No.

This is why I think we should start phasing in basic income now, and why Putin33's beloved labor-oriented class struggle dies on it's ass. There just isn't going to be much "work" that's necessary for people to do; for an increasing number of people the best they can do is just stay out of the way.

Lawyers and radiologists, up next...

Okay...

Yes, webdip surely attracts somewhat of an intellectual bunch who are more inclined to do highly skilled labor.

Let's just make this a thread about how machines take over jobs of other people and what that means.

Society will adjust. There will be jobs. I'm sure that 100 years ago, people couldn't have imagined what jobs might arise if all the jobs were replaced that have already been replaced.

100 years ago, the creation of technology added new jobs to the economy because it was augmenting what society as a whole could accomplish using the technology. We've changed course now though where technology is now not just doing new tasks not done by people, but doing old tasks at a much cheaper and more efficient rate than a person could. Society will not automatically adjust to this shift by staying the course.

That was always the case, y2k. Farm equipment reduced the need for laborers. Ditto factory equipment, ditto computers, etc., etc. Yes, it replaces workers, and yes, it augments our capabilities. Both will remain true.

I don't know very much about economics, but I've always had this question:

I get that it is scary for a specific service worker that she might lose her job to a computer, but on the macroscopic scale isn't she being replaced by a computer a strictly good thing for the world?

so where did we end up,no middle class and a service based economy

thats not an argument for "right or wrong" its just the truth....lie or not

One area of growth that will help the working class is computer technicians, which is already skyrocketing. These are good, skilled job that don't require an enormous amount of education. They'll be the factory jobs of the future.

that i would agree

And no, a machine can't do my job. I make the machines. Sophisticsted self-assembly is decades away.

but how long will that future be?

There is actually no current evidence for the proposition (asserted in the article) that "computers can do anything humans can do." So far, a computer has yet to exercise judgment (nor is there even much of an idea how such a thing could occur).

True AI is something that will rock the world, hopefully for the better. It will be interesting to see how close the sci-fi predictions were in terms of how artificially intelligent machines will work in society.

"True AI is something that will rock the world, hopefully for the better."

Maybe. But there aren't even the beginnings of research in that direction. Whether it will ever happen is a completely open question, on par with whether we'll meet intelligent aliens or what the theory of quantum gravity should be.

big brother is watching

Probably.

how far do we go as a society, letting technology run everything in our lives

Three quarters of a mile.

not 2/3

Yay for Semck and Abge! Boo for all the Luddites who quiver in fear of technology, because they have such limited understanding of what they are talking about, as if suddenly tomorrow machines will self-replicate, self-repair, self-design, etc.

The jobs themselves won't be lost forever, they will only be transferred. Perhaps a manual machinist will lose his job CNC machinist, which will lose his job to some automated machining. But those machines need to be manufactured, need to be maintained/serviced, need to be programmed, and many more will research better ways to do it. Thus, while one job may be lost in one sector, many other jobs will arise in different fields.

Machines will only ever replace humans when the labour someone has to offer is not worth their salary. And thanks to minimum wages, that is the case for A LOT of people which WILL get replaced my machines, the company owners would not have employed machines if they could pay their employees a salary they deserve and not one dictated by some government living in the past.

I'm a machine repair man and I know where the on/off switch is ....... I have the power

When a machine can win Diplomacy we know we're in trouble.

Whatever do you mean Abge? I'm not a machine. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to eat some batteries. I mean human food.

I could probably write a program that could kick ass at gunboat...

I would love to see it. It would make for a great anonymous entry in the gunboat tournament.

I'm sure you could. Then again, we all know your average chimp would fare well in gunboat, too, so what really would you have accomplished? : )

wow just had an idea, maybe we can have a webdiplomacy AI contest, see who makes the best gunboat AI.

I'm pretty sure I'll give this a whack sooner rather than later.

What I'm envisioning is starting off with trying to make one that can play PPSC on any map, and from there make extensions that allow for WTA play that is tailored to specific maps, say the classic one.

There exists gunboat ai. Not sure how good it is but playing against it can be fun. I can send a link later if there's interest on my phone now.

Apparently it has press too

https://sites.google.com/site/diplomacyai/QuickStart

The excess labor problem will be solved in short order once Skynet goes online.