Robots! Dey tuk err jabs!! What careers may be on the way out?

whiskeyman · 03-02-2015 9:40am #1

Was just thinking the other day about Google self driving cars and the prediction they'll be in the road within the next 5 years.

Would an advanced level of such technology ultimately mean the demise of so many jobs, like taxidrivers, van drivers etc... Will there be Johnny Cabs all over the country?
I'm sure this new technology will bring new jobs in other areas, but 'older' jobs may fall by the wayside.

What jobs do you think will be made 'redundant' over the next 10 years or so?

Are even the Boards.ie Mods at risk??

:pac:

silverharp · 03-02-2015 9:44am

I got a degree in Lighthouse keeping, no luck since

RobertKK · 03-02-2015 9:46am

I plan on buying a robot for my farm this year, I have no help so a robot will help me by cleaning the shed and won't ask for any pay, just maintenance.

JeffK88 · 03-02-2015 9:47am

The cleaning industry , Bus,train, drivers , in general,Pilots, Computer programmers when they become self aware :pac: and soldiers although in this case their role may change rather than the career be replaced by robotics. Look at the rapid development of drones and how affordable and accessible they have become.

El Weirdo · 03-02-2015 10:04am

When I was in school we were told we'd all be working in paperless offices.

In my previous job, the vast majority of my time was taken up doing paperwork.

mariaalice · 03-02-2015 10:06am

They don't disappear they evolve in to some other type of work.

Gone Drinking · 03-02-2015 10:10am

They'd work best if everyone had one, which won't be the case for a very long time.

I think they'll do a grand job at driving but I'd much rather be at the wheel to make a decision if someone driving a car came towards me out of control. Google car won't be programmed to make a decision to go through a barrier to avoid a head on collision for example..

As long as there's people still driving their own cars, i'll keep driving mine!

DoYouEvenLift · 03-02-2015 10:10am

RobertKK wrote: »

I plan on buying a robot for my farm this year, I have no help so a robot will help me by cleaning the shed and won't ask for any pay, just maintenance.

Saw these on Discovery the other night, was a very interesting watch and even though they're expensive they make sense as a long term investment. Do you plan on expanding to eventually have the whole setup of the different types robots going and doing their jobs 24/7? I'd imagine large farms could really benefit from the efficiency these things offer, especially dairy farmers since they'd never need to manually hook up milking machines or clean the cows and sheds again and they can also detect illnesses in the cows a lot earlier than before.

kneemos · 03-02-2015 10:11am

JeffK88 wrote: »

The cleaning industry , Bus,train, drivers , in general,Pilots, Computer programmers when they become self aware :pac: and soldiers although in this case their role may change rather than the career be replaced by robotics. Look at the rapid development of drones and how affordable and accessible they have become.

Drones are remote control airplanes.Been around for decades.

Self drive cars are another pointless "pie in the sky"that will never happen.
Been hearing about robots on the verge of taking over for nearly forty years,still not seen one worth a ****e.

Mr.Buzz · 03-02-2015 10:11am

JeffK88 wrote: »

The cleaning industry , Bus,train, drivers , in general,Pilots, Computer programmers when they become self aware :pac: and soldiers although in this case their role may change rather than the career be replaced by robotics. Look at the rapid development of drones and how affordable and accessible they have become.

There is a lot of job to be done for robots to become soldiers and/or killing machines. Drones are one thing - they're after all controlled by humans and hardly something I'd be inclined to call a fully functional, independent robot. I'm not so confident that creating self-controlled, aware killing machines is a smart move.

anncoates · 03-02-2015 10:13am

Degree in robot making seems the logical bet.

DoYouEvenLift · 03-02-2015 10:15am

kneemos wrote: »

Drones are remote control airplanes.Been around for decades.

Self drive cars are another pointless "pie in the sky"that will never happen.
Been hearing about robots on the verge of taking over for nearly forty years,still not seen one worth a ****e.

But Audi and Google both have self driving cars that have driven hundreds of thousands of miles without any accidents to test their safety and since GPS and the other technology used in them is constantly evolving so quickly they're more than likely going to happen, just not at a large scale within the next 5-10 years.

Also, Amazon have a pretty amazing system of robots setup so I guess here's your chance to finally see one worth a ****e.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM

mariaalice · 03-02-2015 10:18am

The Backwards Man · 03-02-2015 10:22am

Self driving cars will only become a thing in urban areas where no one should have a car anyway.

Turtyturd · 03-02-2015 10:22am

A world without taxi drivers....that's the dream.

B.A._Baracus · 03-02-2015 10:23am

I have often thought about this before

Obviously regular jobs like warehouse, retail, general operative jobs (etc) would go.

But in reality, most college and degree jobs would eventually go themselves. Why pay someone 40k - 50k a year when you could have a robot do it (for next to nothing) and in a fraction of the time?

Analyst jobs would be the first to get hit IMO :pac:

The Backwards Man · 03-02-2015 10:25am

It'll actually be jobs like doctors, dentists, lawyers and accountants that will go first.

kneemos · 03-02-2015 10:26am

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

But Audi and Google both have self driving cars that have driven hundreds of thousands of miles without any accidents to test their safety and since GPS and the other technology used in them is constantly evolving so quickly they're more than likely going to happen, just not at a large scale within the next 5-10 years.

Also, Amazon have a pretty amazing system of robots setup so I guess here's your chance to finally see one worth a ****e.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM

Who's going to buy a car and sit in it like a lemon when it drives itself?...nobody,pointless things.

jamesbere · 03-02-2015 10:31am

Moderators jobs will go first I say :pac:

BeerWolf · 03-02-2015 10:32am

A good bet would be Busses and Taxis.

Future-proofing, for this life time anyway, job prospects: Robot Maintenance!

I'd love to have a Gardening robot... be it removing leaves, mowing the lawn, removing weeds, etc., ... that'd be awesome.

folan · 03-02-2015 10:33am

i work in robot maintenance.

sorted

Maximus Alexander · 03-02-2015 10:36am

There's basically no role in which a human can't ultimately be replaced by a robot once it becomes cost effective.

Software development or mechanical engineering are probably the places to be since someone needs to design the robots and tell them what to do.

Of course, eventually robots will be able to do that too.

Maximus Alexander · 03-02-2015 10:37am

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It'll actually be jobs like doctors, dentists, lawyers and accountants that will go first.

There's already software available in exstence that can out-diagnose some GPs. Pretty amazing.

Dravokivich · 03-02-2015 10:40am

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

But Audi and Google both have self driving cars that have driven hundreds of thousands of miles without any accidents to test their safety and since GPS and the other technology used in them is constantly evolving so quickly they're more than likely going to happen, just not at a large scale within the next 5-10 years.

Also, Amazon have a pretty amazing system of robots setup so I guess here's your chance to finally see one worth a ****e.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBa9yVZBJM

The google cars have been in accidents. Just haven't caused them. Its been people that crashed into'em. Funnily enough too, as these automated cars require a person to be available to take control in case of an emergency. But its far more likely to happen to them, as opposed to by them.

Captain Chaos · 03-02-2015 10:41am

kneemos wrote: »

Who's going to buy a car and sit in it like a lemon when it drives itself?...nobody,pointless things.

I would, faster than public transport and you don't have to sit beside the dreggs of society. Plus you can read a book and chillout in peace while you get to where you are going. Win, win.

DoYouEvenLift · 03-02-2015 10:42am

kneemos wrote: »

Who's going to buy a car and sit in it like a lemon when it drives itself?...nobody,pointless things.

Yeah, everyone just loves driving and couldn't use the time to otherwise be doing something productive or enjoyable. I'd much rather be able to use the laptop for commutes than actually driving, and then there are long journies. Who wouldn't want to be able to sleep or watch a movie etc. in their private car instead of a bus? And it'd be even better if you were going anywhere with a group of people, Mercedes showcased a concept self driving car where you can have all four passengers facing one another as if you were just sitting in a room. And what about when you come out of the pub and want to head home? Would you rather pay a taxi or have your car collect you? Yeah, nobody would benefit from self driving cars just because you wouldn't. Lol.

Duggy747 · 03-02-2015 10:43am

I need your clothes, your boots, and your P45.

Gmol · 03-02-2015 10:48am

Hope the robot taxi will having a talking function, otherwise I'll miss the guberments fault, spiels etc

DoYouEvenLift · 03-02-2015 10:51am

Gmol wrote: »

Hope the robot taxi will having a talking function, otherwise I'll miss the guberments fault, spiels etc

Dreaded weather talk.

Clearlier · 03-02-2015 10:53am

kneemos wrote: »

Who's going to buy a car and sit in it like a lemon when it drives itself?...nobody,pointless things.

Well most people buy cars to get from A to B. I don't expect to see a self driving car commercially available in the next ten years but they will come and they will be popular with the majority of people. Probably won't be run by windows though!

Paperless or near paperless offices are often quite feasible. Some people don't want to work without paper though. I worked in one company for 7 years in which time I probably printed 7 sheets of paper all for expenses and even that process has been made paperless before I left. OTOH where I'm working now people seem to prefer using paper and typically print off reports to read them and even when making comparisons. In work I rarely print but If I'm studying something I do much better with printed materials than I do with screens - don't know if that's because it's what I grew up with and my children won't have the same experience or if there's something fundamentally different about using a screen compared to a piece of paper that impacts the learning experience.

Low level everything is at risk, someone mentioned analysts earlier on. They'll never disappear because analysts are the ones that make sense of the products of the computers/robots but I see much fewer people producing dashboards than I did ten years ago as the technology available has improved and they've become easier to automate.

Baggy Trousers · 03-02-2015 10:56am

kneemos wrote: »

Who's going to buy a car and sit in it like a lemon when it drives itself?...nobody,pointless things.

Old people.

whiskeyman · 03-02-2015 11:01am

Captain Chaos wrote: »

I would, faster than public transport and you don't have to sit beside the dreggs of society. Plus you can read a book and chillout in peace while you get to where you are going. Win, win.

Could be a massive win for the pubs of Ireland too... if people are allowed to be in their car drunk as a skunk as long as it's driving them home.

MistyCheese · 03-02-2015 11:07am

Boards.ie moderators. Twill all be bout the modbots in the future.

kjl · 03-02-2015 11:17am

My mother was a phone operator, lighting Matilda they called her. She could connect 16 to 220 in less than 30 seconds. But alas them dame robots came in and tuk err jab.

Frigga_92 · 03-02-2015 11:24am

El Weirdo wrote: »

When I was in school we were told we'd all be working in paperless offices.

In my previous job, the vast majority of my time was taken up doing paperwork.

I remember that well too.

I would love a robot hoover but one with the same power in it as a proper full sized hoover. I spend around 30 minutes everyday hoovering at home because I have 4 dogs, that's around 4 hours a week, usually more because I give everywhere a good going over at the weekend. It would make life so much easier for me.

shruikan2553 · 03-02-2015 11:35am

Doctors are safe, their jobs will become more reliant on using software and machines to do most of the work though.

Self driving cars are far along, the main problem for them is the people driving the other cars are stupid.

Gbear · 03-02-2015 11:55am

Self-driving vehicles could absolutely revolutionise our society and give climate change a massive kick in the goolies (couple with other factors like electric cars, LPG, Hydrogen and whatever else).

A traffic system that's completely efficient (no traffic jams, no stress in the commute to work, less pollution from idling cars), creates far fewer accidents (the only accidents would be down to mechanical failure and they're a lot rarer than driver error) and is far cheaper to run (insurance premiums, transporting goods, taxies, etc) would make a massive difference to our culture.

So much of what we do is lessened by human failings - police brutality, soldiers accidentally killing each other with friendly fire or shooting illegitimate targets, doctors cocking up surgeries, truck drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

No matter how skilled a purely technical task is, if it has no intrinsic creative requirement then it should be handled by a robot.

There will theoretically come a time when there's no jobs left but we're many decades away from that point so I think it's difficult to even speculate how society will have to adapt.

DoYouEvenLift · 03-02-2015 1:00pm

shruikan2553 wrote: »

Doctors are safe, their jobs will become more reliant on using software and machines to do most of the work though.

Self driving cars are far along, the main problem for them is the people driving the other cars are stupid.

But there's software being made to purposely replace doctors, or at least make them a last resort, that can even be used on a smart phone.

Gbear wrote: »

Self-driving vehicles could absolutely revolutionise our society and give climate change a massive kick in the goolies (couple with other factors like electric cars, LPG, Hydrogen and whatever else).

A traffic system that's completely efficient (no traffic jams, no stress in the commute to work, less pollution from idling cars), creates far fewer accidents (the only accidents would be down to mechanical failure and they're a lot rarer than driver error) and is far cheaper to run (insurance premiums, transporting goods, taxies, etc) would make a massive difference to our culture.

So much of what we do is lessened by human failings - police brutality, soldiers accidentally killing each other with friendly fire or shooting illegitimate targets, doctors cocking up surgeries, truck drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

No matter how skilled a purely technical task is, if it has no intrinsic creative requirement then it should be handled by a robot.

There will theoretically come a time when there's no jobs left but we're many decades away from that point so I think it's difficult to even speculate how society will have to adapt.

The first time I saw a video of self driving cars was one showcasing this, they had a few of them setup in a small town in France and seeing them all move in perfect synch and slowing down and speeding up while less than a foot apart from one another with absolutely no collisions was unbelievable. It was like a train made of linked up cars.

I'd love to know what kind of speed they'd allow if every car on the road was one of these since they're better drivers than humans. And also how they'd handle the different difficulties of driving in harsh weather.

kneemos · 03-02-2015 1:06pm

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

But there's software being made to purposely replace doctors, or at least make them a last resort, that can even be used on a smart phone.

Can this software write a script?

DoYouEvenLift · 03-02-2015 1:13pm

kneemos wrote: »

Can this software write a script?

If it was released and legally approved scripts would probably just be like showing a reservation on your phone at Argos.

Permabear · 03-02-2015 1:13pm

This post has been deleted.

RedPandaDan · 03-02-2015 1:14pm

26sdrawkcab wrote: »

I remember that well too.

I would love a robot hoover but one with the same power in it as a proper full sized hoover. I spend around 30 minutes everyday hoovering at home because I have 4 dogs, that's around 4 hours a week, usually more because I give everywhere a good going over at the weekend. It would make life so much easier for me.

Maybe get robot dogs instead, no mess that way! :P

Egginacup · 03-02-2015 1:24pm

Well Robots will always breakdown...so I guess there will be an increased need for robot technicians....same way as there was a need for mechanics.
I guess as the car replaced the horse and cart then the blacksmith had to retrain as a mechanic.

I'd say the likes of Christian Brothers and nuns are finished

kneemos · 03-02-2015 1:26pm

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

If it was released and legally approved scripts would probably just be like showing a reservation on your phone at Argos.

Yeah right.

Quality drugs over the phone.
I see many flaws in that system,main one being getting medical advice from a computer.

shruikan2553 · 03-02-2015 1:28pm

DoYouEvenLift wrote: »

But there's software being made to purposely replace doctors, or at least make them a last resort, that can even be used on a smart phone.

While a computer could do a great job diagnosing someone with all the information available to it I wouldnt trust an average person to be able to use it properly. You would still at least have to go to a doctor for them to confirm it.

beardybrewer · 03-02-2015 1:41pm

So can we launch the useless third of the planet off in to space then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBmdkhDGZ8A&feature=youtu.be&t=20m55s

McDermotX · 03-02-2015 1:44pm

I'm getting a job as a Bladerunner.

Growth industry down the line.

DoYouEvenLift · 03-02-2015 1:46pm

kneemos wrote: »

Yeah right.

Quality drugs over the phone.
I see many flaws in that system,main one being getting medical advice from a computer.

There are flaws in every new invention, overtime improvements are made until they work properly and I'm sure software like this would be no different.

shruikan2553 wrote: »

While a computer could do a great job diagnosing someone with all the information available to it I wouldnt trust an average person to be able to use it properly. You would still at least have to go to a doctor for them to confirm it.

That is true. They'd have to work with medical professionals to get the information. I'd say young doctors wouldn't be willing to help the development of something that could possibly make them obsolete but there would definitely be older, more experienced doctors close to retirement willing to help them out for a fee. There are millions of doctors in the world who deal with millions of patients everyday, if they even had just 1,000 doctors around the world gathering and confirming diagnosis information everyday for a few years it could work.

SEPT 23 1989 · 03-02-2015 1:50pm

Look at youth unemployment across the western world the process has begun

it wont end well

Permabear · 03-02-2015 1:55pm

This post has been deleted.

d2ww · 03-02-2015 1:59pm

There are flaws in this essay, but worth a look anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnJTWzf8kH4

Robots! Dey tuk err jabs!! What careers may be on the way out?

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