I think, automated phone systems cuttin down on customer service agents, is akin to robots taking jobs. Not all jobs, and not even all customer services. But a bunch.
Also commented on the self-check outs in supermarkets.
I didn’t really consider industrial machines like the ones that make plastic trinkets, but I do consider the ones that make cars. I could be well off on my thinking
Automating manual labour is hard. Especially when there are not straight lines. Plucking strawberries from a field, for example.
All those “flat brain” tasks like look at incoming paper for sanity check, count items in box, etc. are probably gone by 2030.
After that, self driving trains should be well tested (is basically just long-range roller coasters, and those work pretty good). Roads may receive some updates to make it easier for self driving trucks and that is it for transport jobs (except for last mile).
I suspect we will see an industrial revolution style “stop the machines”, except there is no city with almost slavery jobs to flee too.
Hardcore Economist have read chapter 1 of “An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of The Wealth of Nations” and then given up on reading something that is not Businessweek.
The problem they all chose to ignore is Money either flows in a circle, or the purchase power of the potential customers goes right down the Mariana Trench.
Fully Automated Luxury Space Earth Communism will happen, or humanity gets forcefully shrunk down by widespread natural disasters of the “this bad weather is lasting quite a bit longer than usual”-kind.
Huh, and if I am not mistaken, the term Robot, was coined from a guy observing serfs in a field. And with automated John Deers ploughing and planting with no humans on board… perhaps it has come full circle/ the reality meeting the name?
I dunno man, it seems it is more like the super market self check-out idea.
one person can oversee several bots, fixing random issues, rather than a herd of humans doing the work.
For sure there are tasks that humans are much better at, especially refining and maintaining new robots.
But the industrial revolution kinda seemed to have stalled till the 50’s, then re-started again, at an increasing pace.
Not all robots gonna be mechanical men, some are just gonna be algorithms taking white collar jobs too…
I work in agriculture, and there is huge incentive to automate as much as possible. Getting seasonal help is a complete nightmare. Finding help in the first place is tough, and dealing with state and federal regulations regarding labor and food safety don’t help.
The blueberry growers around here have basically all switched to mechanical harvesters. There’s more berries lost on the ground, but it’s done faster and with less labor so it comes out ahead easily.
Harvesting strawberries is a bit tougher, but people have been working on it for a while. Looks like some may be almost ready.
My own agribusiness is investing in AI stuff. Our biggest project is partnering with a company to send drones across grass for seed fields taking pictures, and then using AI to very accurately count the vole holes (a exponentially destructive pest in these fields which have stands that should last a few years), which will allow for more efficiently targeted baiting.
Drones doing weed ID is already in the works as well.