alt Hacker NewsBut are they wrong? Should a warehouse have guys carrying around boxes on their back or have a forklift? How many people really want to carry boxes for a job for minimum wage?
Every tool for thousands of years has eliminated jobs. I don’t think the quality of life is down, compared to say the dark ages.
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Well now the tools are butting up against the limits of what humans can do, and the people they are going to displace aren't just picking up boxes.
Workers who will be replaced now are already specialized and highly educated in a specific skill. Remember when Obama said that displaced miners and factory workers should "learn to code"? Well where do coders and other highly educated knowledge workers go once we get displaced? I am not disparaging miners more just wondering like... can you squeeze much more cognitively and emotionally out of workers?
It feels like we are closing in on the endgame of 100s of years of improving the tools.
You are right
> How many people really want to carry boxes for a job for minimum wage?
There are a lot of people outside the realms of "HN" and adjacent lands for whom having any kind job is necessary for survival.
> Should a warehouse have guys carrying around boxes on their back or have a forklift?
While we can optimize for efficiency -- why should we? for the sake of improved quality of life for those who can already afford it, via an ever increasing wage gap? why do we need to replace them? so a manager can pocket a few extra grand at bonus time? so there can be a few bigger numbers on a spreadsheet somewhere?
what if some of those people end up dying? do you think you could live with that? i know couldn't.