Democratic Presidential Debate

[perpetuus]

I don't think automation will hit jobs as hard as people think it will.

I think human creativity will just find ways to create other sectors of the economy which robots have a harder time participating in, for example now you have people being paid to play games professionally (which promotes the sale of those games to a greater public since the gamers who get paid to play often have charismatic personalities which people become attached to). Could you imagine that happening 50 years ago? The fact is, if robots replace the usually boring, often dangerous jobs people have, it will give us free time to do other things. And those things can become lucrative, and create economic opportunity. I can't imagine what those things are gonna be, not anymore than people 50 years ago could have imagined the rise of professional gamers. I do think humans do stuff, they don't just sit around idly (not most people anyways) so if you're doing something and it interests others you can always find a way to create economic activity.

Yeah people get all kinds of bent out of shape at the thought of truck driving and mining becoming obsolete. I realize it will suck in the short term, but these are dangerous jobs and besides, who wouldn’t rather jockey a PC and shoot the shit whilst filming “let’s play” videos than jockey a truck pulling flammable liquid up a steep mountain road with no guard rails?

Automation is no different than inventions like the cotton gin and horse pulled plows. It’s generally the shittiest jobs that are going obsolete. It’s led to a better quality of life overall. Innovations reducing human physical workload allowed ancient institutions like slavery to be phased out in Europe and North America