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Re:Roomba Inventor Joe Jones on His New Weed-Killing Robot by puranjay on Friday July 07, 2017 @07:46AM (#14717667)
As someone who lives in a country where 55% of the population is involved in agriculture, it sounds more terrifying than wonderful.

What will all these people do once farmers are unnecessary?

Re:Roomba Inventor Joe Jones on His New Weed-Killing Robot by kogepathic on Friday July 07, 2017 @07:55AM (#14717691)
> What will all these people do once farmers are unnecessary?

There aren't that many people working on farms in developed countries. In the US, only around 3 million people (or <1% of the total population) work on a farm. [0]

In other countries where many people are involved in agriculture, the pending industrialisation/automation of farming will probably have a similar impact to what happened in North America and Europe over the 20th century: more people will move to urban areas and add value to the economy in other ways.

[0] https://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/Online_Resou...

Re:Roomba Inventor Joe Jones on His New Weed-Killing Robot by puranjay on Sunday July 09, 2017 @12:55AM (#14728427)
I'm talking about India. 55% of the workforce turns into hundreds of millions of people.
Re:Roomba Inventor Joe Jones on His New Weed-Killing Robot by noonespecial on Friday July 07, 2017 @11:41AM (#14719225)
>What will all these people do once farmers are unnecessary?

The answer is "whatever they want". The big problem facing governments everywhere right now is how to jump over the little gully of poverty that comes right after the change to get there.

Re:Roomba Inventor Joe Jones on His New Weed-Killing Robot by oofoe on Saturday July 08, 2017 @08:49AM (#14725249)
I'm worried that the "gully of poverty" will be crossed over the bodies of the surplus citizenry.
Re:Roomba Inventor Joe Jones on His New Weed-Killing Robot by pix64 on Friday July 07, 2017 @07:12PM (#14722947)
Farming is already ridiculously automated. Seems like a battle long lost.