NEW DEGREE not a “knowledge worker” degree

Potential students shy away from “knowledge worker” jobs that are susceptible to automation and off-shoring. Young people will instead compete for trade jobs in the occupations that can’t be automated. (Hypothetical examples here might include nursing or even specific types of high-tech machine repair.)

Mainstream economists do not consider the possibility of radical breakthroughs of automation technology when making their projections. In a worst-case scenario, every job that can conceivably be automated will be turned over to the robots. The unemployment rate under such a scenario defies easy calculation, but the current rate of 9% would look idyllic in retrospect.


The Lights in the Tunnel Reserach topic.

 

If we accept the "robots will run everything" theory, we mustn't deny that advances in artificial intelligence will make information-based jobs obsolete as well. Once singularity is reached, we're all doomed to a Matrix-like world, enslaved by our digital masters.

 

One word: SKYNET

People have been forecasting doom and gloom for decades about computers/robots taking over the world. Isaac Asimov made a fortune writing about (the robot novels might be among the best sci-fi novels ever written). Still, there are a bunch of guys at the end of my street who are operating front-end-loaders and graders and jackhammers and I don't think they're going away. At least not in my lifetime and probably not in the next.
Relax. The robots are NOT coming to get you.

 

Yes they are! Just ask Sara Conner....

 

Maybe Penn Foster should offer a "robot repair" vocational degree.

Actually, a friend of mine recently got a job managing a new Target distribution center. He says from the point a truck backs into the facility, the entire place is automated. He runs a crew of mechanics that fixes the machines when they break down.

 

Eh. We survived the industrial revolution. We'll survive this.

Keep in mind that every era of automation or technological advancement comes with a period of job loss and a period of economic right-pathing. Where there is automation there is a need for people to maintain such automation.

Paraphrased: I study war and politics such that my children can study engineering and law, such that their children can study arts and sciences..

It's been happening for hundreds of years and we've all not died. When and if robots become sentient, it's a natural progression of things. I'm sure that whatever created humans (whether it's evolution or creationism you consider) has long since died off or lost relevance.

Live life, enjoy yourselves. At best we're a limited engagement anyway

ITJD

 

Well, maybe I find enjoyment when thinking about robots taking over the world!