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Bill Gates: Prepare to be Assimilated

posted by janrinok on Monday March 17 2014, @08:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the borg-revisited dept.

sl4shd0rk writes:

"Bill Gates says everyone needs to prepare to be out of work in 20 years due to Robots/software taking over most jobs. In preparation for this, Gates recommends people 'should basically get on their knees and beg businesses to keep employing humans' and reduce operating overhead for businesses by 'eliminating payroll and corporate income taxes while also not raising the minimum wage'. Bill Gates, you may recall, is the former CEO of Microsoft whose business acumen has brought the technology sector such things as Metro, Windows Phone and Xbox One.

BusinessInsider took a similar theme earlier this year."

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Bokononist on Monday March 17 2014, @10:16PM

    by Bokononist (3013) on Monday March 17 2014, @10:16PM (#17904)

    Yup considering the trouble e the invention of the lawnmower caused 200 years ago putting all those sythe workers out of a job, not even mentioning the sythe making industry which barely survived it. And http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_shuttle [wikipedia.org] the god awful mess the automated manufacturing of fabric caused. We should learn these lessons from the past and turn that clock right back. (/sarcastic rant)

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by snick on Monday March 17 2014, @10:57PM

    by snick (1408) on Monday March 17 2014, @10:57PM (#17914)

    If your point is that displaced workers will move on to the next thing, then that's fine.

    I was responding to the original post that suggested that in 20 years there won't be a "next thing." The idea that we need to placate our corporate overlords with hookers and blow so that they don't throw the population out of work en masse is stupid.

    The worst thing possible for our corporate overlords would be a collapse of the consumer class.

    • (Score: 1) by Bokononist on Tuesday March 18 2014, @05:12AM

      by Bokononist (3013) on Tuesday March 18 2014, @05:12AM (#17974)

      Do you know what, I responded originally to the part of your post that refers to a consumer economy. I made quite a long post and I managed to lose it all while switching between tabs so only retyped a small part of it as I was going to bed. In hindsight it doesn't respond to your post directly at all.
        In a nutshell, I think we are heading towards a time of greater automation and thus greater personal freedom. What I don't think is a great future is one where everyone that is not doing a menial job because of automation has to become a consumer, 'consume consume consume baby, what the fuck else is a pleb like you good for?' I think it is a narrow minded idea(not suggesting its yours btw) that could hold back a great new period in the technological age.

      --
      Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.