There's a computer game that teaches people cognitive behavioral therapy , a job a psychotherapist used to do.Some prefer tablets instead of waiters.Teachers might be replaced with machines. It's really hard to tell whether interacting with a person is the whole point for a given job, especially for jobs that machines do things humans cannot.
And another category of job killers people forget about is things that do the job in a totally different way, not just automate. For example a dental vaccine might make dentists unnecessary , and remove any questions of responsibility and humanness.
And with regards to emotion - it's hard to tell, but a weird data point is Hatsune Miku, the animated japanese popstar/phenomena.
That part is kind of weird to me. I understand you want someone to be "responsible", but what do you expect the response to be? This doctor failed to deliver, let's fire himher. What follows? You get a better doctor, hopefully. Wouldn't it be better to have an algorithm that can be improved when it fails, so you don't have to train a whole new doctor to replace the bad one? Plus, you can have every single robot doctor be exactly as good at everything. No more "you need to find the best surgeon for X". You can have as many best surgeons as you can economically build.
The responsibility would fall on the robot's designers to improve their software, so it doesn't make the mistake in question. And you will be able to assure people that no doctor will ever make that mistake ever again. Imagining that all these robots are linked, or at least synchronise every couple of days, they would learn a lot faster than a human.
Consider software security, how have they historically handled patching known vulnerabilities?
Now, imagine a bug making these millions of doctors cut an order of magnitude too deep when performing some surgery, maybe because some driver error causes sudden acceleration of the cutting instrument. Forty people die on a patch Tuesday (it only happened for a rare procedure) before the makers manage to push out a hotfix. What should happen after this national hiccup?
It already has. It's the internet. Sex crimes go down when internet access goes up. It hasn't 'replaced' it 100% but that's the point with a lot of this stuff it is slowly reducing jobs without creating new ones.
I really don't think it'd be impossible to create a machine that cuts hair. Or making coloring hair at home/in salons easier.
Even if it's augmented by a human if it's 50% more efficient there might go half the jobs. Use robots so the staff need little to no training. Hair cuts would be cheaper so demand would go up, but jobs will still go.
In a failing economy paying to have your hair cut is an unnecessary expense. Things can start to fall pretty quick.
That won't be enough to preserve those jobs.
Every time someone chooses to play a video game, or chat on Hacker News, or use any other new form of entertainment when a generation ago the best available option was to watch a traditional sporting event, you've got technology outcompeting the sport-televising industry.
And sometimes it's direct competition -- e.g., watching people play video games on Twitch or YouTube. Oh, and sometimes it isn't people who are doing the playing. Those are, in fact, some of the most interesting videos to watch.
The article mentions we'd prefer to have a doctor "just to talk and know we’re being heard by a human being," and I agree that could be useful, but I wouldn't need a trained doctor, more like a conscientious customer support rep.
Could you imagine, a Computer Doctor says, "I have throughly scanned every study, ever produced on SSRI's, and I don't want to make your life more difficult by a placebo response? I've made a calculated decision, and decided you might benefit from this off label drug. Try this drug for a few days? If it doesn't work, or you are skeptical of my recommendation; I have a Medical Doctors waiting for you at this hospital. Here are their resumes, work history, and patient evaluations. Just bring your ID. Money is not necessary.(Your taxes paid for this service.) Have a great day!"
Computer, "Your pain is real. Pick up your prescription for pain pills at the pharmacy of your choice. I will only need to see you once a year. If my database, shows any signs of abuse; I will direct you to a drug rehab facility." No ass kissing! No needless office visists(visits to make money?). No stereotyping?
In reality, I'm not for replcing doctors with computers; just the financial game some doctors have abused in order to become wealthy? I am definetly tired of office visits more than once a year for patients whom illness is stabilized.
Let's not forget that humans aren't perfect. We cant process as much informations as computers and we make a lot of mistakes all the time. After all, to err is human.
It's probably more deeply ingrained in society that a doctor has to be a person than a truck driver.
So I can totally see how removing humans from the loop in certain jobs could be really successful. You mention doctors: I totally want AI doctors, which aren't going to get tired, aren't going to dismiss me as a hypochondriac, aren't going to skip routine tests because they're certain what's wrong with me, and above all, reduce the load on the human doctors so they get to concentrate on stuff the AI can't handle.
As for sport... well, actually, I don't want to do any of the things you mention, because I'm weird, but if you watch an episode of _Robot Wars_ you'll see people do exactly those things over what amount to a bunch of radio controlled cars.
Can you provide a reference for this? I've only ever seen it referred to as a toy, an oddity; never an actual tool.
I don't believe I hallucinated it, but if it did happen it's obviously not widespread.
Even when there genuinely is accountability like drivers and pilots who pay for their mistakes with their lives, it doesn't stop them making careless mistakes. I seem to remember that pilot error is the cause of the majority of plane crashes. It certainly is for car crashes too.
I am not so sure about this. When you consider what is the current alternative to the oldest profession then I think robots will achieve a high penetration.
50 shades is an interesting example of this effect. Women supposedly weren’t interested in this area (not my personal experience), but get enough social acceptance and even an appallingly badly written book becomes a popular success.
Sex robots will face the same “icky” effect, but all it will take for them to become popular is social acceptance via a breakout event once they become good enough.
- Jobs where we need someone to be responsible. You may have fancy diagnostic computers and automated scalpels, but you are going to want a doctor somewhere. A NLP algo might be faster, more accurate, and better at recalling old cases than a judge, but you're not going to be satisfied in a society where you open a website to find out whether you're going to jail.
- Jobs where interacting with a human is the whole point. There are things where humans are baked in.
- The oldest profession is not going to be replaced with robots until those robots are mistakable for humans, as in Blade Runner. Therapists and hairdressers are probably safe, too.
- Watch any major sport. They talk about where the players grew up, what kind of mentality you need to succeed, etc. You show up at the stadium to watch gladiators, not robots. You exercise your tribal nature by buying the jersey and screaming like an idiot. You want to see John Terry crying after missing the penalty. Emotion just isn't the same without people.