Retired professor arrested for blocking delivery robot. Will do it again

Re:Retired professor arrested for blocking delivery robot. W... by hardbass on Saturday October 31, 2026 @11:32AM (#50317104)

Its never immediately obvious. Computers put thousands of human calculators out of jobs. Now computers superpowered any and all physical modeling, molecule searches, etc. But, should we have decided eg astronomers or microscopists are required to have jobs, then we wouldn't have developed automated high quality optics, which themselves were required to commoditize computers. Almost all technologies somehow play a role directly or indirectly that existed before a new one for any new advance.

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Re:Retired professor arrested for blocking delivery robot. W... by mlyle on Saturday October 31, 2026 @11:47AM (#50317253)

I think you're not really hearing my point. I'm not speaking about evaluating things just on the aspect of eliminating jobs.

I am saying that I would hate to automate away most joy or most things people find purposeful, even if it increases purpose or joy for some people.

We've already given up a lot of our social fabric recently with tech. I think it makes sense to be conscious and careful to not make it much worse.

It's my guess that delivery bots are a net add to well being.

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Re:Retired professor arrested for blocking delivery robot. W... by hardbass on Saturday October 31, 2026 @11:49AM (#50317267)

But you are also not understanding my point. What automation or tech will end up useful and a "noble" use later on is never immediately obvious, it depends on a web of past developments which by themselves seem to have no connection.

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Re:Retired professor arrested for blocking delivery robot. W... by mlyle on Saturday October 31, 2026 @12:00PM (#50317359)

I think I'm not speaking of the technology itself but the actual ways it's integrated into society. E.g. what is considered socially acceptable, what is given legal rights of passage on a sidewalk, or how we choose to build society/culture around technical implements.

And I agree it's not immediately obvious, but thinking a little more about second order effects before making a long term durable choice makes sense.

Tech's recent overall track record on impacts to quality of life is not great. And there's a lot of possible ways we can use advances that have different benefits and costs. Falling into them for the long term purely by accident isn't always avoidable, but it doesn't seem desirable.

i.e. it makes sense for society to make a conscious choice about how to trade off different interests for road users and sidewalk users, and to be willing to revise that choice based on experience rather than being stuck with inertia (while avoiding excessive churn and unpredictability).

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