[alwaysabove]

It's a triumph that we're automating these kind of jobs. Why are we wasting human talent on inane jobs like store checkout or junk food production? Every person in one of those jobs is a wasted mind. If we could put those minds to work on something meaningful think what we could achieve.

[nathan_long]

I absolutely agree. The moment there's a more economically efficient way to do X, doing X the old way is a "broken window".

That doesn't mean there aren't downsides, though.

[crosbytho]

There's a psychological and human aspect that some deem as positive that you are overlooking. While some shun away from the human experience, it's refreshing to head to an In-N-out burger and have well-paid smiling faces take your order and serve you delicious food.

Sure you could automate that kid, but while trying not to be sappy, that's another face you get to see during the day amidst a traditional day filled with computers, iPads, and now according to this -- machines making our food.

[alwaysabove]

I don't agree with this argument.

When I want to socialise with people, I'll go to a bar, my friend's house, a coffee shop, etc. If I want a burger, I want to get issued with that burger ASAP, without having to deal with someone who you may consider to be a nice person, but I may consider to be a douche-bag.

If that well-paid smiling person didn't have to work at the burger place, she might have something more interesting to talk about when we meet in a proper social environment.

[jiggy2011]

I find that having a face to face interaction with another human being at least once a day makes you feel more human.

Sometimes I can go a few days to a week where me and my friends are all busy doing things, I buy all my stuff from the self checkout or via amazon and don't really interact with anyone.

Then when on friday night I go out to a busy party it feels like a shock.

[Evbn]

Walmart has greeters. In and Out can always have same.

[jiggy2011]

True, but of course not all minds are created equal. There is also the risk that they put those minds to work on something that is not so meaningful (e.g crime).

[alwaysabove]

If someone is a fucking idiot, still better to have them say, spend their time in an retirement home talking to and looking after elderly people, than it is to have them feeding groceries to a scanner as some kind of redundant biological link in a machine.

[bmj]

This is terrible attitude, and it greatly devalues necessary work. Yes, if you are an engineer, you see stocking grocery store shelves as a technical problem to be solved, but other folks look at it as a way to make a rather meager living. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone can do white collar labor for a reasonable middle class salary.

Don't get me wrong, I think some work certainly could be automated, but at the same time, we need to consider the human cost of automating that work. A glib response of "learn how to write specs" or referring to people that do some tasks as "fucking idiots" does very little to advance the conversation.

[alwaysabove]

That's not my point at all.

I'm saying if someone can't do intellectual work, get them to do something that uses other skills. But let's make that something useful, rather than something we could automate away.

[jiggy2011]

Then you have the problem of identifying what their skills are and also of balancing supply/demand.

[bmj]

I'm saying if someone can't do intellectual work

So anyone who can't do intellectual work is fucking idiot?

[jiggy2011]

Not sure I would have wanted my late grandmother to be looked after by "a fucking idiot".

[philhippus]

Now workers can be promoted to tomato feeder, or waste fat disposer - at least until those tasks are also automated.

[krapp]

Yeah, that's the problem with automation isn't it? The point is not to free the mind of the common salaryman from the burden of manual labor but just to free the company of the burden of employees, much less of paying them more to do something else. And when there are no more bottom tier positions left which haven't been filled by a machine or outsourced for a tenth of your salary (to someone who's going to be replaced by a machine themselves in a few years)... too bad for you I guess.