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com2kid 18 hours ago

Computers ruined entry level jobs for a lot of people. Heck Outlook and PowerPoint put a lot of people out of work. Personal secretary used to be a solid reliable job for many women. Art teams used to exist to make real life presentations on actual paper. Large companies had their own private libraries and librarians to fetch documents.

Arguably we already saw some of the socially destabilizing impacts of computers, and more and more Americans were forced into poorly paying service sector jobs.

I actually suspect that right now, if we wanted to, we could automate a large amount of societies needs if we were willing to take a hit on quality/variety. For example, what % of the food chain could be 100% automated if we really wanted to? Obviously most foods could not, but surely a few staple crops could be automated 100% to the extent of robo-semis and robots loading and unloading crops?

That will be the eventual end goal. The question is what do we do as a society then?

pjc50 16 hours ago | parent [-]

100% is an asymptotic goal, because someone still has to do the maintenance. But grain is probably closest, along with maize and soybeans. Staple crops, huge farms, single guy in a tractor, and the monotonous driving is already being automated away too. Leaving the role of the human to arguing with John Deere over right to repair.

Soft fruit is probably furthest away. That depends on huge armies of immigrant pickers.