Comment 52376

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted November 29, 2010 at 20:53:50

I'm in total agreement Centrist. The problem with robots (as a metaphor for technology in general) is that we compete with them for jobs. If robots replaced every one of our jobs today, we'd all simply be unemployed tomorrow. The day after that, there'd be massive hiring in service-sector jobs such as toilet flushers, sidewalk sweepers and shoe-shiners (likely at pennies an hour). We already see a lot of this with China, where people are literally paid to play the boring parts of video games for wealthy Americans.

Boring jobs are a problem, especially when we're expecting entire sectors of the population to spend the majority of their lives doing them, and when those jobs aren't really accomplishing everything (Telemarketing, etc).

For decades, a larger portion of a larger population has been working more hours and producing much more in each one of those hours. We've acquired a global workforce that's too cheap to meter, computers, and the internet. Yet wages haven't risen in real terms, debt's higher than ever at every level, the environment is in serious peril, and progress in combating global poverty has actually slowed down. More work isn't the solution. Better work is (useful, safe, enjoyable etc).

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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