Quarmat wrote: ↑05 Dec 2022
2) will AI make obsolete some jobs that have historically played an important role and that require years and years of study, practice and even a form of 'genius'? yes. In a way not unlike when the steam engine made wind-powered sailing, which had lasted over 3000 years, with all its paraphernalia, its vocabulary, its enormous and detailed package of knowledge, outdated and without a future. Do sailing boats still exist? Yes, but they are no more than a form of pleasure, sport or necessity if you end up shipwrecked on a deserted island.
The decimation of manual labour has meant that 80% of jobs come from the service industry, which barely existed 150 years ago.
The service industry is mainly redundant and was partially decimated by computer automation (e.g. tellers, and computers in general) and computer assistance (DTP, spreadsheets, etc.).
Despite being tens of thousands of times more productive than we ever were, we still require far more working hours per person than we did before industrialization.
This looks a hell of a lot like industrialization did take our jobs, but it doesn't look like it because we still have jobs.
And what would happen if AI took over the service industry? Of course, we will have to find something else to do. Maybe we'll optimize SEO, create prompts for the AI, or optimize the way cleaning robots brush leaves. So long as our lives depend on earning a living to eat and pay our rent, we will, no doubt, persist to try to earn a living, right?
And those people will say, "AI wasn't a problem, look, I earned 3 credits today by spending 17 hours optimizing the way AI designs cubicles to better diffuse streams of piss that hit the AI-designed enamel, and now I can afford an AI-baked loaf of bread for supper" - through his few remaining plaque covered teeth
Anything that "takes away our jobs" does not do so by looking like it takes away our jobs. Instead, we'll just get less money for the same work but not notice it.
Most people just don't understand how much money they're losing to inflation and their employees not giving them pay rises to match. Each time an employee does not give a pay rise to match inflation, they are effectively reducing your wages.
And yet, it is not a bad thing for AI or anything to take away our jobs.
The goal should be for AI to take away our jobs so that we can live more abundant lives.
That's the real adaptation we need.