Nabbed from jeriendhal this is a very important and sobering video. So the ideal of full employment is no longer viable for the majority of us in the near future, if not now.
Haven't watched the video yet, but I note that, in the United States in some areas, there is a tendency to teaching in order to pass standardized tests.
Standardized tests are designed to be able to be graded by computers. This means that kids are being trained to "learn" in a way that is convenient to computers.
Which means that they are being trained to do specifically the things that computers can definitionally do better. Which is not a good strategy for learning how to do jobs that will actually exist when the kids grow up.
One of the frustrating things about that -- historically, standardized tests were a tool that allowed disadvantaged people to get decent jobs. For over two thousand years, the Imperial Examinations that started in the Han Dynasty and lasted all the way to the 20th century allowed a path for a handful of talented rural peasants to get decent middle-class jobs in the Chinese Imperial Bureaucracy. The Regents exam has had a similar benefit on New York State students for the past hundred and fifty years. So there have been great benefits to standardized testing throughout history -- but NOW, I think they're more of a hindrance than a help.
I heard this was coming. Then again I rather imagined this terrible state of affairs a few years ago. I can easily see us being almost Rome and then falling just as badly.
Yes, it has been predicted that 50% of jobs will be taken by computers. Although it will take a few humans to maintain them, I guess. In the future it was predicted that we would have to work less. So far, it hasn't worked out that way. People are often working longer hours and indeed, two or three jobs to have enough income coming in. The way of the future is scary.
There's two routes to the future: one in which we allow machines to make anyone without certain talents utterly irrelevant and disposable, and one in which we allow the machines to support ALL of us while they do the work.
Won't be your choice in the long run, though; if a machine can do it for 1/10th the cost, the hospital will use the machine, and emphasize that machines can be sterilized while humans cannot.
I've been mostly unemployed for two years, making less than $10 a day if you average it out. Fortunately my wife has a good job and we make it. I think the big problem isn't going to be automation replacing a lot of jobs done by people, but greed/capitalism not wanting to support those progressively increasing numbers of people being displaced by automation.
I drove 500 miles Friday for my wife and I to go to my parents, returning this coming Friday to go home. Then the following Monday driving 650 miles to help a friend out in Colorado. I would LOVE to have an auto that I could drive down the mountain to the highway and have it take over, and spend the hours reading. A friend of mine is epileptic, it'd be great if her car could drive her home or to a friend's house if she has a seizure, she gets warning signs before they strike and could put the car in 'take me somewhere safe' mode. It would be a great thing.
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Date: 2014-08-24 06:54 pm (UTC)I also highly approve of your G'Kar icon :)
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Date: 2014-08-24 07:31 pm (UTC)Standardized tests are designed to be able to be graded by computers. This means that kids are being trained to "learn" in a way that is convenient to computers.
Which means that they are being trained to do specifically the things that computers can definitionally do better. Which is not a good strategy for learning how to do jobs that will actually exist when the kids grow up.
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Date: 2014-08-24 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-24 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-24 09:34 pm (UTC)*HUGS*
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Date: 2014-08-25 12:11 am (UTC)Unless you want a robot wiping your butt. lol........
Hugs, Jon
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Date: 2014-08-25 08:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-25 03:45 pm (UTC)I drove 500 miles Friday for my wife and I to go to my parents, returning this coming Friday to go home. Then the following Monday driving 650 miles to help a friend out in Colorado. I would LOVE to have an auto that I could drive down the mountain to the highway and have it take over, and spend the hours reading. A friend of mine is epileptic, it'd be great if her car could drive her home or to a friend's house if she has a seizure, she gets warning signs before they strike and could put the car in 'take me somewhere safe' mode. It would be a great thing.
Excellent video, thanks for posting it.