the future of the human race
Posted on 08/11/2025 12:52:03 PM PDT by RandFan
White-collar layoffs make headlines while tradesmen name their price. If your sink explodes at 3 a.m., ChatGPT can’t fix it. But that’s just the start. What comes next moves in slow, silent steps. It’s harder to notice, harder to fight.
Even the skilled trades, once thought untouchable, won’t be immune for long. That’s because, in the age of AI, no collar is safe forever, no matter how dirty or clean. In other words, a blue-collar bloodbath is inevitable.
For now, trades thrive because machines still fumble with fine motor skills. Plumbers, welders, electricians — these are jobs that demand real dexterity. They require quick thinking and the kind of judgment you can’t automate. It’s one thing to answer questions in a chat window. It’s another to crawl under a leaking floorboard and rewire a breaker box while water drips on your neck. Even the flashiest robot arm isn’t replacing that anytime soon.
But the key phrase is “anytime soon,” not never.
That’s what keeps getting lost in the blue-collar victory lap. Yes, carpenters and plasterers are in demand. Yes, robots still fumble with chaos and fine detail. But AI doesn’t sleep. It doesn’t stall. And most importantly, it doesn’t peak. It doesn’t just take jobs — it studies them, watches, learns, and improves — quietly, constantly.
We’re long past the clunky prototypes. Boston Dynamics’ robot dogs patrol warehouses and climb stairs with military grace. Machines are already pouring slabs, laying bricks, finishing drywall with machine-shop precision. Robotic arms thread needles, fold laundry and perform surgery with steady, unshakable hands.
These aren’t novelties. They’re blueprints for who’s coming next.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Robots probably won’t change the diapers, but they probably will deliver the food. Maybe they already are.
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Many jobs, such as on farms, will become more automated when the farmers cannot pay very low wages to illegals. It will be a plus all around.
HandyMan AI
You’ve got a bad plumbing leak, with mold damage.
Let me guide you.
Turn off the water. Your building plans indicate the shutoff valve is in the right corner of your garage....
the future of the human race
“Many jobs, such as on farms, will become more automated when the farmers cannot pay very low wages to illegals. It will be a plus all around.”
Except in Kalifornia where state law limits the use of farm machinery to protect the United Farm Workers.
AI is massively being hyped: Pump-N-Dump.
“replaces it with another plastic, modular toilet”
In Florida, wax seals are not firm enough in the heat (and the wax is often barely enough) so use a compressible foam rubber seal between the drain pipe flange and new toilet.
When construction runs into a mysterious plumbing problem in one of their tract houses, the don’t send a construction plumber to go do the detective work and the complex repair.
“AI is massively being hyped: Pump-N-Dump.”
Applications such as for policing, education and customer service will be big.
There are going to be lots of applications, but they will take time to develop. Hardware costs will fall.
My parents had a toaster that was a wedding gift in 1959. That toaster lasted over 50 years.
https://www.universal-robots.com/in/blog/what-is-robotic-welding/
You might want to take a tour of some modern factories.
“I do know that buggy whip manufacturers are rare these days.”
The left: Unions will save the employees.
The right: Buggy whips will be critical forever.
Lol.
No he hasn’t. Why ya LYING!
These grubHub meal delivery robots are are already in use at college campuses :
https://onsite.grubhub.com/solutions/partnerships/robots/
Yes he has. All the trades pay very well once you get your license.
AI Architect
AI Building Inspector
All this AI talk makes me think of the late fifties and early sixties. Soothsayers predicted that economic growth would be in recreation, because automation would afford people so much leisure time.
Yeah, right.
AI plant propagator
Good point about the 1950s.
For me the lesson is that it will take a while to see how the AI and robotic tech will impact society.
It may be in unexpected ways.
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