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aminok | 9 years ago
No it wasn't. One power loom with 10 operators replaced 2,000 people.
The same will be true when a cadre of intelligent robots, with one manager giving them daily instructions, replaces 5 wait staff and cooks at a restaurant.
>The confluence of robotics and AI will mean the eventual evaporation of low-skill and/or laborious jobs as they are completely replaced by automated agents.
Low-skill work is no more vulnerable to automation than high-skill work:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravec's_paradox
Ultimately, we humans universally have and will continue to have a set of skills that cannot, for legal reasons, be automated. This gives human services a unique value proposition. Moreover, human labour cannot be mass-produced like machines, so it becomes increasingly scarce, which is why wages have increased 20 fold since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
>These people do not have a unique skill set they can apply to something else.
Yes they do have valuable skills. They have a high-level understanding of society, people's intentions and needs, and the tools and technology that enables people to accomplish tasks.
A person living in 2017 isn't some empty slate that's indistinguishable from a human living in 1950. The modern person has knowledge about automation that makes them vastly more productive in the modern context. The modern person knows how to use modern tools like smart phones with applications like internet-accessible maps, to maximise productivity, and has unique knowledge about numerous domains that is not publicly available.
With respect to the last point: most of the collective knowledge of the economy is not in the public domain, as a public resource. It is mostly diffused throughout the population, as private knowledge. It is this knowledge that makes individuals increasingly productive, and their labour increasingly valuable.
>Globalization can only happen once.
Industrialization has happened continuously for 200 years. Wages have grown enormously over this time frame.
You're being pessimistic for the sake of being pessimistic. Maybe because you're looking to rationalize your universal welfare cheque.
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