Official (Alberta) Oil Discussion Thread

[peter12]

Originally Posted by nik-

Three secure jobs.

Resistance fighter, battling against the machines. Probably a job until death.

Sign me up, John.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by peter12

You will probably see concerns come back down to earth in the next few years when people see how little impact that tech has had in increasing aggregate productivity, and overall economic value.

There are a lot of office jobs that follow an algorithm. As soon as the algorithm gets coded, that job is gone. In order words, we don't need to invent the technology, we just need to implement it.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Bandwagon In Flames

If there is anything that society has taught us, it's that 99% of people do the minimum amount of work to survive comfortably. The amount of work will decrease and decrease until there is nothing that we need to do in order to survive comfortably.

And it's going to happen way faster than you think.

I don't agree with that. Longer life expectancy has created a situation whereby many people in retirement find themselves in a position with no work to challenge them, for a fairly lengthy period of time.

Many find this intolerable and re-seek employment.

People need to be challenged and kept busy.

There was lots of talk decades ago about the pace that the number of hours in a work week was declining. Everyone figured that eventually we will only work like 10 hours a week or whatever. However, it turned out that the work week really hasn't declined at all over the last few decades - probably for the same reason.

What I see changing isn't that people will stop working to the point of their own demise, what I see is that the type of labour will continue to evolve into more refined, intellectual, safe, and/or enjoyable type positions (a trend that has already been in place for a century at least). As people become more well off (i.e. take care of basic needs), they don't seek less work, they seek more rewarding work.

[peter12]

Yeah, if your job involves copying and pasting, you are done in 5 years.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by peter12

Yeah, if your job involves copying and pasting, you are done in 5 years.

Wait, involves or consists entirely of? I do use copy and paste from time to time

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by peter12

Yeah, if your job involves copying and pasting, you are done in 5 years.

feeling a little down about your job today?

[peter12]

No, no like data entry stuff.

[CliffFletcher]

With the relentlessly improving quality of videogames and drugs - and the likelihood of a synergistic link between the two - I wager most people 40 years from now will be content enough lying stupefied with delight in their homes for days and weeks on end, emerging occasionally for sexual assignations arranged with strangers via bio-mapping algorithms. The only issue will be getting food to them. Drones delivering protein packs maybe?

[Fuzz]

You basically described The Matrix, but added in sex.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

With the relentlessly improving quality of videogames and drugs - and the likelihood of a synergistic link between the two - I wager most people 40 years from now will be content enough lying stupefied with delight in their homes for days and weeks on end, emerging occasionally for sexual assignations arranged with strangers via bio-mapping algorithms. The only issue will be getting food to them. Drones delivering protein packs maybe?

Maybe for some people. I still really enjoy hanging out with my friends and I doubt that's really going to change for me.

[mrkajz44]

While I agree that jobs will be further automated in the future, I highly doubt we'll see a bunch of people out of work because "the machines took their jobs". Our technological landscape changes so rapidly, with hundreds of thousands (if not more) of people now employed in industries that didn't exist 10 year years. I don't see why this cannot continue in perpetuity.

[Tacopuck]

Originally Posted by Bandwagon In Flames

If there is anything that society has taught us, it's that 99% of people do the minimum amount of work to survive comfortably. The amount of work will decrease and decrease until there is nothing that we need to do in order to survive comfortably.

And it's going to happen way faster than you think.

This is what implementing robotic labour is about. Forcing people to become more valuable than their autonomous counter part (through using their brain) or be forced out of the economic picture.

As a result the "lazy" will have a tougher time surviving. It is not a humanitarian goal in the immediate sense however the long term implications to human evolution and development would be beneficial. By forcing our population to constantly progress or be left out we will overall increase our ability for our species to survive the long term.

I only propose this idea because we fight public discourse that based on uneducated idea because our system as it is facilitates it. Forget climate change, the earth will be statistically guaranteed a extinction level event over time. The only true sustainable solution to this is to spread our species across many planets. This is not a new concept but it is over the heads of the majority of the population. This is why space development is not moving as fast as it could be. This is just one example of stupidity holding back the whole human population and we'd be best if we could change our civilization that dosent pander to the stupid.

[calf]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

With the relentlessly improving quality of videogames and drugs - and the likelihood of a synergistic link between the two - I wager most people 40 years from now will be content enough lying stupefied with delight in their homes for days and weeks on end, emerging occasionally for sexual assignations arranged with strangers via bio-mapping algorithms. The only issue will be getting food to them. Drones delivering protein packs maybe?

Isn't this basically the plot of Wall-E?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

While I agree that jobs will be further automated in the future, I highly doubt we'll see a bunch of people out of work because "the machines took their jobs". Our technological landscape changes so rapidly, with hundreds of thousands (if not more) of people now employed in industries that didn't exist 10 year years. I don't see why this cannot continue in perpetuity.

I think this is a micro vs macro thing. In aggregate technology advances create more new and better jobs than they replace. Because we can get the same productivity with less inputs, freeing those people to do something else.

But the distribution of the productivity gains isn't equal. If you've done the same thing for 30 years and become obsolete, going back to school to learn how to code python may not be a realistic choice. While society as a whole certainly benefits, individuals whose skills become obsolete don't.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

While I agree that jobs will be further automated in the future, I highly doubt we'll see a bunch of people out of work because "the machines took their jobs". Our technological landscape changes so rapidly, with hundreds of thousands (if not more) of people now employed in industries that didn't exist 10 year years. I don't see why this cannot continue in perpetuity.

I agree it's impossible to predict what the jobs of the future will entail long term, however, one problem we're going to face is how fast we can replace jobs.

For example we're staring in the face of a revolution in the transportation sector, almost a million Canadians are employed in the sector or over 5% of the total work force, within the decade most of those people could be replaced by automated systems. It's going to be hard to find new jobs for all those people and even then even harder to train them for those jobs.

[burn_this_city]

Autonomous cars and trucks are still at least a decade or two away from replacing drivers completely. Google's Lexus hit a bus this week because it made a poor decision. There is no way they will completely remove the operator from vehicles until well after the systems are tried and proven. Any change will be gradual and other industries will absorb the people.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Autonomous cars and trucks are still at least a decade or two away from replacing drivers completely. Google's Lexus hit a bus this week because it made a poor decision. There is no way they will completely remove the operator from vehicles until well after the systems are tried and proven. Any change will be gradual and other industries will absorb the people.

When the full change over occurs is hard to say, I think it will be sooner then you obviously, but it is a inevitability. When it does happen it'll be the professional drivers who go first with the personal vehicles being the lingering ones on the road.

Say you're a cab company or a long haul trucking company, one of your biggest expenses(salary), your biggest risk(accidents/maintenance) and biggest limitation(shift lengths) can all be eliminated by removing the driver, you're going to be one of the first people to get in line.

[calumniate]

Originally Posted by peter12

There will be two secure types of jobs in the future: those who harness the power of genius machines, and those who manage and market the work of the prior group.

That said, this is all extremely hypothetical. Machine intelligence is so far from happening at this point, and all this tech stuff is probably benefiting from a massive investment bubble. You will probably see concerns come back down to earth in the next few years when people see how little impact that tech has had in increasing aggregate productivity, and overall economic value.

No one, and I mean no one, should be making these predictions.

Says the guy that stated 'we've accomplished pretty much everything when it comes to science.' This is hilarious!

[Nobama]

http://youtu.be/UokScbPxz-0

[Tiger]

I'll put this here
and this

Feel free to comment on the LNG plans.