The next few decades and the end of work (v2)

cells

This problem is nothing vs what will happen when we cure ageing or at least massively extend it....500 year old grannies

maybe the two will coincide and the robots will look after the 100 billion great great great grannies

cells

At some stage we will have machines do everything. But the result will not be masses of poor homeless people but masses of rich people with plenty

It could operate in a few ways. One is that everything could be free. Another would be ration book type limits. Yet another is that by then humanity may make its voyage into space and we find that we spit up into millions of colonies of spaceships

who knows, but poverty isn't what I would fear from automation

CLAPTON

Clifford_Pope wrote: »

The main problem will be ensuring that there exists a mechanism for distributing them to everybody.
It's all very well an elite having access to an island of plenty, but why should they chose to let everybody else in?

why would an elite who have everything care whether I too have more than I need?

I share the same free air as the elite : they don't seem to resent that

Loughton_Monkey

I'll file this one with all the other "straight Line myths". These are the ones which follow a handful of 'trends' over 12 or 18 months and assume this will apply forever.

Late 70's at work I was assigned for 9 months to a large 'strategy project'. It was largely IT people and I was a 'token' 'bright lad' from the business end. I disagreed vehemantly with most of the findings but was always ignored, shot down, and told I was wrong.

Needless to say, the laughable headline 'findings' included (a) the paperless office, and (b) the fact that everyone would be rich and retire by 50 to enjoy untold leisure.

Rather ironically, the whole thing was basically an IT 'ruse' to justify buying a couple of those huge laser printers [that work on a 2 ton roll of paper] that were (at the time) extraordinarily expensive.

The only people retiring at 50 and enjoying leisure would have been the project's leader who would have received a significant kick-back from IBM or whoever it was trying to sell the printers.

I shall lose no sleep over this one!

Generali

cells wrote: »

This problem is nothing vs what will happen when we cure ageing or at least massively extend it....500 year old grannies

maybe the two will coincide and the robots will look after the 100 billion great great great grannies

Ah yes, the coming zombie robot apocalypse of care workers:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/19/national/social-issues/robot-niche-expands-in-senior-care/

Given Japan’s rapidly aging population, efforts are accelerating to devise more practical and affordable robots to help seniors handle daily tasks, as well as to cope with a projected shortage of caregivers.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has allocated ¥2.39 billion in the fiscal 2013 budget to assist the development of such robots and increase their use. Last month, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry selected 24 companies that will receive subsidies covering between half and two-thirds of the costs of developing what METI calls “nursing care robot equipment.”

kabayiri

When we get the initial wave or robots who are pretty darn clever and flexible, one of the first things they will do is set about building newer versions of themselves....I mean, why should one robot work it's cogs to the crankshaft if it can devolve the workload?

Unfortunately, the younger newer robots won't share this vision. They shall consider themselves a step above these menial duties, and will spend all day watching Futurama reruns trying to spot relatives. The obvious conflict arising is well understood by us obsolete humans.

This will of course lead to the era of Robot Wars (the real robot wars, not that gimmicky thing Craig Charles did).

I shall be sat on the sidelines selling popcorn to the remaining homosapiens who want to watch the metal mickey carnage unfurl. (Get your order and seat booking in quick)

Thrugelmir

cells wrote: »

At some stage we will have machines do everything.

There's plenty of under employed people on this planet.

tkane

Sardo_Numpsa wrote: »

Wiki basic income (sorry I can't post links)

Other "solutions" that come to mind are extreme poverty for all non-owners of capital, or complete nationalisation of the entire economy.

We could all become men and women of leisure and therefore leisure industries would boom.

More hotels/restaurants/cinemas/sports grounds/airlines/theme parks/museums/sex workers

cells

Generali wrote: »

Ah yes, the coming zombie robot apocalypse of care workers:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/19/national/social-issues/robot-niche-expands-in-senior-care/

Why have a robit wipe your !!!! when you can grow yourself a new body

as long as 40 years ago, full head transplants were proven possible.

A monkeys head was cut off and put onto the body of a second monkey and it lived for 11 days before the body rejected the head.

YouTube videos available but dont watch em if you got a weak stomach

cells

I think you lot are greatly underestimating what these robots will do.

Taking crappy human jobs is trivial. They will terraform Mars and Venus for us and maybe even move their orbits and spins to more match conditions on earth.

At some stage we may even need to escape our host star, the robots will convert the moon or some other orbiting body into an artificial 'sun' and throw us off into the distant universe to some other host star. Earth will become our intergenerational spacecraft.....maybe...or not