I would say more like 15-20 years. It seems to me that much of the foundation for this has already been laid, and the advances here are accelerating. Structural unemployment is going to lead to some serious social disruption in the next 50 years, I think. Capitalism's days might be numbered. I'm not sure what will replace it, but when a majority of the workforce can't bring something to the table worth a living wage in compensation, the equation breaks. I would guess that first the efficiency will be funneled into a disparate allocation, but eventually, there will be revolt.
This really bothers me. We are already incredibly disconnected with what we're eating now. How much more disconnected will we get? I'd argue that a huge reason we're allowed to eat such nonsense garbage is because we have no idea what's going into it. If a person isn't even the one doing the most basic of tasks in relation to our food, what will we allow ourselves to eat?"Robots will replace jobs that are quite dull and competitive," said Mr Gardener.
This really pisses me off. This guy considers being in nature, using your hands, feeling Earth to be "dull." This guy has probably never felt the pleasure of walking on Earth barefoot. And it's these people who are making all the decisions for us? It's incredibly frustrating because this is just going to make it so that the mentality of preserving natural habits is continuing to go down the toilet.
But you don't meet the people who produce your food now! (unless you buy from farmer's markets, and good on you if you do). Why would replacing that person-you-don't-know with a robot make you any more disconnected?
I really don't have a problem with the use of robots on the farm; it's already a highly mechanised process for the big-money crops like wheat and corn. Smaller niche crops mayy not be profitable to use robots on for some time, though; and I expect there will always be jobs available for people who wish to work the soil. That occupation will be more gardener than farmer over time, I'd guess. A bigger change will be the switch to robot drivers, which I expect will lead to cars as a service instead of as a commodity.
We don't know who they are now, and just look how disconnected we are to what we eat? I can't imagine how much worse it'd be if now a robot is doing all of the work is what I'm saying.
>being in nature, using your hands, feeling Earth to be "dull." I thought he was referring to back-breaking and mind-numbingly repetitive manual labour.
"Being in nature, using your hands" is an over-romanticisation for what is, in reality, a shitty and low-paying job.
It's all about how you view it. I'd rather be outside using my hands, knowing I'm working toward feeding so many people than working in a cubicle.
I'm hopeful that the job market will evolve and new positions will arise to replace the ones taken by robots. With robots doing tasks such as farming, that will open the way for further specialization of jobs and who knows what else. I find this to be a very exciting prospect.
Cabless tractors aren't in use yet? Seems a no brainer to me. I was in line at the post office the other day and someone waited in line to buy stamps. When they got to the counter the postal employee shrugged in annoyance and let him know that he could buy his stamps in the lobby from the machine. I found it ironic that the postal employee was annoyed that they had to sell them stamps manually, the more he directs people to that machine the more likely he is to lose his job. Edit: Can you use these types of technologies and still call yourself an organic farm? purelindsay what say you?
It's good for him to direct people to that machine, though. He lengthened the queue you were waiting in, and waited when he didn't need to.
I don't disagree but it was the way he directed them, with such contempt.
Yes, there's no excuse for bad manners, especially if it's your job.