The Revolution Will Be Automated

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Joe Stanganelli 10/23/2017 | 3:02:23 PM

Re: Big exception Vaclav Havel (Czech playwright who went on to be the Czech Republic's first President) observed in one of his many letters to his wife, Olga, from prison during his time as a political dissident that (I paraphrase, of ocurse) the archetype of the starving artist who sacrifices everything for his/her art and lives/breathes/eats/sleeps nothing but his/her art is not much of a real artist -- and that, rather, art optimally comes from regular people who live real lives, not letting their art consume them. After all, he reasoned, if art's purpose is to comment on matters of life and being, then the artist does his/her work a disservice by living a life of nothing but art.

...but, as the meme goes, that's none of my business.

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Joe Stanganelli 10/23/2017 | 2:56:43 PM

Re: What's new (pussycat)? @Paul: Sounds about right to me. I don't use mobile banking, don't drive a "connected" car, and otherwise stay away from as much digital stuff as I feasibly can -- all while working in the digital space!

I pine for the days where connectivity meant using my 14.4-baud modem to dial in to the local BBSs for a few minutes at a time.

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Joe Stanganelli 10/23/2017 | 2:54:53 PM

Re: What's new (pussycat)? @mendyk: Indeed, perhaps the best example of this is Amazon Robotics -- formerly known as Kiva, before Amazon's acquisition. The company developed warehouse robots to help carry and sort warehouse items to make warehouse workers' jobs easier and make the performance of their duties more efficient -- without replacing a single human worker.

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Joe Stanganelli 10/22/2017 | 10:26:11 AM

Re: Automatonic @kq4ym: What many forget is that the replacement of jobs by technology is not the only or even a primary measure of economic development in society.

Tractors "replaced" or "eliminated" jobs too. So did automobiles. So did electricity.

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ShoshanaS 10/22/2017 | 12:21:54 AM

Re: Big exception That isn't much of an exception w/r/t the economy. It may have escaped the attention of the honorable commenting public that the arts have been bleeding out for years. And with the current political situation... it's probably a good thing (collectively, not individually) that artists will sacrifice and suffer for art. Because it damn sure isn't being funded, and everyone wants art for free... but humanity needs art.

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kq4ym 10/20/2017 | 7:57:29 AM

Re: Automatonic While it may become true that automation may bring about "changes that could displace half the US workforce within the next two decades," could also be true that it won't. That's the problem with forecasting far into the future. The variables are so great that either the forecast will be true or it won't. Or something inbetween. While it may be useful to think about such thing "just in case" I'm not going to bet on the outcome one way or the other.

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ArthurP605 10/17/2017 | 10:52:01 PM

Not so fast I'm a sceptic - I'd claim we are yet to see any significant technology displacing workers due to progress in AI or machine learning. I've been a software developer for years, and also got my hands dirty doing machine learning, data analytics in last few. But while it's easy to get excited and extrapolate from the progress in last 15 years (smartphones, self driving cars, follow me drones), where are the flying cars and jetpacks we dreamed about when I was younger? Why are airplanes not flying faster? Why can't amazon/google and the others get the drone to deliver anything yet?

The problem is technology / software is never bug free , you'd be suprise how unintelligent computers and software is. Self modifying code? Okay, that will be interesting. Cars will drive themselves - sure, less drivers will be needed. Most of the manufacturing jobs will go - they already did - because of robots on the assembly line. But I'd argue that most of us still left with jobs in USA - well, our jobs can't be done by machine... because we need to think, and respond to undefined number of variables and changes daily. Famous last words off course :)

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mendyk 10/11/2017 | 10:48:54 AM

Re: What's new (pussycat)? One big difference is that, for the most part, machines have served to replace manual labor processes. Yes, computers have taken over some nonmanual jobs, but that led to the creation of other nonmanual jobs because, well, computers have needed intensive human intervention. Autonomous systems will require much lower levels of human intervention -- i.e., humans as service animals for basic maintenance. Fortunately for us, this is a development that will be most keenly felt in the second half of this century.

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PaulERainford 10/11/2017 | 4:31:06 AM

What's new (pussycat)? Surely machines have been disrupting the economic order since time immemorial - I don't see what's new here. The only new bit is the technology being used to implement this fresh batch of 'automation'.

I also have a theory that as the dangers of being connected become increasingly apparent through massive data breaches and wotnot, there will be a retreat from all-pervading connectivity - think 'digital detox' but on a massive and possibly permanent basis. And once that connectivity starts to wither, so, maybe, will the potential of this new, hyped-up version of 'automation'. But hey, I've still got a VHS video recorder in my home entertainment arsenal so what do I know?

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Steve Saunders 10/10/2017 | 1:57:05 PM

Re: Big exception I for one welcome our new AI overlords (and their superior taste in prose verse)

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