Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?

[David Horn]

(08-15-2017, 11:17 AM)tg63 Wrote:

(08-15-2017, 09:36 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(08-14-2017, 06:15 PM)Kinser79 Wrote:

(08-14-2017, 05:34 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: If globalization and automation are tools of bondage, then maybe we would be wise to refuse to buy our own chains.

Globalization is bondage, but automation is not.  Every time humans have automated a job it has resulted in more goods, for less cost to more potential purchasers.  Unless of course your idea of a fun time is staring at the ass end of a mule for months out of they year.

Adding my $0.02: Automation has a terminal phase, where all work is automated.  We're a long way from that, but we had better start thinking about what this means, and start that thinking now!  The automatons are owned by capitalists, mostly through corporations.  What they produce, whether goods or services, have to be obtained by others with money (at least today).  If work is nonexistent, then the buyers will be few and far between.  

Essentially, this is a world of owners.  What about the rest of us?

Interesting discussion, which I agree isn't getting enough attention.  

One thing you're not considering efficiency - people haven't stopped working in transportation because of the internal combustion engine - it, and related technologies, require maintaining, which can be very resource-intensive.  People have made good careers out of trying to improve on existing technologies.  I don't expect this to change - technologies that automate existing manual processes will have to be maintained and improved upon.  In this regard I don't agree that there is an end state.

Don't get me wrong - this is a massive cultural shift and there will be many many people left behind.  But there will always be shifting demands which will require supply side to adapt.

I was discussing the terminal phase, which is probably a few decades to a century away.  Eventually, humans will not only be redundant and noncompetitive with machines capable of doing literally anything at no cost, but better at most task than we are.  It will be a byproduct of Self replicating machines and basic machine precision.