Practically human: Can smart machines do your job?

[jsr]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_THE_GREAT_RESET_TECHNOLOGYS_ADVANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-01-24-06-36-22

Jan 24, 6:36 AM EST
Practically human: Can smart machines do your job?
By PAUL WISEMAN, BERNARD CONDON and JONATHAN FAHEY

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Art Liscano knows he's an endangered species in the job market: He's a meter reader in Fresno, Calif. For 26 years, he's driven from house to house, checking how much electricity Pacific Gas & Electric customers have used.

But PG&E doesn't need many people like Liscano making rounds anymore. Every day, the utility replaces 1,200 old-fashioned meters with digital versions that can collect information without human help, generate more accurate power bills, even send an alert if the power goes out.

"I can see why technology is taking over," says Liscano, 66, who earns $67,000 a year. "We can see the writing on the wall." His department employed 50 full-time meter readers just six years ago. Now, it has six.

From giant corporations to university libraries to start-up businesses, employers are using rapidly improving technology to do tasks that humans used to do. That means millions of workers are caught in a competition they can't win against machines that keep getting more powerful, cheaper and easier to use.

[tridim]

1. I helped write software 15 years ago that does part of my job today.

It's kind of a bummer, but at least it's not as bad as training my outsourced replacements.

[Myrina]

2. If that is the case, then we can start to shift our collective economy ...

... toward farming, gardening, craft-making and be rid of the 'make more shit, work harder and longer to buy the shit that you made' imperative.

I think learning to live more like some European countries, who have a TRUE life/work balance, wouldn't be such a bad thing. Goddess knows we have an abundance of material goods on hand and in second-hand stores that we really won't need to keep creating STUFF much longer.