this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
3 points (56.5% liked)
Futurology
1808 readers
138 users here now
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Once upon a time, there was a meme-like response to concerns about technological unemployment. Displaced people could just 'learn to code'. What people didn't anticipate was that coders would be displaced first, but here we are.
I'm an optimist about the AI future. I suspect we'll adapt to new economic models quicker and more smoothly than many suspect. But right now, many people don't even realize this train has already left the station, and we're all on it, whether we like it or not.
Our education system is a case in point. Junior/starter software roles are about to disappear forever. Yet all over the world, there are people in training/education preparing for them. You can say the same about lawyers also to some extent. At some point, society has to wake up to the fact that more and more of the job education/training it's currently providing is just wasting the time and money of everyone involved.
What changes do you think need to be made today to ensure a smooth transition for tomorrow? What economic model will society ultimately adopt? Will it include some form of UBI?
It's so hard to predict, I can't tell. The reason I think it will be smoother than many people think, is how quickly the world reacted to Covid in March 2020.
I also suspect the first crisis that will force action won't directly be unemployment itself, but some financial crisis stemming from it. If entire categories of jobs become permanently unemployable such as TV or movie production with Sora, or driving jobs with self-driving cars, then all of a sudden all the unpayable mortgages these people have are a crisis for the banks holding them. This was what precipitated the 2008 financial crisis