Robots arestealing our job . Again . In fact , they ’ve been stealing our jobs in one mode or another since the dawn of the industrial revolution .
But when theeconomy ’s in the toilet , our awe of robotic worker strive new heights . And that fright was well reflected in the early eighties — a period of twofold - fingerbreadth rising prices and double - digit unemployment .
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The 1982 bookThe Omni Future Almanacoutlined the many jobs that it claimed were speculate to be made disused by technology by the 21st one C . Like nearly all forecasting for the futurity , there ’s some they got right , some they got wrong , and there ’s a mickle that ’s capable to interpretation .
For example , take their anticipation for grocery cashiers . Sure , my local grocery computer storage hasself - check-out procedure . But the cashier is far from an extinct Book of Job . Even the self - check-out procedure lane has at least one human being keep an eye on things . Or take farm workers . Many facial expression of mod agriculture have been automatise , but a late study showed that nearly one-half of all farmers in the U.S.can’t even find enough farmworkersto pluck their harvest . The book accurately predicted the shift from a manufacture economy to one seemingly build on selective information services , but there ’s still a lot that they did n’t foresee .
A few of the jobs that the record predicted would be outmoded by engineering :
Grocery cashiers
Farm worker
teetotal cleaners
Small tangible landed estate brokers
threshold - to - threshold sales rep
bell booth operators
Bank clerks
Traditional telephone operators
typist
Secretaries
graphics room staff ( paste - up , letterer , graph maker , draftsman )
Indian file clerks
“ Paper ” bibliothec
storage warehouse inventoryperson
storage warehouse packer
Machine loaders
machinist
Again , they get quite a few right . But they also over - estimated the ability of machines to completely take over many of these jobs . The book predicted the “ speedy elimination of most manual factory chore ” by the year 2000 . But whether it ’s TV sets or jean cap or iPhones , the resettlement of factory to blank space where companies can find meretricious labor has far outpaced the robot insurrection . And this is for the most part because our world is still so hooked on flesh - and - stemma workers .
There seems to be a pervasive myth here in the twenty-first century that the technology - focused disruptors of Silicon Valley are putting people out of oeuvre by shoot mankind out of the equivalence . But in most cases this could n’t be further from the trueness . The “ disruption ” occurring in Silicon Valley often have more to do with simply pay people less for the same job , rather than all automatise it .
Just look at something like UberX , where non - licensed taxi equipment driver roleplay as modern dayjitney cab . out of doors of Uber ’s app , the real origination here is the suppression of wages . Uber delivers a tawdry service than mainstream taxis by hiring driver as independent contractor rather than employees . By utilizing independent contractors Uber does n’t have to do things like give health tutelage reportage to their hundreds of drivers , or be held liable in case of an accident .
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Uber is currently stick with human driver — at least until driverless motorcar strike the mainstream . But you’re able to bet they ’re praying for those robo - taxi to arrive quickly . If only because driverless cars do n’t sound off when yousteal their pourboire .
1968 instance byRon Cobb , glance over from the 1976 bookThe Compleat Computer
driverless carspaleofutureRobotsSilicon ValleyUber
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