It’s not just manufacturing, either. Automated call centers are replacing customer-service agents. Automated checkout stations are replacing grocery-store clerks. When the science of computer vision advances sufficiently, we’ll have algorithms, not humans, evaluating X-rays at airport security checkpoints and screening user-generated content for sites like Facebook.
Of course, call center operator and grocery clerk and X-ray screener were never middle-class jobs anyway (and screening user-generated content on facebook was never a job at all).
There is a genuine problem here, though. As technology advances there is less and less that non-smart people can usefully do. Ten thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, one hundred years ago, there were plenty of useful occupations that could be usefully done with an IQ of 80. But with these increasingly automated, what are the millions of people born with an IQ of 80 supposed to do?
My solution, involving attempting to cut down on the number of such people who are born, is unfortunately rather politically unpopular.
Of course, call center operator and grocery clerk and X-ray screener were never middle-class jobs anyway (and screening user-generated content on facebook was never a job at all).
There is a genuine problem here, though. As technology advances there is less and less that non-smart people can usefully do. Ten thousand years ago, two thousand years ago, one hundred years ago, there were plenty of useful occupations that could be usefully done with an IQ of 80. But with these increasingly automated, what are the millions of people born with an IQ of 80 supposed to do?
My solution, involving attempting to cut down on the number of such people who are born, is unfortunately rather politically unpopular.