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Coming to Grips with Rise of The Machines
Townhall.com ^ | December 6, 2013 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 12/06/2013 8:24:56 AM PST by Kaslin

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To: sickoflibs

Wouldn’t your solution require massive government intervention? How is that justified in a free market economy?


41 posted on 12/06/2013 9:25:25 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: GeronL
... call it the Willie Green Express...

LOL. FReeper lore blast from the past.

42 posted on 12/06/2013 9:27:55 AM PST by Professional Engineer (I am not cynical. /s)
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To: Sherman Logan
RE :”Wouldn’t your solution require massive government intervention? How is that justified in a free market economy?”

that is the whole point, the free market got us fast computers, smart phones and machines, robots, automated checkout, all killing jobs increasing wealth gap.

Where is Chairman Mao when we need him.

43 posted on 12/06/2013 9:29:24 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: Sherman Logan

I see your point. I’m not sure what is, or if there is, a good answer to it. It’s certainly a difficult and important question to ponder.


44 posted on 12/06/2013 9:32:13 AM PST by EEGator
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To: sickoflibs

Between the two, I prefer Colossus, mostly for the camp factor.


45 posted on 12/06/2013 9:34:07 AM PST by wally_bert (There are no winners in a game of losers. I'm Tommy Joyce, welcome to the Oriental Lounge.)
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To: Kaslin

I would like to see the return of the pretty ladies who bring your meal to the car, the ladies with short skirts, long legs, and speed skates. Where did they go? Also, what about the teen-age boys on their first job pumping your gasoline and asking if you want them to check the oil. Where did they go? (Oh, some north eastern states require them).

Why don’t the union bosses buy the robots instead of the businesses buying the robots and then collect 100 percent of the robots’ wages and 100 percent of their pension contributions as union dues?

If robots increase productivity statistics sky-high, wouldn’t prices drop dramatically and quality increase as well? This has happened before but life continued and adapted. I think I’ll find a comfortable lazy hole and let the machines do all the work.

Will wars be fought only via robots? “Captain, our drones are not working! The monitor keeps showing the blue screen of death... yes, that’s the kind of software. Captain, to have people pilot the planes like the old days would be unthinkable, ghastly, and a sure act of manslaughter.”


46 posted on 12/06/2013 9:35:39 AM PST by Hop A Long Cassidy
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To: Kaslin
Well I certainly hope the tablet waitress wears the prerequisite "37 pieces of flair". :)
47 posted on 12/06/2013 9:42:19 AM PST by Apple Pan Dowdy (... as American as Apple Pie)
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To: EEGator

WE are facing a situation here that is utterly without precedent in human history. And nobody is talking about it. Liberals want redistribution of wealth, and conservatives assume the free market will continue to handle the situation adequately, as it has for the last 200 years.

What if they’re both wrong? What if we’re headed for an extremely productive and therefore wealthy society, but one which requires very few people to keep it running, in an economic sense? What does everybody else do?

I also suggest that we have been subconciously addressing the issue for decades. What else would you call the explosion in administrative jobs, regulations, diversity counseling, and other jobs that have little or nothing to do with actually generating products or services people want to buy? This is primarily but not exclusively a government issue.

This issue was very presciently addressed about 20 years ago by the authors of The Bell Curve. It was about how to deal with those for whom society has no economic role.

Since it did not gloss over the fact that a disproportionate number of those who will be most affected are ethnic minorities, the book and its authors were pilloried as racist, and the actual questions it posed were ignored. As they still are.


48 posted on 12/06/2013 9:43:13 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Apple Pan Dowdy

“You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair they made the Jews wear.”


49 posted on 12/06/2013 9:45:52 AM PST by EEGator
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To: wally_bert
Remember when he met his chief assistant in the bedrooom to plot and told Colossus he had to turn off his camera because mating in private was a basic human need?

And the camera had a redlight on it just like a laptop cam?

Why didnt Colossus just do a fake and turn off the red light?

War Games was fun movie that really moved from scene to scene without boredom and then the predictable happy ending.

Colossus was campy like you say and kept the mood dark and scary on purpose, and unlike War games the computer takes over USA and USSR and ends the cold war, holding us all hostage at the end.

Really two great very different movies.

50 posted on 12/06/2013 9:46:25 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: dennisw
Earlier in the year, Prof. Cowen released a book concerning the topics you bring up. I don't have a optimistic full of whats to come.


51 posted on 12/06/2013 9:48:31 AM PST by Theoria (Obama lied. My health care died.)
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To: sickoflibs
Is there a way for unions to organize machines into unions to make them less competitive?

No. Because their code and programming must be based on logic. And unions are illogical.


52 posted on 12/06/2013 9:48:40 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts ("It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority...")
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

Public sector unions seem to have a good thing going, except when they occasionally bankrupt a city after taxpayers flee it.

I recall unions were trying to unionize the unemployed, only when the unemployed go on strike no one seems to notice them missing.


53 posted on 12/06/2013 9:52:11 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: Sherman Logan

I have heard of the book and its main points. I think I’ll read it now...thanks for the reminder and your responses.


54 posted on 12/06/2013 9:54:24 AM PST by EEGator
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To: GeronL

Tysons Mall (not the Galleria) outside DC has a sushi bar with a conveyor belt that does just that.

When I get home I’ll post pics. It’s neat. But the important thing to realize is that all the components are out there to allow restaurants to cut staff by up to 80%. Once the tipping points in terms of wage inflation are passed, they WILL be implemented and there won’t be any going back.


55 posted on 12/06/2013 10:02:53 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: Theoria

I am well aware of this elitist puke>>>> He has been pro-illegal immigration for a long time. He admits it is because he loves ethnic restaurant. He even has an online restaurant guide. Him playing restaurant critic.

For a great appraisal of this pos look at the first google link here>>> https://www.google.com/search?num=100&client=firefox-a&hs=t4L&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=steve+sailer+tyler+beans&spell=1&sa=X&ei=WBKiUpCeEcuNkAfn24DgBA&ved=0CCoQvwUoAA&biw=1902&bih=969


56 posted on 12/06/2013 10:08:17 AM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: dennisw
Sure. He is Libertarian. Some economic conservatives would probably agree with him.

If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny to bring up that importing more workers and illegal aliens won't help lower paid employees. Obama and the leftist elite know this, but they are playing the card of importation for political reasons.

57 posted on 12/06/2013 10:10:42 AM PST by Theoria (Obama lied. My health care died.)
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To: Sherman Logan

For years economists and others have worshiped the false god of productivity. What we are seeing is productivity’s end game. Karl Marx might have written on this.

http://shanfaraa.com/2012/08/marxism-and-robots/


58 posted on 12/06/2013 10:12:41 AM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: Hop A Long Cassidy

“(Oh, some north eastern states require them).”


Huh? Oregon is hardly in the Northeast and New Jersey is the only state in the Northeast that doesn’t have self serve.

.


59 posted on 12/06/2013 10:16:10 AM PST by Mears
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To: Theoria

Tyler Cowen is in the autistic spectrum. Either he self admitted it or others have said so. This is how an allegedly brilliant economist is pro-open borders at the same time he sees computers-robots making millions unemployed like never before.

He has no cognitive disconnect on this. Why? Autism...mild form. Some say half of Silicon Valley is autistic. Mild form same as libertarians might be inclined towards....All about self. No loyalty to a nation.


60 posted on 12/06/2013 10:18:34 AM PST by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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