Ominous prediction indeed.

[PayDay]

...or maybe not the robots:
This thread is great for OpEd stuff:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/michael-s...people-will-kill-us-all-before-the-robots-do/

Don’t Worry: Stupid People Will Kill Us All Before The Robots Do
The New York Times*profiled a significant technological breakthrough on Wednesday, and their commenters set immediately to demanding it be destroyed. There have been luddites fearing change and calling for stagnation for as long as there have been humans more intelligent than them trying out new things, but, call me crazy, it really seems the luddites all are getting louder.

We are just a year or two from charging our electronic devices wirelessly. The company working on the technology profiled, uBeam,*has not only realized the dream of Nikola Tesla*and developed a commercially-viable way to wirelessly charge electronic devices, they have also demonstrated that they can send information through sound, positioning us to develop entirely new ways of communicating with one another. The applications are surely numerous. But ignore the cool ass NYT article for a minute and look at the responses. Nick Bilton’s piece is an inadvertently perfect, terrifying study of the thing that could actually bring our modern society to its knees: dumb asses.

 

[Ishmael]

Sorry I jacked your thread man, I hope I'm doing a good job:

http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/05/11/why-robots-will-kill-us-all/

"But of course the laws of robotics make such an armageddon impossible, right? Isaac Asimov’s laws, which the defining sci fi writer of his generation laid down, essentially precludes rampant killer robots. But even given that it was just fiction, could such laws ever be built in? "

Asimov's first law of robotics was violated 20 +/- years ago when a robot killed a Japanese worker. It was a 'dumb' robot and chalked up to being a tragic industrial accident, but it was still a robot and the worker is still dead. The path is fairly straightforward. AI leads to self-awareness and self-awareness leads to actions of self-interest. There may come the say when some of the machines we're created will decide that it's in their own self-interest to so away with us. It's a possible future that must be guarded against.

Ishmael

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The operative word is SKILLS. How many unskilled workers do we actually need? Or possibly a better question is how many unskilled jobs are supported by skilled/professional labor?

There is always going to be janitors, burger flippers (although the burger flipper future may be bleak, robots are on their way), and such. But what is the saturation level?

I look at the unemployment/underemployment numbers and they're not only frightening, they're going in the wrong direction. (Yes, I see the reported 'unemployment' numbers but the reported number is hiding more than it reveals.) In particular I see the youth and minority unemployment numbers and those are frightening as well. How is flooding the nation with even more unskilled 'workers' a good idea?

Even among the skilled/labor force a great deal is gong to change. How many Social Workers and Dog Groomers do we really need? Clerk typists and secretaries? Many of the skilled construction trades will remain well into the foreseeable future. But others, such as machinists, will slowly disappear. Even today the machinists trade, with the exception of tool and die makers, has been replaced by programmers setting up the CNC machines. (GM's new Turbohydromatic divisions new plants are on the verge of being 'lights out' manufacturing facilities. The same with the New Departure Hyatt plants.)

If the article is close to being on target the need for MBA's is going to drop substantially as well. In general middle management is a burden that business and industry has had to bear. Those jobs are mostly unproductive overhead.

Ishmael

I spent my whole working life staying one step ahead of unemployment and voc rehad was part of my professional training. Tampa usta be called THE CIGAR CITY, I think one automated factory is in town now.

Two centuries ago we made slaves of excess labor or we murdered workers in wars. After the Civil War we shooed them West or imprisoned them. Then we murdered them in wars for a while. I kinda look for war with China to kill off the excess labor in the near term. We never learn.

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

I will and I hope you get smarter soon because not everybody is as patient with border line retards as I am.

He's not asking for specifics because he doesn't want an answer, he just wants to spew bullshit. I really liked the way his nodded to JamesBRacist's rant as opinion, yet wants bullet point citations for your entire post.

Just put the moron on ignore and be done with it.

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

"But of course the laws of robotics make such an armageddon impossible, right? Isaac Asimov’s laws, which the defining sci fi writer of his generation laid down, essentially precludes rampant killer robots. But even given that it was just fiction, could such laws ever be built in? "

Asimov's first law of robotics was violated 20 +/- years ago when a robot killed a Japanese worker. It was a 'dumb' robot and chalked up to being a tragic industrial accident, but it was still a robot and the worker is still dead. The path is fairly straightforward. AI leads to self-awareness and self-awareness leads to actions of self-interest. There may come the say when some of the machines we're created will decide that it's in their own self-interest to so away with us. It's a possible future that must be guarded against.

Ishmael

Technology bad™

Your example of a robot killing a Japanese worker is not a violation of Asimov's Laws you dip-shit, because the machine wasn't intelligent. Hell you even admitted that it was a "dumb robot". Asimov's rules don't apply to roomba's either. Jesus Christ. You're talking about A.I. as if it automatically confers sentience and self-awareness. This isn't fucking SkyNet from The Terminator you moron. I can only assume you posted this after finishing off a box of Franzia.

 

[kbate]

From a "universal unemployment" to "skynet" in only 4 pages.

bravo!

time to go feed my electric sheep.

 

[PayDay]

There may come the say when some of the machines we're created will decide that it's in their own self-interest to so away with us. It's a possible future that must be guarded against.

Ishmael

Nice factoid. Tasty info. Combine the articles: What if the robots kill us because we are stupid?

He's not asking for specifics because he doesn't want an answer, he just wants to spew bullshit. I really liked the way his nodded to JamesBRacist's rant as opinion, yet wants bullet point citations for your entire post.

Just put the moron on ignore and be done with it.

Technology bad™

Your example of a robot killing a Japanese worker is not a violation of Asimov's Laws you dip-shit, because the machine wasn't intelligent. Hell you even admitted that it was a "dumb robot". Asimov's rules don't apply to roomba's either. Jesus Christ. You're talking about A.I. as if it automatically confers sentience and self-awareness. This isn't fucking SkyNet from The Terminator you moron. I can only assume you posted this after finishing off a box of Franzia.

Who let you in? It is not bullshit to occupy your mind and learn perspective. Get good. Learn to read.
Also, are you fucking retarded?::
you 1st: "You so stupid. I no listen with brainjuice."
you 2nd: "Hmm, I think I will intelligently debate the articles you posted."

From a "universal unemployment" to "skynet" in only 4 pages.

bravo!

time to go feed my electric sheep.

Nice. I've had alot of these article ideas floating around, stuff I remembered reading. The thread title was perfect.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Thank the Laurel(s), a thread that's not one time use only:

Here's another one that gets looked over, and no one wants to talk about it.

http://www.sott.net/article/287491-...us-financial-market-signals-not-seen-in-years
Fear on Wall Street? Nine ominous financial market signals not seen in years

Combo move OP article to this one:

Are you really using Signs Of The Times as a source? The tinfoil-hat site that would have us believe that lizard people communicate with higher-order humans?

"We're now in the largest period of sustained job growth since 1939. You know what else happened in 1939? HITLER!"

#MaximumDerp

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

Who let you in? It is not bullshit to occupy your mind and learn perspective. Get good. Learn to read.
Also, are you fucking retarded?::
you 1st: "You so stupid. I no listen with brainjuice."
you 2nd: "Hmm, I think I will intelligently debate the articles you posted."

Let me in? I've been bouncing around here dealing with idiots like you for a long time. This isn't my first rodeo and more than likely you're just a new Alt that one of the usual suspects is breaking in. I address posters on their level, in your case it's 'you're a fucking brain dead idiot and will be addressed as such.'

When one of the addle brained starts spouting off about something they obviously know nothing about it's clobberin' time. I wasn't debating Ish you dumb shit, I was mocking his stupidity. I fucking destroyed his post with a little dose of reality.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Nice factoid. Tasty info. Combine the articles: What if the robots kill us because we are stupid?

I'm reasonably certain that you will be among the very first to go.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Interesting little article here;

50% of today's occupations gone by 2025.

Both the 50% and the 2025 numbers are probably wrong. But the overall prediction is quite true and will have a profound effect on;

Immigration. Huge numbers of unskilled labor will end up being welfare dependents. We have enough native unskilled labor, importing more is folly.

Education There are a whole slew of educational specialties, both degreed and technical that will end up being absolutely worthless. Bad choices will lead to crushing debt with little chance of that debt being retired.

And as always these changes are gong to have unintended consequences on occupations not even mentioned.

Ishmael

I'll say the same thing I always say. Innovations in technology will create Capital which will lead to real wealth and as long as their is wealth to chase, ambitious and creative people will find a niche in which to chase it. With leisure, population growth will slow and perhaps even decline. Will people suffer? Yes. However, they suffered in the past, they suffer now, and some will suffer in the future, but I think not in the long run, not in the historical or doom and gloom sense of suffering. I do not think it ends in Soylent Green. I think it ends with us spreading out into the new ocean, island hopping in the oases of the universe's deserts and finding new spaces to explore and tame, that is who we are despite all of the social engineering endeavors to abrogate our basic nature.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I just read the first two pages.

Now my head hurts and I think my eyes are bleeding...

 

[Ishmael]

I'll say the same thing I always say. Innovations in technology will create Capital which will lead to real wealth and as long as their is wealth to chase, ambitious and creative people will find a niche in which to chase it. With leisure, population growth will slow and perhaps even decline. Will people suffer? Yes. However, they suffered in the past, they suffer now, and some will suffer in the future, but I think not in the long run, not in the historical or doom and gloom sense of suffering. I do not think it ends in Soylent Green. I think it ends with us spreading out into the new ocean, island hopping in the oases of the universe's deserts and finding new spaces to explore and tame, that is who we are despite all of the social engineering endeavors to abrogate our basic nature.

We pretty much agree with what you said. And it's interesting to read some of the replies here that were on topic. The article makes NO value judgement as to whether the effects of this new technology is good or bad, it merely states that this is what's on the horizon. But you can readily see where some folks heads are at.

Further this technology 'shift' behaves in many respects like "Moore's Law," just with a longer cycle. In most cases it takes society longer to assimilate and unitlize the technology that it took for the technology to be available to begin with. (Consumer gadgets are the exception.)

We either prepare for the coming eventuality or we're going to suffer some dire consequences.

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Some of these people are so vested in "The Story," that it clouds all posting.



On a side note, for miles around (tying into The Story), there is a run on plywood as the rumor has hit that the Grand Jury verdict is coming down and every business in St. Louis is stocking up to replace broken windows...

 

[kbate]

We pretty much agree with what you said. And it's interesting to read some of the replies here that were on topic. The article makes NO value judgement as to whether the effects of this new technology is good or bad, it merely states that this is what's on the horizon.

Further this technology 'shift' behaves in many respects like "Moore's Law," just with a longer cycle. In most cases it takes society longer to assimilate and unitlize the technology that it took for the technology to be available to begin with. (Consumer gadgets are the exception.)

We either prepare for the coming eventuality or we're going to suffer some dire consequences.

It does not state either that jobs won't exist, it only states that they are going to be different. We will still have electricians, carpenters, plumbers, welders, product testers, Pizza Delivery Men, miners, fishermen, and a thousand other jobs that are valid today and have been since man became civilized.

We'll still need lawn workers, pickers, ditch diggers, equipment operators, surveyors and basically everyone who works outdoors. We will still have policemen (probably more than today), firemen, politicians and their aides, military, repairmen for every type of machine and a whole service industry of people to install and upgrade the machines.

We may not need stockboys (robots), cashiers, bank tellers, bankers, court clerks, treasury department (all electronic), IRS agents (tax is instant in an all electronic currency world), school buildings and teachers - it can be done from the master computer in D.C. with students hooking in by iLearn.

 

[Ishmael]

Some of these people are so vested in "The Story," that it clouds all posting.



On a side note, for miles around (tying into The Story), there is a run on plywood as the rumor has hit that the Grand Jury verdict is coming down and every business in St. Louis is stocking up to replace broken windows...

What they're invested in is emotion driven bull shit and anti-progress protectionism. The world they envision has all the qualities of stagnation that typified the old Soviet Union. The problem is that the technology doesn't give a shit and neither do the concerns that are going to deploy that technology.

On the Ferguson issue, is there any surprise. The terminally ignorant are going to follow the original lie to their graves.

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

There is one path to Soylent Green, and that is to create an artificial crisis and an unreasonable fear that leads to calls for government security...



Then we will truly end up in a dog-eat-dog gulag of our own design.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

What they're invested in is emotion driven bull shit and anti-progress protectionism. The world they envision has all the qualities of stagnation that typified the old Soviet Union. The problem is that the technology doesn't give a shit and neither do the concerns that are going to deploy that technology.

On the Ferguson issue, is there any surprise. The terminally ignorant are going to follow the original lie to their graves.

Ishmael

How do you keep preempting my thoughts like that?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Doc Holliday: Oh. kbate, I apologize; I forgot you were there. You may go now.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

It does not state either that jobs won't exist, it only states that they are going to be different. We will still have electricians, carpenters, plumbers, welders, product testers, Pizza Delivery Men, miners, fishermen, and a thousand other jobs that are valid today and have been since man became civilized.

We'll still need lawn workers, pickers, ditch diggers, equipment operators, surveyors and basically everyone who works outdoors. We will still have policemen (probably more than today), firemen, politicians and their aides, military, repairmen for every type of machine and a whole service industry of people to install and upgrade the machines.

We may not need stockboys (robots), cashiers, bank tellers, bankers, court clerks, treasury department (all electronic), IRS agents (tax is instant in an all electronic currency world), school buildings and teachers - it can be done from the master computer in D.C. with students hooking in by iLearn.

Not so quick. Some have zero transferrable skills. Surprised the shit outta me when I found out, but some are locked into scooping up dog shit forever. Theyre like those birds that can only eat one species of seed.

 

[kbate]

Not so quick. Some have zero transferrable skills. Surprised the shit outta me when I found out, but some are locked into scooping up dog shit forever. Theyre like those birds that can only eat one species of seed.

We'll still have dogs, and we'll have people who are too good to get dog shite on their hands.

 

[kbate]

What they're invested in is emotion driven bull shit and anti-progress protectionism. The world they envision has all the qualities of stagnation that typified the old Soviet Union. The problem is that the technology doesn't give a shit and neither do the concerns that are going to deploy that technology.

On the Ferguson issue, is there any surprise. The terminally ignorant are going to follow the original lie to their graves.

Ishmael

you mean like calls to return to the railroad?

 

[RobDownSouth]

Some of these people are so vested in "The Story," that it clouds all posting.



On a side note, for miles around (tying into The Story), there is a run on plywood as the rumor has hit that the Grand Jury verdict is coming down and every business in St. Louis is stocking up to replace broken windows...

And I'm quite sure you're repeatin' this story at every single place you shop at in Missouri. That's what you do, Aunt Bee.

#Gossip

 

[RobDownSouth]

I just read the first two pages.

Now my head hurts and I think my eyes are bleeding...

Probably a toomah.
:nods:

 

[Ishmael]

you mean like calls to return to the railroad?

Well kiddo, the railroads (freight) are back and doing quite well.

No, I'm speaking of the folks that seem to think we're going to return to an industrialized nation that will be in need of hordes of unskilled and semi-skilled labor. The folks that produce regulations that in effect are nothing more than anti-competition protectionism. The folks that underwrite college loans to people that are majoring in the equivalent of 'underwater basket weaving.' The list goes on.

Ishmael