Technologies Like Google's Self-Driving Car: Destroying Jobs?

Nerval's Lobster writes "For quite some time, some economists and social scientists have argued that advances in robotics and computer technology are systematically wrecking the job prospects of human beings. Back in June, for example, an MIT Technology Review article detailed Erik Brynjolfsson (a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management) and a co-author suggesting that the evolution of computer technology was "largely behind the sluggish employment growth of the last 10 to 15 years." Of course, technological change and its impact on the workforce is nothing new; just look at the Industrial Revolution, when labor-saving devices put many a hard-working homo sapien out of economic commission. But how far can things go? There are even arguments that the technology behind Google's Self-Driving Car, which allows machines to rapidly adapt to situations, could put whole new subsets of people out of jobs."

Comments

Re:Oh noes!

[Computershack]

Nevermind the new jobs that this will enable.

I'm curious - what new careers do you foresee, that current professional drivers would qualify for?

I was a trucker for 20 years. I've just been given an offer of a place at a top 10 university to do a BEng (Hons) in Electronics Engineering. Not all of us do trucking because we're incapable of doing anything else and I find your insinuation that we are quite insulting.

Re:Out of jobs?

[Nadaka]

Technology only destroys jobs if you accept that the vast majority of the improvement in quality of life resulting from less labor required for survival should be reserved for a handful of plutocrats. Employment is low. Profits are high. Fewer people work more to get less out of fear that they will be cut next.

What technology can do is increase everyone's quality of life. Lower the work week to 32 hours and abolish the distinction between part time and full time employees and increase minimum wage to a scale that follows the cost of basic food, utilities, shelter and transportation (it would be around $18 an hour if it had been). More people working less and having more time for family or other hobbies that actually make life worth living.

Re:Out of jobs?

[JaredOfEuropa]

When robots do all the work, Marx' old question about the ownership of the means of production (and of raw materials and land) becomes acutely relevant. If the top 1% own the robots, the 99% is pretty much useless. Robots will be able to provide the masses with a minimum of housing and comforts to keep them placated, and there will be a small middle class of researchers, technicians and entertainers, but that'll be it. Not a very bright future... When robots do all the work, socialism suddenly starts to look a lot more attractive (I never though I'd write those words).