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from the ya-tvoy-sluga-ya-tvoy-rabotnik dept.
regift_of_the_gods writes:
"A study that was published last year by two Oxford researchers predicted that 47 percent of US jobs could be computerized within the next 20 years, including both manual labor and high cognition office work. The Oxford report presented three axes to show what types of jobs were relatively safe from being routed by robots and software; those requiring high levels of social intelligence (public relations), creativity (scientist, fashion designer), or perception and manipulation (surgeon) were less likely to be displaced.
This further obsolescence of jobs due to automation may have already begun. The Financial Times describes an emerging wave of products and services from algorithmic-intensive, data-rich tech startups that will threaten increasing numbers of jobs including both knowledge and blue collar workers. The lead example is Kensho, a startup founded by ex-Google and Apple engineers that is building an engine to estimate the impact of real or hypothetical news items on security prices, with questions posed in a natural language. Specialist knowledge workers in many other fields, including law and medicine, could also be at risk. At lower income levels, the dangerous are posed by increasingly agile and autonomous robots, such as those Amazon uses to staff some of its fulfillment warehouses.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday March 04 2014, @12:51PM
I agree with your outlook, however to say we have a minority opinion would be an understatement. The average American would literally rather die than think. The only acceptable reason for an American to desire education, at least in public, is training for a high paying job.
The ripoff was the waitress was sold $75K of debt on the promise she would earn a lifetime of $100K/yr teaching job. Forgetting to mention we intentionally overproduce about twice as many teachers as we need, and the average employment till burnout is only about a decade, and almost none of them will make $100K during that first decade. So that theoretical rate of return of 80K annually for 40 years suddenly drops to maybe $10K for ten years for half of them, the other half can waitress (probably getting more money). So the societal average return on that fedgov guaranteed undischargable student loan for $75K is $50K. Whoops.
There is also a societal cost in that if you assume you're not going to get that high paying job, you can safely pursue more interesting topics, which might on odd chance pay off. Maybe that waitress would have been the next Beethoven if she had bothered with music theory classes, instead of trying to train for a job she'll never get anyway. Training for a job that'll never exist is not as valuable of an educational experience as taking philosophy classes.
As the old dotcom saying goes, we're losing money on every deal, but I'm sure we'll make up for it in volume...
(Score: 2) by Daniel Dvorkin on Tuesday March 04 2014, @03:00PM
Not you, though. You're different. Special. Better. Not like all those sheeple.
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(Score: 1) by sgleysti on Tuesday March 04 2014, @09:10PM
I'm glad you called out his unwarranted elitism, but man... that was brutal.
(Score: 2) by Daniel Dvorkin on Tuesday March 04 2014, @09:22PM
I have a hard time being nice when I hear crap like that.
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