How Canada’s oilsands are paving the way for driverless trucks — and the threat of big layoffs - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;47936063]Humans need not apply [hd]https://youtu.be/7Pq-S557XQU[/hd][/QUOTE] Well I guess I'm fucked in max 15 years. I like driving my towing truck :(

my dad works as a mechanic on those gigantic fucking trucks in fort mac. tells me stories about how there have been a few incidents of drivers straight up flattening vehicles with people inside them still. shit's scary.

[QUOTE=notgoodatpc;47955495]Well I guess I'm fucked in max 15 years. I like driving my towing truck :([/QUOTE] You drive a tow truck? Sorry friend, more like 10 years, maybe less.

I think we need to ask to what end humanity is working towards. All this talk about total automation makes me believe that some day we're going to need a kind of focused utilitarian approach to technological and societal progress. Nothing should be for it's own sake.

[QUOTE=barttool;47955227]Well that's exactly what humanity has been doing for basically its entire existance, and it's pretty much impossible to "change course". Populations change, nations come and go, new technologies come along so disruptive they change fundamentally the way civilizations work, things collapse and we end up re arranging ourselves over and over again. This automation problem is not a matter of "it'll get fixed" or "can we fix it" but whether our current society (as it exists today) can endure it.[/QUOTE] And that's why I don't have faith in a bright future once automation begins to take hold of our largest industries. At least, not before economic collapse and civil unrest finally force the Government's hand, then [I]maybe[/I] they'll consider restructuring society around a universal income.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;47957555]And that's why I don't have faith in a bright future once automation begins to take hold of our largest industries. At least, not before economic collapse and civil unrest finally force the Government's hand, then [I]maybe[/I] they'll consider restructuring society around a universal income.[/QUOTE] If everyone is supposedly going to become unemployed because of automation, who is going to pay for universal income? Governments are struggling to come up with solutions on how to cover retirees in a few decades time (because of ageing populations), how would they be able to cover everyone else too? And yet again, automation will do jackshit in the long term. Jobs will continue to move from primary and secondary industries (those industries are already somewhat automated fyi) to tertiary industries, as they have been doing for many decades in the west, and those jobs will go into aged care and into other services that retirees enjoy such as hospitality, recreation and tourism. 'But robots can take those jobs too'. But as you should know, old people are conservative and stubborn fucks, and they would value services provided by people far more than those provided by robots, because people are what they're used to. Honestly I get the feeling that the only people on the Internet who advocate for shit like universal income are people who don't have a job and they're the kind of people who don't have a job because they're awkward at interviews or they can't assemble a resume.

That's a pretty huge assumption to be making.

It's a pretty huge assumption to make in saying that jobs will just vanish because of automation, yet automation and mechanisation have been around for at least a hundred years. People here treat them as if they are only some recent invention or as if they haven't even been implemented yet.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;47961780]It's a pretty huge assumption to make in saying that jobs will just vanish because of automation, yet automation and mechanisation have been around for at least a hundred years. People here treat them as if they are only some recent invention or as if they haven't even been implemented yet.[/QUOTE] No. The kind of automation that we have had in the past pales in comparison to what we're developing. Automation will outpace the creation of new jobs, and eventually every conceivable task will be able to be done better, faster, and cheaper by a robot. Then jobs will have disappeared. The only thing I can think of to remedy this would be to start exporting Humans to other planets and star systems.

Meanwhile, the rich get richer and people are made jobless.

The way I see it, there are two possible outcomes. Either robots will bring about a post-scarcity economy and everyone will start getting fed, clothed, and housed for free... Or 99% of the world will be homeless. Here's to hoping it's the former.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;47958809]If everyone is supposedly going to become unemployed because of automation, who is going to pay for universal income? Governments are struggling to come up with solutions on how to cover retirees in a few decades time (because of ageing populations), how would they be able to cover everyone else too?[/quote] The problem is you're thinking in terms of how the world currently works, with money. For example, when the entire supply of food from when it's planted to when it's put out in a supermarket (or delivered directly to your house) is completely automated, along with all of the supporting processes (maintenance, fuel [and that entire supply chain], etc...) then food becomes "free". Because there's a finite amount of food, everyone will likely have an allotment though. [quote]And yet again, automation will do jackshit in the long term. Jobs will continue to move from primary and secondary industries (those industries are already somewhat automated fyi) to tertiary industries, as they have been doing for many decades in the west, and those jobs will go into aged care and into other services that retirees enjoy such as hospitality, recreation and tourism. 'But robots can take those jobs too'. But as you should know, old people are conservative and stubborn fucks, and they would value services provided by people far more than those provided by robots, because people are what they're used to.[/QUOTE] "[Some] old people are stubborn"; yea, and they are also old (as in, they will die sooner or later and the next generation who grew up around automation won't have the same prejudices). Automation isn't going to take over overnight, it's going to be a gradual process, as it has been in the past. The point is it will take over; as technology advances, more jobs will be replaceable. Sure, there will always be niche roles for humans as not everyone will want to be served by a robot, for example. But, these are small pockets of "resistance"; they won't impact the overall tide of time and progress. And yes, automation is progress. As automation has increased, it's freed more and more time for people to pursue other things beyond working all the time to have enough to eat and a roof over their head. One day automation will reach the point where people don't have to "work" in the traditional sense of going to a job each day just to make enough money to get by, but rather will be freed to pursue what interests them. And sure, to some, their job is what interests them (and some subset would no longer be able to do what they love due to automation); though I would think the vast majority of people aren't so lucky.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;47961780]It's a pretty huge assumption to make in saying that jobs will just vanish because of automation, yet automation and mechanisation have been around for at least a hundred years. People here treat them as if they are only some recent invention or as if they haven't even been implemented yet.[/QUOTE] No they mostly look at the trends, and they see that automation can replace so many industries and smart people will always find new ways to do that. They see that every time the trend has happened before, many people are displaced and fall through the cracks. With automation on the scale we're talking about, those cracks are easier and easier for more and more people to fall through. [editline]15th June 2015[/editline] We already see the constant minimization of workers across the board just from the corporate atmosphere that is quite prevalent right now. We already see some pretty serious issues facing the typical voter limiting their influence and choice as well as their understanding of ever increasingly complex laws. Automation now is different in terms of context and capability than ever before. People are arguing for solutions because there WILL be a problem faced by a lot of people that you minimize by acting like any complaints about progress and how it might affect them and seeking to at least protect themselves are worthless. They are not.

[QUOTE=IrishBandit;47963271]No. The kind of automation that we have had in the past pales in comparison to what we're developing. Automation will outpace the creation of new jobs, and eventually every conceivable task will be able to be done better, faster, and cheaper by a robot. Then jobs will have disappeared. [b]The only thing I can think of to remedy this would be to start exporting Humans to other planets and star systems.[/b][/QUOTE] People keep mentioning this and I don't see what this would solve. Even if Mars was a perfect copy of Earth what would moving people from point A to point B accomplish job wise ? If work was automated here you can bet your ass it's going to be a whole new level of automation going on in a place with limited resources (like food and water that is).

[QUOTE=AntonioR;47965604]People keep mentioning this and I don't see what this would solve. Even if Mars was a perfect copy of Earth what would moving people from point A to point B accomplish job wise ? If work was automated here you can bet your ass it's going to be a whole new level of automation going on in a place with limited resources (like food and water that is).[/QUOTE] Because it's a new frontier, robots would have to become incredibly advanced to be able to adapt as quickly as humans to new situations.

[QUOTE=IrishBandit;47969668]Because it's a new frontier, robots would have to become incredibly advanced to be able to adapt as quickly as humans to new situations.[/QUOTE] I'm not sure if you know this, but there have been many rovers on the surface of Mars in the past few decades and zero humans who have ever set foot on Mars. And automation would be of the upmost importance due to very scarce resources (surviving on supplies from Earth) and so everything would have to be done as efficiently as possible.

[QUOTE=Nikita;47964574] Or 99% of the world will be homeless. [/QUOTE] Hopefully people start killing the rich at that point.