined by robots. Buildings can be constructed by robots. When the robots are even cheaper than third world workers making a dollar a day then the cost savings will overcome all other concerns.
Robots already replaced humans in a lot of jobs entirely.
Again, the difference this time is that in the past the robots were being used to replace human muscles. We're only now entering the stage where they're replacing human brains.
You realize Hips is poverty stricken, right?
Oh the irony.
You can't have an entire economy built on a hundred million people working sales.
A hands on experience with a car doesn't require a human being.
People who buy diamonds aren't exactly making the wisest decisions in the first place but it's also a very limited market.
There will be a lot of sales people but not nearly enough to replace all the jobs lost. Certainly the couple million cabbies in the country aren't going to survive in sales.
ad copy and price comparisons are already subject to a lot of automation, especially the latter. how many people actually use a travel agent instead of just comparing prices themselves? amazon already lets you sort by ratings and price and other factors
but not everyone will need that which means even if all the current salespeople stay employed there's no way to move all the millions of unemployable people into that sector in order to continue working
Being poverty stricken is often a crucial factor in not understanding poverty. Thank you for backing me up.
Hey don't give them any big ideas. I don't want to be pigeonholed into one of their special groups whereby they get a false boost in self esteem through empathizing with my plight.