Build a Fence to Keep the Job Stealing Robots Out!

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**Easy E**

We need to build us a fence to keep all of those job stealing robots out!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/09/27/researchers_claim_many_jobs_at_risk_for_automation_here_s_what_they_missed.html

In “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?,” Frey and Osborne estimate that 47 percent of U.S. jobs are “at risk” of being automated in the next 20 years. This does not mean that they necessarily will be automated (despite the way the study has been portrayed in some media outlets)—rather, the authors argue, it is plausible over the next two decades that existing and foreseeable AI technologies could be used to cost-effectively automate those jobs out of existence. Machines may not (and probably won't) do the jobs the same way as people, however—just remember the last time you used an automated check-out system at a grocery store. There’s a difference between machines doing something cheaply and doing it well. Frey and Osborne took into account the possibility of such “task simplification” in their analysis.

and this from the actual study....

Our model predicts that most workers in transportation and logistics occupations, together with the bulk of office and administrative support workers, and labour in production occupations, are at risk. These findings are consistent with recent technological developments documented in the literature. More surprisingly, we find that a substantial share of employment in service occupations, where most US job growth has occurred over the past decades (Autor and Dorn, 2013), are highly susceptible to computerisation.

Other links:

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/519241/report-suggests-nearly-half-of-us-jobs-are-vulnerable-to-computerization/

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/half-of-all-us-jobs-will-be-automated-but-what-opportunities-will-be-created/29406

**Grey Templar**

Yeah, when you think about it, a massive number of jobs could be done by robots.

Imagine Walmart with almost no employees.

Its all self-checkout. Only human's around are a couple rent-a-cops by the front doors and a couple customer service representatives.

All the items on the shelves are restocked by machine. The aisles are a little farther apart with the space between one aisle and another being a mechanical stocking system that gets equipment from the warehouse in back as the shelf is emptied.

Now instead of employing a hundred or so people the Walmart only has a dozen or so employees.

Fast Food will probably be the first industry to be fully mechanized though.

**hotsauceman1**

I doupt it will be mechanized though. He need a human there to deal with certain things. You cannot program a robot to anticipate every thing that will happen

**Easy E**

I know many major Retail chains have mostly automated distribution centers. I think your average DC emplyees less people than an average big-box store.

Once we automate cars.... watch out long-haul truckers.

**hotsauceman1**

What happens if it breaks down? Automated cashiers need someone to stand around and use them

**Grey Templar**

There will still be people there, but very few compared to before.

Now instead of 6-8 people at a McDonalds it will be only 1-2. A guy to fix the machine and a guy to cover any unforeseen situation, potentially the same person.

**Kilkrazy**

There is nothing wrong with automating all the jobs so long as the rich then don't castigate the rest of us for being unemployed, and let us starve to death.

**hotsauceman1**

KK, youo know that is what will exactly happen.
Then we humans are put on an assembly line to build robots while our massive robot lords hit us with whips.
Any who under perform get sent for more whippings in "The pleasure dome"

**Kilkrazy**

So there is an upside!

**Ninjacommando**

Easy E wrote:
I know many major Retail chains have mostly automated distribution centers. I think your average DC emplyees less people than an average big-box store.

Once we automate cars.... watch out long-haul truckers.

eh there is a 90%+ turnover for truck drivers every year. most people i've met would prefer short hauls so they can be with their families on a weekly bases. But you are correct once we get automated cars/trucks (10 years about) all Long-haul will be Automated or Owner-Operator. However Automated vehicles will have problems in certain locations, mainly large Oilshale/fracking operations (like North Dakota)

**Laughing Man**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
KK, youo know that is what will exactly happen.
Then we humans are put on an assembly line to build robots while our massive robot lords hit us with whips.
Any who under perform get sent for more whippings in "The pleasure dome"

You say that like it's a bad thing.

**Easy E**

Just at the Big W this weekend and they put in 10 automated cash registers staffed by 1 person.

The great thing is they then reduced the numbe rof manual cahsiers so the lines for a real cashier were super long in an attempt to force you to give up and use an automated one. Is that considered a 'Nudge"?

**Frazzled**

Grey Templar wrote:
Yeah, when you think about it, a massive number of jobs could be done by robots.

Imagine Walmart with almost no employees.

Its all self-checkout. Only human's around are a couple rent-a-cops by the front doors and a couple customer service representatives.

All the items on the shelves are restocked by machine. The aisles are a little farther apart with the space between one aisle and another being a mechanical stocking system that gets equipment from the warehouse in back as the shelf is emptied.

Now instead of employing a hundred or so people the Walmart only has a dozen or so employees.

Fast Food will probably be the first industry to be fully mechanized though.

All jobs can be done by robots. Hence we need the handy rule :"Thou shalt not make machines in the likeness of Man"

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kilkrazy wrote:
There is nothing wrong with automating all the jobs so long as the rich then don't castigate the rest of us for being unemployed, and let us starve to death.

No thats the fun part!

**Mathieu Raymond**

No one's ever been to Ikea, then?

1)Big show rooms, almost no one in it.
2)Big warehouse, needs 4 guys and forklifts
3)Self check-out.

You need to ingest the swedish meatballs to feel human contact, and even that could be automated, it was in the fifties after all.

**Easy E**

Our Ikea has cashiers and lot's of people in the showroom try to sell us stuff.

Interesting.

**Ninjacommando**

Frazzled wrote:

All jobs can be done by robots. Hence we need the handy rule :"thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind"

Fix'd it for ya, now we just need to print the Orange Catholic Bible.

**Frazzled**

Thanks, and agreed!

I'm joking but not really actually.

**Easy E**

Yeah, it's like AI researchers have never read or watched a science fiction movie in the last 60+ years.

**Frazzled**

Maybe they think they'll be like the Titans of the Butlerian Jihad, immune from the IAs.

**hotsauceman1**

what happens when the robots start demanding a better wage? Surely they will see their human co-workers getting paid and demand a living wage

**Ninjacommando**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
what happens when the robots start demanding a better wage? Surely they will see their human co-workers getting paid and demand a living wage

We will make kill bots to kill those wage demanding robots

**Frazzled**

And thus the Autobot Decepticon Wars for Cybertron began.