The Student Room Group

Could your job be done by a machine

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Reply 60
Original post by Maker
Robot personal trainers!


Error. Error. You have not performed the minimum amount of excersise required for this session.

*Fires laser beam.*
Original post by Feel Tha Bern
That's hardly relevant given that machines can be programmed to use screwdrivers.


That's hardly relevant given that humans can learn to use screwdrivers and horses can't. But what about the horses?! Won't someone think of the horses?! :lol:
Reply 62
Original post by BBC Two
Error. Error. You have not performed the minimum amount of excersise required for this session.

*Fires laser beam.*


It would be a sexy male/female robot and you get incentives for achieving your fitness goals.
Original post by Neverdie
That's hardly relevant given that humans can learn to use screwdrivers and horses can't. But what about the horses?! Won't someone think of the horses?! :lol:


This isn't about the damn horses you clown.



The point is when we have intelligent machines, the argument that more jobs will be created will fail to hold up for humans, in the exact same way it has already failed to hold up for horses.



If your mind still struggles with equine based examples, look at how many few people work in industry and agriculture compared with before, the invention of the assembly line and the combustion engine.
Original post by BBC Two
And then watch obesity rates go sky high due to inactivity from the resulting laziness....... :rolleyes:


People's health would potentially be better, sitting at your desk doing **** with Microsoft Excel doesn't get you into shape, people will have the time to go swimming and rock climbing as nature designed them to.
Original post by Lawliettt
I'm sure civil engineering will be safe


Yeah was gonna say this.
Reply 66
Original post by Maker
It would be a sexy male/female robot and you get incentives for achieving your fitness goals.


Nothing truly beats a human when it comes to that kind of thing though. :dontknow:
Do people think that a computer could become sentient like a human?
Original post by Feel Tha Bern
Accountants will be slaughtered like the pigs that they are.


Come at me with your crappy machines.
Original post by Plagioclase
I went to a talk by this US entrepreneur a while ago who said that (slightly counter intuitively), computer science and related professions would very much be threatened by improved artificial intelligence and it's the jobs that involve human communication (e.g. teaching, nursing, counselling etc.) that would be the safest. Having said that, there are so many contradictory opinions about the future of Artificial Intelligence that it's probably pretty pointless trying to make these predictions.


According to the research papers, it's not particularly threatened
Reply 70
Original post by Trapz99
I want to be a trader so I'm guessing that at least half of the jobs that currently exist in my industry will be gone.


Yup. Atleast half. The financial sector will be butchered by AI.
Original post by ahpadt
Yup. Atleast half. The financial sector will be butchered by AI.


Yeah but hopefully I will do really well at my job so I won't lose it.
I don't have a job at the moment, but when I do get one it will be one that a robot can't do for a long time yet.

Original post by ozzyoscy
It's a bit of a myth. A machine can take a few people's jobs, but then a few new jobs open up: to keep the machine running.

For example, a standard factory conveyor belt setup. You've got 5 guys standing there doing whatever. Then a machine comes in and does their job even faster. But now you need those 5 guys to fix its errors, maintain it, fill it up, move stock etc.

Machines will only take over jobs when they are fully fledged sentient robots, at which point which should be more worried about them killing us.

Except you only need one person to fill it up, one to move the output and one to operate/maintain the machine. Three guys have been fired and one new person trained in the operation of the machine has been employed.

Then the next week the factory buys robotic forklifts. Those other two guys have lost their job.

Admittedly, there are more effects to consider. eg. the factory makes a lot of money so opens up several more conveyor belts, each of which needs a operator. Also new jobs will be created in new areas. However the robots will be able to do more and more jobs as time progresses. At some point the jobs created by the existence of the robots will be done by a robot and they'll keep advancing faster and faster. There will still be some jobs that can't be done by a robot until they gain consciousness, but there won't be enough for all of humanity. But is unemployment an issue in this situation?
Original post by morgan8002
Except you only need one person to fill it up, one to move the output and one to operate/maintain the machine.


What machine are you thinking of? Because there is more than one machine in the world... WTF man?
Reply 74
Original post by Trapz99
Yeah but hopefully I will do really well at my job so I won't lose it.


You might not lose it, you'll just be put to do something else. The running around on floors screaming numbers business won't survive for too much longer.
Original post by ahpadt
You might not lose it, you'll just be put to do something else. The running around on floors screaming numbers business won't survive for too much longer.


What you are thinking about is 'the pit' where the traders on an exchange shout out how much they want to buy and sell- that's not what 99% of traders do these days. Most traders trade on an electronic platform and aim to make a market for their clients by taking the other end of each trade to increase market liquidity. This involves a lot of strategic thinking such as how many shares to hold and you need to be constantly monitoring everything. For the more complex financial products such as derivatives, it will take a while for AI to take over since they are far more illiquid markets and hard to predict. Besides, I am learning a programming language at the moment and I could always decide to do a computer science Msc conversion if I feel that I need to move into algorithmic trading.
Original post by ahpadt
You might not lose it, you'll just be put to do something else. The running around on floors screaming numbers business won't survive for too much longer.


Floor traders =/= traders at an I-bank.

The latter have multiple computer screens, pricing models and automated trade execution systems for most mature exchange traded products. Complex and OTC products are usually traded by IM, or phone. Lower liquidity (structured) products require a crap load of modelling, risk management, and creative ability to both piece together and sell to clients.

Plus, banks already have algo-trading teams that design the algorithms and implement automated trading strategies on behalf of clients.


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Reply 77
Through work, I've visited a high speed trading firm in London, who will be a contracted client soon. I'm pretty sure that a lot of the people in there will have their work replaced by computers in the not too distant future.
(edited 8 years ago)
I guess they could but they would need hella fast machines to do the job :laugh: But still I think they would need human input.
Reply 79
Original post by ForgetMe
I guess they could but they would need hella fast machines to do the job :laugh: But still I think they would need human input.


Machines are a lot, lot, lot, lot faster than humans at solving tasks.

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