Don’t forget the Ellisons.

How long before Trump volunteers to nuke the country, “for the good of the world?”

Having people hear about big tech companies unionizing can only help. Unions keep pressure on the companies, and keep them from going too far. Other companies hear about it, and offer up their own reforms voluntarily, hoping it will keep the workers from unionizing. Either way, unions work for EVERYBODY.

Unionize Everything!

Years ago, my wife took a job as the lone secretary to a lawyer with a high volume of paperwork, permit applications, etc. The previous secretary, who had retired, didn’t like the computer, and just typed everything by hand.

My wife automated all the forms so she could jump from field to field, and get the paperwork done much faster. So fast in fact, that he decided not to hire the second secretary, and just dump it all on my wife. Then he turned out to be an absolute monster in so many ways that my wife just up and quit one day, which was fine with me.

But she had never told him about her automated forms that she created. He just thought her increased productivity was due to using the computer. So she told me that she made those forms to help herself, not him, and dumped all of them before she left, and he never knew.

Yeah, you’re right, they’d be better off without an extra $400k. Let the rich guys keep it. /S

It’s not fair! The poor get all the breaks!

A big part of that is because we blow the money on endless wars, which China doesn’t do.

Add that to their good-faith commitment to invest in, and substantially improve, their country, compared to our lack of investment in our own nation, which you mentioned.

I’m just saying, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is nothing new to anyone who’s been paying attention for a while.

There are two big industries that are going to be the canaries in the coal mine, and be the first to take serious hits - Driving, and Fast Food.

Both Uber and Lyft make it clear on their websites that their future is an autonomous fleet, and they’re testing heavily. Waymo has been testing for months, and is starting to roll out in many cities, including mine. Every one of those driverless cars is replacing a human job.

Further, many of the people driving rideshares, would be listed as unemployed, if they weren’t able to eke out a meager living driving. Take away this job, and it isn’t like they have a lot of options to pivot to. If they did, they wouldn’t be driving. Those lost jobs are going straight to the unemployment rolls.

And what about truck drivers? That is another serious driving industry that is going to be fully replaced before long. Again, those drivers don’t have a lot of other options.

Fast Food is the other one. Every fast food corp has been testing a robotic kitchen for years now, and I’d be surprised if even a single one isn’t ready to roll out tomorrow. They are already getting us ready by both phasing in app use, and kiosk use, but also masking the kitchen area. It used to be that you could see the kitchens in fast food places, but new ones are hiding the prep area behind walls, where they can’t be seen, because soon they’ll all be automated.

Fast food is a traditional first job, or a second job, or a second income, or a supplement to retirement, etc. A LOT of households rely on fast food jobs, but within a decade, most of them will be fully automated.

Further, what will happen is that a robotic warehouse will load an autonomous truck, which will go to fully automated fast food outlets, where it will be robotically unloaded, stored, and eventually prepared, and served to a customer, without a human touching it anywhere along the way.

The tech to do all of that exists right now. The only reason they haven’t done it is because they know the consumer backlash will be enormous, but they won’t be able to resist the lure of all those new profits for too long, and somebody will finally take the plunge and be the first. They’ll get savaged in the media, but then everyone will follow, and 10 years from now, every fast outlet will be automated, and millions of jobs will evaporate.

It’s inevitable.

It’s going fully replace a LOT of jobs, and as future iterations learn more and more, it will replace even more complex jobs. You are underestimating the Ferengi’s compulsion for more wealth. They will let quality slip significantly, if it means higher profits.

In a few years, they be gaslighting us that double digit unemployment is perfectly normal in a healthy, high-tech society.

It’s been coming for a long time. While the rest of us have been fighting among ourselves, China stayed out of it all, and improved their country. I’m not surprised that they’ve emerged as a powerhouse, while we volunteered to give a lunatic the nukes.

“Its all so obvious, I mean, we’re ALL thinking it. It’s not just me, right?”

Good posts.

AOC is EVERYBODY’S Congressional Rep.

That congresswoman was AOC.

These graduation speakers that show up to extol the wonders of AI are like the Groom on his wedding night, going on and on about how fuckable all the Bridesmaids were, and then being surprised that his new Bride is pissed off at him.

This idiot has no idea what he’s doing from one moment to the next. He just blurts stuff from his propaganda-addled brain, and immediately forgets it.

He probably remembers saying something about 5000 troops and Poland, but not whether he wanted to send them, or take them. He would know if he had any sort of strategic concept he was working, but there is literally nothing behind it except he was just thinking out loud one day, and the media was listening.

He couldn’t find Poland on a map.

Of course. These people are GOLDEN members of the “More Money Than Brains Club.” They have shown that they will commit serious money to anything associated with Trump, even after knowing everything about him.

They are the dumbest of the dumb, and are willing to part with big money to prove it. That’s a valuable mailing list.

Texas Tea

I work a lot of college events, and once worked a graduation reception at an engineering school. We were able to watch the graduation on TV while we waited for the ceremony to end, and I marvelled at how well the Dean strolled through all those Indian and Chinese names like it was nothing.

I met him at the reception afterwards, and told him how impressed I was with his pronunciations, and he said “I work with my assistant for six weeks before graduation, practicing their names. They paid a lot of money, and worked really hard to get to this point, the least I can do is get their names right at their graduation.”

And he was absolutely sincere when he said it, and I was impressed even more.