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View Full Version : The double-edged sword of technology - and how do we adjust, as a society



Ma'ake
08-20-2016, 10:54 AM
Uber is beginning fully automatic car ride trials in Pittsburgh - albeit with drivers "attending", as a trapeze net. The Mayor of Pittsburg anticipates a rapid wave of "technology tourists" to say they were part of the beginning.

Uber's acquisition of the company pushing fully automatic trucks, Otto, signals to Mercedes (and others) that the competition for fully automatic semi-trucks is on.

Airbus announced they intend to offer fully automatic flying air taxis, within 10 years. (They will almost certainly not achieve this goal in that timeframe, but the publicly stated goal is breathtakingly audacious.)

This is just this week's sampling of the transportation technology developments.

Among economists, it's now widely accepted that technology exacerbates economic inequalities, sometimes sharply. Silcon Valley and the San Joaquin Valley are fairly close, geographically, but light years apart, economically. Even the Scandinavian countries are seeing inequalities widen, because of technology.

Sanders, Trump and Brexit have revealed disturbingly widespread economic anxieties in wide swaths of populations of nations (US and UK) that should be feeling reasonably content, compared to most of the rest of the world.

How do modern, western nations deal with the coming tsunami?

Ideas:

- incentivize companies to hire human beings, tax productive technologies that are not consumers.

- provide a minimum salary, just for being a human being. The Swiss recently voted this idea down... but it's notable they even voted on it.

- if / as technology accelerates displacement of employees, lower the work week to slow down the displacement

- provide a robust social safety net, encourage people to use their time for more creative, socially beneficial activities.

I'm in technology as a profession, and wonder how we can mitigate what could be a very bumpy ride coming up.

Mormon Red Death
08-21-2016, 10:56 AM
I've maintained that my 2 youngest (3 and 8 months) will probably never drive a car.

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Applejack
08-21-2016, 12:43 PM
I've maintained that my 2 youngest (3 and 8 months) will probably never drive a car.

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:highfive:

I am a believer. Driverless cars can't get here fast enough.

Diehard Ute
08-21-2016, 05:01 PM
I've maintained that my 2 youngest (3 and 8 months) will probably never drive a car.

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I hope that's 3 years and 8 months or your wife was in labor for a long time!


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Ma'ake
08-25-2016, 11:00 AM
Update: Many think Uber has been aggressive-to-the-point-of-marginal-irrationality on the self-driving cars in Pittsburgh.

We now know why: http://www.wsj.com/articles/worlds-first-self-driving-taxis-hit-the-road-in-singapore-1472102747

Uber was pressing, but they lost the race to the first milestone.

So, the race to automated cars is more than just about ambitious smart guys trying to make their $Billions. It's also very much about which nations will lead the technological revolution.

The next question is what nations will have the institutions in place to allow rapid technological adoption without social instability.

U-Ute
08-29-2016, 02:54 PM
I'm a programmer. I've seen how the sausage is made.

There is no way I'll buy a self-driving car within the first decade of them being manufactured.