Is your job safe?

[jon404]

@ gamerprinter -- after looking at my son's Grand Theft Auto 5, I think you're safe! From robotic replacement, anyway.
Offshoring is another story, since those guys in Bangalore and Hyderabad can pick up -- sort of -- where we are at culturally. Would suggest that you check out making game simulations for the Departmant of Defense. The F-35 fighter jet program alone will run to 1 TRILLION dollars... and within the artwork parts of that budget will be ... probably already are ... lots of high-paying war-fighting simulations and training scenarios. Likely made by contractors and sub-contractors to Lockheed Martin. And, for defense stuff, you'll never have to worry about anything even vaguely sensitive being offshored...

[Gamerprinter]

In addition to US publishers, I do a lot of work for overseas publishers too, though mostly in Britain, companies like EN Publishing. Though some of my maps are exclusively digital productions, a good chunk of my work is half hand-drawn as an overlay over digital work. So I'm not worried. I'm over 50 years old, so I'll be dead before I'm replaced, more than likely.

[Egg Bramhill]

In the 1970's when automation was first taking place, TV programmes were predicting that by 2000 we'd all be working 20hr weeks (HoHo!) Of course the total opposite has been true, from a then average 40hr week more & more people are now working 60/70 hr weeks whilst the unemployed sector of societies have been expanding and becoming a "drain" on the economic structure of a country.

Now we have globalisation, whereby traditional manufacturing countries are in decline whilst third world countries are in the ascendancy. Unfortunately this globalisation is dependant on a low paid work force, so as countries move out of poverty economics, they are destroying the one factor that gives them the edge and manufacturing moves elsewhere!

Imagine a future were all work is now undertaken by machines, of which isn't far from the truth. Then how are all those humans replaced by robots going to earn money to purchase products & services produced by those robots?

There's going to be very little that can't be undertaken by a computer in the future, but I find some of the conclusions of this tool strange. The most obvious one, "Does your job require you to squeeze into small spaces?" Looking at an airline pilot, this scores a high 60%. There's so much technology already crammed into a cockpit that the absence of two people would leave a cavernous space to further fill the cockpit.

What is a far more important question here would be "Would you accept the replacement of the Pilot by a Robot?" and the answer in most cases would be "No" but in reality computers are routinely landing planes.

[Gamerprinter]

I read a report by someone who makes predictions based on science of what the next century is going to be like (I'm not claiming this person is in any way accurate), and he stated that everyone will be assigned a robot whose work pays income for each individual owner - so robots work, but we get paid for their work.

Your pilot comment reminds of the sci-fi book Friday, by Larry Niven, the main character is an artificial person (pretty much a testtube person, rather than a robot) who isn't allowed to pilot a ramjet, even though the pilot in the story operated a computer that did all the actual flying, the pilot was more a manager and public relations aboard the ramjet, and not a true pilot.

[jon404]

So Egg, is there any way to get back to the max prosperity of, say, 1967 without greatly reducing the advanced countries' populations... back to 1967 levels? I watched the increase in weekly work-hours at Qualcomm, in the years before I retired. The software engineers (programmers) there were really pushed hard. Intense deadlines and pressure. They were paid well, but the actual dollars-per-hour ... not so good.

I think tomorrow I will go see 'San Andreas'. Perhaps it will help reverse the immigration to my California... particularly after they see it in New York, China and the Middle East! Preview looked very exciting -- a REALLY FINE surfing wave wiping out the Golden Gate Bridge, tourists running in terror, great stuff!

[gray]

There will be very few jobs that can't be done by computers in the future. I would suggest we better start buying shares in these companies.

[Gamerprinter]

I think tomorrow I will go see 'San Andreas'. Perhaps it will help reverse the immigration to my California... particularly after they see it in New York, China and the Middle East! Preview looked very exciting -- a REALLY FINE surfing wave wiping out the Golden Gate Bridge, tourists running in terror, great stuff!

Personally, I don't see earthquake as the big worry in California. The real problem will be the lack of water available, as winter dumps less snow into the mountains and the Colorado River is sourced more and more by Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California. The big earthquake seems more likely to shake an uninhabitable desert where nobody lives than to cause any real real estate damage. Things look worse and worse each year.

[Cloud]

I can never understand why somewhere such as the USA (a very large economy) does not have desalination plants. There has always been a misconception that the energy costs are too high but according to wikipedia the energy costs of supplying the whole of the USA's domestic consumption of water via desalination would be less than 10% of the country's energy consumption, and what's more precious than water?

[gray]

When you carry the debt load of some of the states and Fed coming up with the cash for big ticket items is a stretch. The west no longer has the cash to spend. Locally we're looking to put in a new sewage treatment system with a cost of over one billion dollars. Most will be picked up by the local tax payer. Where does the money come from. Most people are tapped out.

[ankhor]

, and what's more precious than water?

Greed? Andyes, It could be done environmentally clean too. And since to oceans are rising, we might as well take some out of it. The biggest problem would be transportation ofcourse.