Rise of the machines

An example of automation being resisted for ages and Southern Rail finally just throwing money at it.

Aslef train drivers accept Southern rail deal

If anything was perfect for full automation, it’s trains and, of course, the underground system.

Margaret Attwood’s book The Heart Stops Last - or something like that is about a society in decline for mr average and Sexbots. Well there is other stuff but prescient in that if we could make decent sexbots that’s where big business would concentrate - not on cars or widgets.

1 Like

Hmm, that looks good. She’s written some incredible books (not least, the Handmaid’s Tale) but I’ve never heard of that one, so will look it up.

EDIT: The Heart Goes Last, published in 2015. Talking of auotmation, a download for the kindle, I think.

2 Likes

A SEX robot that can be “seduced” could soon be mass produced in Wales, its creators have claimed.

Bring it on. Far fucking better getting non-intelligent automatons to create shit than having Chinese kids die in sweatshops.

For far too long, we’ve been locked into this false paradigm that everyone has to work. In reality, it has been the same since the classical times. Elites vs Plebs. The rich never want to give shit up, the poor are always made to strive for any part of this Earth.

We should embrace automation. Other countries will if we don’t, and if they get there first, it’ll just be another case of “failed British engineering”. It perhaps already is.

It’s a huge subject which I’m glad you’ve raised. Personally, I think it requires a wholesale rewriting of the social contract and serious investment. There’s a government in waiting for that, y’know :lou_lol:

1 Like

Does it’s mouth open?

Asking for a friend.

4 Likes

That’s the fella - soz about the title.

She must be in her 70’s but you’d never guess it.

Mrs C_S recommended the book to me. I’m worried - read the book and you’ll know why…

A teaser - straight, gay, straight Elvis’s - very funny.

1 Like

I’d hope so given that it talks, other wise it’d be like knobbing Roger De Courcey

5 Likes

I generally agree. Prof David Autor says a similar thing. He neatly compares two oil-rich states (Norway and Saudi Arabia) and highlights the differences as being institutional. (If you’ve got 20 mins to spare, take a look at his TED talk here)

The problem is (as he also points out) technology ends up increasingly stratifying society. Growth in jobs is at the top end among professionals and at the bottom end in providing services for those professionals. This is at the expense of the middle class, which is so easily automated. Look at any car factory. These are good jobs attracting good wages but although we produce far more cars in this country then we ever have in the past, these factories employ a fraction of the people they used to employ. When production and avergely skilled service jobs go, where do the people made redundant end up? Working in care homes? Security guards? Fast food? Driving lorries? Setting up on their own at below minimum wage?

All these things need to be done but, I’d argue, this is creating a divide in society (more pronounced in the US) of the elite and the plebs (as you put it). Automation is making this worse, not better.

4 Likes

We can all see what Fatso has latched onto.

1 Like

It’s all a matter of taste I guess…

Pretty sure that is how Our MPs have been trying to seduce the Westminister bar staff, hence all the kerfuffle right now

Which is why I support the idea of a national corporation so everyone can benefit from these things.

It’s the classic who owns the means of production thing, just polarised.

Your average lad on the council estate doesn’t have a robot factory. Your average corporation can’t be trusted. Your average politician can be bunged out if they do a shit job.

A collective investment in an automated society could reap tremendous dividends for society at large, but if they don’t, people will ask why Mr Rich Man has the Robot Factory.

I don’t think they’ll be satisfied with the answers, which is why the new social contract is so essential.

Anyone here work in law or tax? Top of the professions at risk of automation according to one of my PhD students.

https://twitter.com/GKTFO/status/928700531102683136

3 Likes

Yuk.

I couldn’t bear nookie with De Courcey.

Again.

Anyway, 'slowlane was interested in whether they’d still be able to take their teeth out.

And drink cocoa.

3 Likes

A sex robot, who could be “seduced”. I’m no expert, but if you’re in the market for a sex robot, you’re not wasting time on any seduction.

1 Like

Happy for a robot to take over my job. It would need to gather info from various sources, meet children and parents/carers/family gather info. Using theory, observation, different ways of talking to those people, direct work tools and being empathetic. Write it all up in different case notes, pull it all together in an assessment using evidence for the conclusion, recommending plans for children to ensure they are safe. On top of that fielding numerous calls and emails. Lots of visits, going with police, other professionals. Making referrals to other agencies for specific pieces of work. Attending court, giving evidence, writing reports etc, etc…

When is the robot taking over? I need a rest. Think my job comes in under number 1 on this list.

have-you-got-one-of-the-most-stressful-jobs-7063089/

1 Like

The danger is that under our current capitalist system, the job-taking-robots can design and build other job-taking-robots…and essentially we approach a singularity where private companies invent labour-saving devices/machines/computers which in one fell swoop outcompete the labour of other countries like China and India and obliterate their economy back to the stone age, whilst a relatively minescule class of elites become outright God-like trillionaires having a complete stranglehold on almost every single industry.

If Facebook invents this shit, then what should China do in response? What would it make sense for them to do given the fact that hundreds of millions of their citizens will in one fell swoop become totally economically unproductive and essentially a completely dependent class of adult children that need looking after?

It was interesting listening to a Sam Harris/Joe Rogan conversation on the future of AI a while back; many people in the scientific community seriously believe that AI is a bigger threat to humanity than nuclear war.