Zombie Robot Apocalypse of Call Centre Workers

Thrugelmir

Generali wrote: »

So this is actually a coming robot zombie apocalypse of the actual middle class.

Started 30+ years ago Gen. I used to maintain the investment ledgers for Friends Provident Life Office. All trades were hand written in. I wrote the cheques to settle account balances. Chased brokers for proceeds of sale. Recorded all the dividends and fixed interest income.

Our adding machines couldn't cope when the fund went through the billion pound level.

How quickly life has changed........

kabayiri

vivatifosi wrote: »

Then your best bet Gen is to do something that is straightforward for a human but difficult for a computer... like cutting hair or shelving books in a library. Though in the case of the latter you may still be replaced, but by a volunteer who has recently lost their job in a call centre.

Perhaps the biggest real benefit to boomers is not property or anything else, but the fact that they will be retired before the zombie apocalypse arrives.

When I did robotics it was shoes which was a difficult thing to fully automate.

It wasn't a problem.

We have replaced real robots with human versions for shoes, its just that they live in places like Vietnam.

Generali

kabayiri wrote: »

When I did robotics it was shoes which was a difficult thing to fully automate.

It wasn't a problem.

We have replaced real robots with human versions for shoes, its just that they live in places like Vietnam.

That's very interesting but perhaps we should remember that computers/robots get twice as 'clever' every 18 months (Moore's Law).

What if a company competes with the post office to deliver letters and parcels via zombie robot? Amazon have threatened to do that in 18 months time.

I can buy a 32" stereo TV forgetting the flat screen and HD for $200. That would have been £1000 20 years ago without inflation. Technology is amazing but might screw us too.

nickj_2

Generali wrote: »

Call centres have taken up a lot of the low-skilled workers in areas that were previously dominated by factories.

Despite the caricature that call centres are all based in India, according to Unison, a million Britons work in call centres (link)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/banking/10733432/Banking-technology-brings-seismic-decline-in-branch-transactions.html

i would say work in the call centres isn't quite right , making customers lives hell in the name of customer service would be a better description ...... i'll just pass you thru to someone who can deal with your problem ..... etc etc

globalds

You are definitely seeing something here Gen.

I have posted in the discussion on self drive vehicles and think that is a really huge thing that is going to happen pretty soon ..I was thinking it would also be one of those wake up moments ..When almost everybody sees how quickly something is happening ..But you seem to be posting alternate wake up moments.

Generali

globalds wrote: »

You are definitely seeing something here Gen.

I have posted in the discussion on self drive vehicles and think that is a really huge thing that is going to happen pretty soon ..I was thinking it would also be one of those wake up moments ..When almost everybody sees how quickly something is happening ..But you seem to be posting alternate wake up moments.

Thank you.

I think most people think these Zombie Robot Apocalypse threads are some kind of weird obsession I have, that this is like me being a Scottish drunk screaming abuse at morning commuters from a church doorway in London.

My opinion is that really is going to happen and that it's going to be as big a change as the industrial revolution.

The industrial revolution made everyone richer in the end but for a few decades it made some poor people a lot poorer. Not the poorest people because they had nothing anyway (sometimes not even clothes) but let's say the group in the bottom 10-30% of earners, something like that anyhow. The coming Zombie Robot Apocalypse is likely to do something similar on a global scale, probably to those in something like the 50-75% section of earners globally.

globalds

I like the word overdetermined.

I saw it first as a word used to describe why we had a 2nd world war ..and it fits the future pathway you are pinpointing.

We have a new asda in town ..a month old ..it has a petrol station like the last asda it replaced ..except this one has no staff.
the checkouts have the usual auto checkout area for baskets ..plus alongside it are 5 rows of conveyor belt auto check outs ..one person watches five checkouts.
Not fully automated but you can see that like a chess game the next move by the competition is going to be a reaction in a similar direction.

Generali

globalds wrote: »

I like the word overdetermined.

I saw it first as a word used to describe why we had a 2nd world war ..and it fits the future pathway you are pinpointing.

We have a new asda in town ..a month old ..it has a petrol station like the last asda it replaced ..except this one has no staff.
the checkouts have the usual auto checkout area for baskets ..plus alongside it are 5 rows of conveyor belt auto check outs ..one person watches five checkouts.
Not fully automated but you can see that like a chess game the next move by the competition is going to be a reaction in a similar direction.

I reckon more people go through the zombie robot queue than through the real person queue in my local supermarket.

Conrad

Generali wrote: »

Indeed and this is the problem. The coming zombie apocalypse of just about everyone is on its way.

Modern capitalism, as produced in the C19th was founded on the proposition that your employees effectively also became your customers.

The trouble is, if robots are cheaper to employ then for each individual company it makes sense to use robots. For all companies however that is a losing proposition. It would be best for all companies to use employees except mine.

Game theory tells us that people will often be pushed into making what is a bad decision for everyone together because it's a good decision for them. Google the prisoners' dilemma to see why the zombie robot apocalypse is probably inevitable.

At face value these ever changing shifts have always looked like an oncoming tsunami, whether it be the demise of the smithy or the annihilation of cotton mills.

New unimagined growth areas create new employment. Only 25 years ago Microsoft was a nothing.


A major new creator of employment will be the health sector where for example we all expect replacement lab grown organs. Many other new areas are emerging that will soak up workers.

As I've mentioned afore, were entering the third industrial revolution.



High street Banks were a passing phase like coach houses.

Conrad

Generali wrote: »

I reckon more people go through the zombie robot queue than through the real person queue in my local supermarket.

Ok but have you seen the numbers on what's happening to US Malls? They are in decline, people use the net and like bespoke Independent ole fashioned style of retailing now.


One shift leads to a new opportunity.


Masses of new shifts out there.