The Future of Employment

[Loony BoB]

Just a spinoff of the technology thread - what will happen when computers really do take over most of our jobs? We have a growing population and more and more people in the future will be made redundant thanks to improved technology. Eventually, I imagine that over half the population of even first world cities will be unemployed. So what then? Will everyone live off the government? Will currency eventually become void, and we all return to material trading? I have no idea. This is where I let your brilliant minds do all the work so I can decide which one has the best argument going for it so I know what I can believe.

Please assume (for the sake of this discussion), if you are religious, that all of this technological advancement will happen before the end of the world or the second coming or whatever else you might believe in.

[Sergeant Hartman]

When they break, we fix them.

[Loony BoB]

Oh, I don't think everyone will be out of a job. The likes of robot engineers/designers, teachers and other jobs will probably be safe. But I reckon that about 50% or more of human jobs will someday be filled in by robots. A lot of places will still need humans, but not nearly as many - eg. car making, you could have an entire factory run itself with just a few humans here and there overseeing things.

EDIT: Maybe even robot repairs could be done by other robots.

[Psychotic]

What's the point in having a car factory if everyone's too poor to buy a car?

[Levian]

We have yet to invent a machine that successfully peels a banana. Until someone does that, I will rest easy. :mog:

[Aerith's Knight]

im studying to be an Master of Science, otherwise known as engineer.. so i wont be out of a job

[Sergeant Hartman]

Machines fixing machines? Never!

[Slothy]

Manufacturing jobs are largely automated already in a lot of sectors, but the free market alone will pretty much ensure we never see 50% unemployment. Automation doesn't come cheap initially, and if we were to see a sudden dramatic increase in automation we'd see a dramatic decline in wages, likely to the point where we don't so much see jobs disappearing as quality of living among the less educated/qualified declining. More importantly, jobs in service industries will never disappear, as I've never seen a machine that can help a person with tax planning, investing, or diagnosing a disease. We likely never will see such a machine either, if only because people have an inherent mistrust of machines to do jobs that require any thinking and analysis.

Basically, jobs won't disappear in general, just as massive shifts in the focus of national economies has never really resulted in jobs disappearing. As always, jobs would simply shift from one sector to another.

[Lynx]

if theres one thing ive learned from tv is there will always be jobs for people because robots just get drunk and rob people (futurama).

i think technology wont put people out of work too much in the future. cause even now we could easily have machines to do simple tasks but we have people do them instead with the same quality. if you ever watch how its made (i think thats what its called) on discovery channel you can see how mcuh involvment people have with tasks that could easily be done by machine. snowboards get hand cut at one point in production. you honestly want to tell me that a machine couldnt be made to do that? besides with new technology comes new jobs. maybe some job titles will become unheard of in the future but others will arrive.

[~*~Celes~*~]

I think that they'll figure out how to allow humans to live on other planets first.

[Old Manus]

People make robots that people buy to do their work for them

[Captain Maxx Power]

I would hope most people would devote their lives to acquiring knowledge and putting it to good use. The majority of technological advances have only been possible because people don't have to do as much so have more "thinking" time.

[Loony BoB]

I never said this will happen tomorrow. I'm saying eventually.

I'm extremely confident that there will be machines capable of diagnosing a disease in the future. All you need is a machine that can take a blood sample from a human and then check it out, or a machine that can take a scan of a human and then check it out. As far as I know, there are machines that are capable of taking samples and I'm confident there are machines that will eventually be able to take a blood sample. As for the rest, I'm pretty sure that - be it two years from now or ten thousand years - we will eventually have a machine capable of scan/blood analysis. So yeah, it'll happen.

I think you guys think I mean in the next ten years - I don't.

[Captain Maxx Power]

As for the rest, I'm pretty sure that - be it two years from now or ten thousand years - we will eventually have a machine capable of scan/blood analysis. So yeah, it'll happen.

Closer to two years, possibly even less. Computational power is growing exponentially, as well as technological growth rate in general. Because of this we'll probably see the same level of technology growth in the next hundred years that we would have seen in the past two thousand years (or it could be as high as ten thousand).

[blackmage_nuke]

Even if you get places run by robots your going to get those people who prefer the old fashioned way, ie Some people dont want to talk to a robotic shop clerk or be diagnosed by a bucket of bolts.