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Is Your Job Robot-Proof?

Today America needs 5 million less workers to produce a greater value of goods and services than it did in December 2007 when the recession began.

3:29 PM Jun 25 2012

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ifindkarmaRobotLaunch

Just think how much bigger the economy would be if those 5 million people could also be productive.

3:44 PM Jun 25 2012

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RobotLaunch

But purchasing food and games and driving are all essential roles for our economy. We should all just be paid for staying home and shopping.

7:44 PM Jun 25 2012

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ifindkarma

Then let the robots have work!

7:44 PM Jun 25 2012

Props Given By:

ifindkarma

I think you mean clicking on ads are the driving and essential roles for our economy. I'm guessing it's robotizable, if not at least turkable.

6:52 AM Jun 26 2012

I'm truly wondering what kind of jobs those displaced 5 million workers COULD do.

It's gotta be something less turkable.

8:11 AM Jun 26 2012

I was just making fun of Beberg's Observance which states that we've lost a whole generation of our greatest computer science minds to figuring out how to make people click on ads...like that famous rats and bars experiment.

8:24 AM Jun 26 2012

I think humans can click on ads better than machines. Seriously, the unpredictable nature of human spending is a huge economic driver!

This recent TedGlobal talk by Shyam Sankar from Palantir about JCR Licklider's theory of intelligence augmentation talks to this!

8:46 AM Jun 26 2012

Here's where online education is so important. Those displaced by robots need resources to help them learn new skills.

Might I also suggest organizing militias to defend against the inevitable robot uprising?

10:11 AM Jun 26 2012

Props Given By:

ifindkarma

Chris, militias against robot uprisings didn't work well in the Terminator movies.

We should prefer a bore-from-within approach like in The Matrix.

12:03 PM Jun 28 2012

I kid, I kid. We all know that the answer is to shed our organic bodies by uploading, so we can take on the robot rebellion on even terms.

12:05 PM Jun 28 2012

Jim Firby used to joke about "robot slaves for a better world"... but let's say that robot slaves really could do 80% of the world needed by our advanced society. What would the rest of us do all day? And what would the intermediate steps between here and there look like?

4:55 PM Jun 26 2012

Props Given By:

ifindkarma

Vacation!

It's interesting to note they had this same debate 100 years ago. What ended up happening is ham activity changed to fill up all new time.

1:51 PM Jun 27 2012

Props Given By:

ifindkarma

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