I do not mind being made redundant by AI. I'll go become an electrician, general contractor, or something else you're not going to automate in my lifetime. The problem isn't the automation, its what happens if the usual Capital subjects capture all the gains vs them being distributed as excess across the populace.
EDIT: We should welcome automation and destruction of work where a machine can do it better. We fear it because of a broken socioeconomic system. Agree we should probably put breaks on anything so disruptive unless people impacted have some safeguards, because if you don't, what good is progress for progress' sake? It then becomes no different than bullshit jobs.
This. My full-time job is automating myself out of a job. Arguably, that's one of the indicators of a quality software engineer versus one who can follow directions but not decrease the problem space.
The problem is not automation... Automation is great. It frees up people's time to do more activities. The problem is how we distribute the spoils of that freed time.
This is a critical distinction. Like 'toomuchtodo, I can go pick up a nailer and build a house if the computery jobs go away. But I cannot effectively participate in the governance of the society of which I am in theory an equal member if the benefits of automation continue inexorably to accrue to a very small group.
Your suggestion to someone whose multi-decade career was ended by AI is to play career whack-a-mole, try to guess which careers won't be next to be killed off, go back to school for several years, and pray?
I guess we should get rid of bulldozers and give more people shovels.
While you're at it, take computers always from people. They automate way too much stuff.
Btw, I am in one of those careers that people think is at the risk of being automated away. I don't really care about it. If I become obsolete, maybe my skills were not that useful. I'll try working in something else.
And if all jobs are automated away, I'll just go starve with the rest of the peasantry. The last to starve will be the first to suffocate.
EDIT: We should welcome automation and destruction of work where a machine can do it better. We fear it because of a broken socioeconomic system. Agree we should probably put breaks on anything so disruptive unless people impacted have some safeguards, because if you don't, what good is progress for progress' sake? It then becomes no different than bullshit jobs.