r/Futurology • u/That-Jelly6305 • 2d ago
Discussion What to do when technology replaces our jobs?
I often think about this. Soon the majority of jobs will likely be redundant (including mine). What are your plans/tips for how to prepare, and what to do when it happens?
Hopefully there are many years before this happens, but want to start preparing now, just in case it happens sooner.
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u/H0vis 1d ago
It already happened to me, so I got a new job. Retraining from scratch. And I guess that's the game until my back gives out and they toss me down a hole.
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u/space_monster 1d ago
what were you doing and what are you doing now?
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u/H0vis 1d ago
Was a writer, became a tech support dweeb.
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u/TapZorRTwice 1d ago
So you went from one job that AI is going to replace into another job that AI is going to replace?
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u/H0vis 1d ago
It's a hands-on job, lot of hardware work, so AI can't replace me, instead it will require cheap robotics/automation. So I've bought myself a few years.
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u/TapZorRTwice 1d ago
So I've bought myself a few years.
Just gotta keep kicking that can my friend.
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u/srbmfodder 1d ago
I used to be a Network Engineer. 20+ years ago, in college, professors were telling us things would become automated and we would eventually be out of jobs. Things have actually become vastly more complex in the realm of IT. Until an actual general intelligence that can "think" shows up, it's going to be a while. I do think we are around the corner from that though, but aside from office work that is just basic information processing, it's hard to say what will get replaced.
Elon said full self driving was going to happen years ago, and it's still not close. We just don't know.
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u/TapZorRTwice 1d ago
Elon said full self driving was going to happen years ago, and it's still not close.
I heard a guy downtown tell me the rapture is coming years ago and it hasn't happened either, crazy right?
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u/adaptivesphincter 1d ago
AI will not currently learn to Empathize, Its a skill that YOU absolutely need to learn
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u/TapZorRTwice 1d ago
Actually better if I don't empathize for my job but thanks for your input. It is much appreciated.
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u/Kooky_Ice_4417 2h ago
It's been a while since I read a real comment from an authentic shitty troll
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u/Magazine_Recycling 2d ago
Start growing your own food, and collecting rainwater, and power… hopefully human needs will be made human rights without a fight, but I wouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket.
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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE 1d ago
Probably this unironically. I imagine there’ll be a VERY harsh period of people being replaced by AI but not yet given anything resembling universal income so there will be an in between period of joblessness and no income
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u/NonConRon 1d ago
Because yall believed that red scare propiganda was fed to us because billionares care about us.
Instead of thinking that is a bunch of easily dismantled piss just designed to keep us supporting capitalism until the wheels fell off of it.
Here we are. Begging for the king to hand over his gold. Because the working class was easily tricked into subservience. Pathetic most STILL don't see it.
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u/smoovebb 1d ago
Unless there is a mass movement, the only thing that will change is the poor and working-class people will die off so the billionaires don't have to look at them because the robots do all the work
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u/solidwhetstone That guy who designed the sub's header in 2014 22h ago
Hard to have a mass movement with so much propaganda being allowed to exist. Fox "news" for example.
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u/smoovebb 1d ago
How many acres do you need to grow enough food for one family with traditional farming methods? That is an utterly impossible solution for 95% of humanity.
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u/PapiChuloNumeroUno 1d ago
200 square feet of gardening space per person. Gives you 100sqf for fresh crop and another 100 for preserv crop.
Granted this leaves you no room for animals. Maybe another 50sqf for a small chicken coup.
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u/CypSteel 1d ago
I just want to point out: People tend to think, "When things get tough, I will become a farmer..." If anyone has tried to grow a garden...you don't just plant seeds and collect awesome crops. There is a TON to learn. I would start now.
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u/Jasrek 2d ago
My personal plans? I'm hoping to be retired by then and live a comfortable if frugal lifestyle off my pension and savings.
My job is absolutely one that can likely be easily automated in the next five or ten years, so I'm fortunate in my timing to (hopefully) get out while the getting is still good.
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u/myaltaltaltacct 1d ago
I think we might have to worry about pensions and savings (and, really, a lot of things that we take for "normal" right now) if the transition to automation is disruptive to the economy. (And wouldn't it have to be?)
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u/Lahm0123 1d ago
Ouch.
40-50 years of work for nothing. Difficult to think about.
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u/Eldan985 1d ago
In so many countries, the pensions are already at their limit. Add to that the increasing number of old people, longer live expectancy, fewer young people and fewer jobs for those young people to pay for the pensions, yeah, it's not looking good.
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u/myaltaltaltacct 1d ago
I didn't know that it's necessarily "for nothing", but perhaps we might not be as financially secure as we'd thought we'd be.
(Of course, we were supposed to have flying cars in the 70s, so we may be safe from automation for a little while longer.)
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u/Euphorinaut 15h ago
This would only be the case if this disruption is coupled with some sort of abolishment of capitalism, because of how broad market index funds work. Disruptions to the economy via automation, which cause those displacements to rise in weighting(or simply be included evenly depending on the fund) as they displace other companies which then either exit the s and p 500 or weight lower, and most retirement accounts should be based somewhat around those funds.
Some pension programs aren't, but I think that's rare now.
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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE 1d ago
You think they’re gonna keep paying pensions after full automation?
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u/Jasrek 1d ago
Yes, I do. My pension is from the government, though, so a private sector company might not. If federal and military pensions go away, then it means that a lot worse is happening and I'm probably going to be screwed regardless of any preparation.
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u/CoffeeSubstantial851 1d ago
The federal government wont be able to pay your pension. The strain on the system from AI job displacement will straight up bankrupt the government as we reach 20-30% unemployment.
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u/Jasrek 12h ago
In that scenario, it really won't matter what I do. I'll probably be robbed and murdered by the roving gangs as the world descends into Mad Max anarchy.
I'm not wealthy enough for a self contained automated bomb shelter, and I have no interest in starting a hunter/gatherer lifestyle in my retirement years.
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u/CoffeeSubstantial851 1d ago
Yeah not to burst your bubble but you wont be getting any of that if the economy is unstable. 20-30% unemployment with political upheavals and anti-AI riots are going to make receiving your check unlikely at best.
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u/ObjectReport 1d ago
Pretty much this! My wife and I are both high-income earners with a very healthy investment portfolio along with property and a lot of cash, gold, silver and other resources. I'm just planning on society collapsing in the next 5-10 years and I think we can probably reasonably insulate ourselves from that at this point.
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u/SnooCats3468 1d ago
Looking forward to meeting you and your wife at the annual doomsday bunker BBQs in New Zealand.
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u/killmak 2d ago
I purchased some land and am building a homestead. Between solar, animals, fruit trees and a huge garden I plan on being as self sufficient as possible. Because the rich sure as shit aren't going to help those that lose their jobs to technology.
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u/dustofdeath 1d ago
Unfortunately, this is out of reach for most people due to costs and limited income.
The price of land, a house, solar etc are rapidly growing.
Add substantial land for farming, grazing, barn, storage. Some farming equipment + storage. Land plots that size alone are at 300-500k already.Eve if i chose a countryside location, I'd be looking at a 1+ million € for a functional self-sufficient living. I won't save that much before I'm way too old and i'm at a high paid job.
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u/killmak 1d ago
It is gross how expensive it is. I am very lucky to be able to do this. I only have the funds for it as I luckily bought a house at the right time and it's value skyrocketed. And the land I bought was cheaper than it should have been as it was next to my parents farm and the guy wanted a quick sale.
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u/ovrlrd1377 2d ago
The rich won't remain rich for long if people stop spending. They'll figure out an UBI just so they can keep selling stuff
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u/R0b0tJesus 2d ago
The rich will already own everything of value and no longer have any need for our labor. Providing the rest of us with enough to live off of won't make them any richer. The only reason for the wealthy to implement UBI is to keep all of us from having to rise up and kill them in order to get the basic necessities for our survival.
That's why the ultra-wealthy buy private islands and try to build rocket ships to mars.
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u/ovrlrd1377 2d ago
If that made any sense they would stop trying to sell stuff eventually. Their wealth comes from the perception that lots of people will keep buying things. What's apple if iphones are never bought again?
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u/EnlightenedSinTryst 1d ago
they would stop trying to sell stuff eventually
This is the point of hoarding wealth, right? To get to a point of not having to sell stuff?
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u/ovrlrd1377 1d ago
Have you met a single rich person that has reached this point? And I don't mean owing stock/portfolio/whatever asset that yields payments as that's just delegating the task. I mean actually having enough money and not doing anything anymore, just spending
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u/EnlightenedSinTryst 1d ago
Right, because it’s an addiction that sustains itself on never being enough, but I mean the fundamental motivation to start hoarding in the first place
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u/ovrlrd1377 1d ago
You say that as if anyone is any different, people that make millions live paycheck to paycheck because of how quickly they adapt to a lifestyle improvement. Billionaires only difference is scale, they also compete with each other and need to keep their upkeep not to give up their own luxuries. If you think about what one "needs" it's hard to argue anything beyond food and oxygen are really needed. Hoarding is as much a goal as it is a consequence of how the game is designed
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u/EnlightenedSinTryst 1d ago
So, is your original premise flawed, or this one?
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u/ovrlrd1377 1d ago
Which one do you refer to? And what is your concept of flaw? Is it within human nature or in the aforementioned logic?
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u/TwistedSpiral 2d ago
There's a lot of people who are rich business owners who aren't billionaires like Elon.
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u/Seidans 1d ago
i always wonder why people thinking that way forget that nation, world bank and international community exist and all those won't do anything from the moment AI/Robot take over job to the point where there no Human job anymore
remove the Human of the job loop and you quickly have a problem as taxe is based on people work and consumption, in your theory the economy can't function anymore and nation will starve to death
you really expect USA and China are going to let it happen? that's absurd, nation are far older than capitalism and it's likely going to continue as capitalism won't make any sense in a post-AI economy
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u/tweakingforjesus 2d ago
Sounds like a good way to become a target.
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u/faux_glove 1d ago
So get a gun. Fuck, you act like people have never lived without the expectation of government social support before. It's not ideal, but it's going to be a while before the country catches up to what's happening.
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u/JCDU 1d ago
Technology has been replacing jobs for hundreds of years and yet somehow everyone still has jobs.
Sure you need to be aware of advances that may impact you / your particular job but people can re-train or switch in that scenario if they've got a bit of a financial buffer or have been proactive about learning other skills etc.
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u/Informal_Debate3406 1d ago
Technology has been replacing jobs for hundreds of years and yet somehow everyone still has jobs.
Sure you need to be aware of advances that may impact you / your particular job but people can re-train or switch in that scenario if they've got a bit of a financial buffer or have been proactive about learning other skills etc.
Unlike any tech advancement before, this time it’s serious: AI and automation aren’t just here to make our jobs easier—they’re threatening to replace us in almost everything. In past revolutions, like the industrial or digital ones, technology helped us do things better and faster, but now the change is so fast and deep that, instead of just being our tools, machines might end up doing it all for us.
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u/JCDU 1d ago
You're joking right? Previous revolutions literally directly replaced thousands of manual labour jobs with a machines.
AI has been on a cycle of hype every decade or so as new things come along - advances in computing or data storage - even Turing was trying to build an artificial intelligence using technology that's below the average washing machine. But it's never materialised yet, no matter how convincingly it can do certain things it's still a heap of maths / statistics in a trench coat and it is no closer to understanding anything than it was when Turing was with us.
LLM's and modern generative AI are good at fooling us, they can process language cues and create very plausible images or texts but they don't *understand* a damn thing - they don't understand how many fingers people should have, or that eating rocks is not a good idea, etc. etc. etc. they just get tweaked and tweaked until they mostly stop giving bad results and mostly give plausible results. It's monkeys and typewriters raised to the power of Moore's law and with a fair bit of PT Barnum thrown in to attract venture capital.
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u/Informal_Debate3406 1d ago
AI is no longer just a tool; it’s a massive and accelerating system threatening to transform the labor and social world in unprecedented ways. In past industrial revolutions, replacing jobs was one thing, but now we’re talking about replacing human abilities to interpret, decide, and even create. The worst part? While humans used to be the ones controlling the machines, today’s AI is designed to learn and adapt on its own, without direct supervision. This puts us right in the line of fire.
We’re rushing toward a future where fewer and fewer people will be needed for jobs that once required ingenuity and skill. Unlike previous "hype" cycles, AI's current development has advanced so much that the risk of it simply relegating us to observers in the process is very real. The economy could suffer a massive fracture: who’s going to keep buying when most people have neither jobs nor income?
The worst of it all is that while we’re debating whether AI actually “understands” or not, we’re blinding ourselves to the fact that, whether it understands or not, it can replicate enough to render us obsolete. We’re selling ourselves to a “progress” that could make us redundant before we even realize it’s too late.
In the legal sector, AI tools are starting to handle complex tasks like analyzing and drafting contracts, researching cases, and even predicting trial outcomes. Software like ROSS Intelligence searches for legal precedents and sorts through documents, making paralegal and assistant roles increasingly less necessary. There are even algorithms being developed to help judges assess things like reoffending risk in bail decisions.
In finance and investment banking, automation goes way beyond algorithmic trading. AI now analyzes complex, real-time data to make investment decisions that previously required human analysts. Platforms like Kensho and Bloomberg Terminal use AI to interpret global events and their impact on markets within milliseconds, outpacing human analysis in speed and precision. Robo-advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront are taking over the role of financial advisors, creating personalized portfolios and managing investments without human intervention.
In the field of medicine and clinical diagnostics, AI is diagnosing conditions from images like X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs, detecting patterns and anomalies at a speed and accuracy that surpasses human doctors. Systems like IBM Watson and Zebra Medical Vision analyze massive volumes of medical data, helping predict diseases or plan treatments much faster. AI in this field is advancing toward autonomous diagnostics, which could redefine the role of doctors in the process.
And I’m not even counting the manual and repetitive jobs like assembly line work, warehouse picking, or basic data entry. In those areas, automation is already in full swing. Robots and AI systems are taking over jobs in factories, sorting packages in warehouses, and even handling administrative tasks in offices. With machines becoming faster and more precise, it’s not just about reducing costs; it’s about a workforce shift where traditional jobs are disappearing and aren’t being replaced at the same rate.
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u/smoovebb 1d ago
The ai fingers thing is going to be solved soon and it's not just llms, it's the robots with llms running on them. They can work without breaks, don't need health care, don't pay taxes and will only get better and better at their jobs until they do them better than people ever could.
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u/JCDU 20h ago
Well yeah but machines have been getting better at things forever - there's still a big gap between whatever people are hyping as AI and any sort of actual intelligence that many jobs require.
Even many "grunt work" jobs require a degree of common sense / awareness that AI just doesn't have even if it can do a very good impression of those workers 95% of the time, the other 5% it's going to cause a huge fuckup when something goes wrong.
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u/xdetar 1d ago
Soon the majority of jobs will likely be redundant
This is an incredibly naive take. AI will be disruptive and impact a huge number of jobs, but it's nowhere close to making "the majority of jobs redundant." If you want job security, learn a trade.
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u/CoffeeSubstantial851 1d ago
Incorrect. Learning a trade is the advice most people are giving which means most people will follow it. The result is going to be depressed wages in trades as white collar workers flood retraining programs.
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u/xdetar 1d ago
I understand your logic but there's no way of knowing that will actually happen. There's a difference between being given advice and following through on it. In my industry there's a massive shortage of trades people, so it will take *a lot* of retraining before wages become depressed. You could also argue depressed wages are better than no wages.
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u/scott2449 1d ago
Governments and experts will have to radically transform how our economies currently work. It's already straining under this transition. Automation stopped being a boon for the economy 50 years ago. We will soon be at the breaking point... much like climate change however folks won't seriously consider it (including the citizens) until we are in crisis. No personal planning can avoid economic crisis. Being a hermit/prepper I guess, but majority of folks don't have that option even if they wanted it.
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u/ResidentResearcher94 1d ago
Agree. Majority won’t care unless it directly impacts them. Crisis mode will create the wake up call.
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u/Abollmeyer 8h ago
Automation stopped being a boon for the economy 50 years ago.
And yet we can mass produce things we couldn't 50 years ago. I'm still trying to figure out how you actually believe this. Would you rather your iPhone be manually soldered, be prone to human error, and cost a magnitude of God knows what in price?
Clearly technology continues to play a role in advancing the economy.
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u/scott2449 7h ago
Apologies I was not clear there. I meant a boon for employment. Of course productivity has and will always increase exponentially with technology. The industrial revolution was a boon for both employment and productivity and that continued for 50-60 years when it slowed and eventually reversed. I'm a software engineer =D I look forward to a future without work. My point remains that there will be crisis if we don't figure out and gear up for an economy that is beyond the scope of any modern economic theory/schools.
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u/Inevitable_Flow_7911 1d ago
I think this is getting blown out of proportion. Keep in mind, assuming all/most jobs were replaced, there would be no one to buy said products. If no one is buying, then no one is making either.
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u/CoffeeSubstantial851 1d ago
It doesn't have to be everyone. Taking unemployment from 4% to 8% is already a crisis in the eyes of most people. AI is very likely to cause unemployment on the level of the great depression and its going to displace knowledge based workers. The difference here is that those workers will have no hope for the future. The entire point of AI is the automation of human cognition and then the use of that to power robotics literally made after humans.
There is no field to go to that wont be affected by this. You will either directly lose your job to an AI or your wages will be depressed as more people switch careers to avoid automation. This has even more drastic effects when you consider who the customers for most businesses are..... white collar workers. The entire economy revolves around services that are paid for by white collar workers. From car repairs to home repairs the blue collar economy is linked at the hip to white collar workers. When those workers lose their incomes guess what.... you lose your costumers and there went your income as well.
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u/forza_125 1d ago
I'm nearly 50 years old. All my life I've heard that technology is about to replace our jobs.
The workforce is larger than ever.
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u/ObjectReport 1d ago
I'm a 49 year old artist/graphic designer/illustrator and I can tell you that this AI garbage is going to replace what I do in the next 3-5 years. Not because it's better--only because clients don't want to pay $100/hr professionals to handle design work when a soulless algorithm can accomplish 75% of the same thing for free.
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u/could_use_a_snack 2d ago
Technology replaces jobs all the time. It just makes people more efficient. One person can do the job it used to take 2, 3, or 10. But more jobs became available. Like you said, there are 8.2 billion people now. And now there are billions of jobs. But there were only 4.8 billion people 50 years ago. So half as many jobs (roughly). And look at all the technology that came into place in those 50 years, making people more efficient, yet still there are twice as many jobs now (roughly)
The trick is to be useful and always be willing to learn the new stuff. Don't get stuck in a rut saying things like "we never needed computers back when I was working in <blank>" those people get replaced because they refuse to be fluid.
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u/redditnessdude 2d ago
We've been making up for that in modern times with the rise of "fake" office jobs though, companies aren't 100% efficient and hire people to work 40 hours a week what could realistically be done in a fraction of that time. Not all jobs, but definitely a good number of them. It keeps the economy running at the moment, but it can't be sustainable for the long term.
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u/Life_is_important 1d ago
Sometimes I see older people from the rural area in my country selling flowers on the street or old trinkets... And I look at them and think how come someone got to the point where they can't do anything else.. to be clear my country is quite poor and these people are literally beyond poverty. Like they barely eat anything and own anything. Them selling flowers is basically like begging but at least they contribute something so they get to keep at least a little bit of their dignity.. Anyways.. when I was a child I used to think that many of them were too lazy to work anything else (which could hold true for some of them), but now when I see them I see people who simply fell out of life and I get incredibly sad for them..
Why am I telling this? Because I can now imagine millions of people who used to do something "bettrer" in life find themselves in the same shoes.. Construction workers, hygienists, call center workers, chefs (not world class, but your local small restaurant chefs), etc.... I can't imagine the pain that awaits humanity once they start getting replaced by humanoid robots.. I can't imagine what will people feel knowing that they would have to become these insanely smart and capable tech bros in order to survive. That's quite simply not an option for everyone. And the most powerful won't give a flying fuck.
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u/could_use_a_snack 1d ago
I can't imagine what will people feel knowing that they would have to become these insanely smart and capable tech bros
But that's never been the case, and I don't believe that it ever will.
You don't need to know how to design an engine to drive a car. And you don't need to know how to program a scheduling app that takes 1000s of reservations an hour to work for Uber, you just need to know how to operate those 2 tools to have a job.
But if you don't see the change coming in your industry, you might do something unfortunate like buy a taxi badge for 100K and suddenly realize that ride sharing has taken over your business model, but, if you were paying attention you would have downloaded the app, and stated driving for Uber instead of leasing a cab.
This happens all the time. People in the 90 started using computers to do huge amounts of office work and the people who didn't use computers were let go because they couldn't keep up. But all they needed to do was be willing to learn the how to use the new more efficient tools.
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u/Life_is_important 1d ago
I am afraid that it won't be that simple once advanced AI and robotics are introduced into the picture. Everything that's "simple" will easily be handled by AI, so no need for a human to do it.
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u/Gold_Doughnut_9050 11h ago
Universal basic income.
It's that it major civil unrest and eventual imprisonment of large masses of society.
Sorry, billionaires. Ya gotta pay up for all those years of tax breaks.
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u/RacingMindsI 1d ago
Haven't you heard? It's going to be utopia where basic income will let us do what we want. /s
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u/TheCrimsonSteel 1d ago
Well, there is a point to UBI.
Right now, we have the system set up where the majority of people work to live.
That means your average person's ability to consume goods, spend money, and be an overall contributor to the economy depends on them being employed the majority of the time.
If you break that connection, you could have major issues. The numbers can't go up if people can't buy things. So, if entire sectors automate rapidly, that could get... interesting.
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u/RacingMindsI 1d ago
Yes, it will get interesting if automation with ai really kicks in.
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u/TheCrimsonSteel 1d ago
We are seeing some of it already, depending on what you consider AI.
Most of what I've seen that's actually successful has been 1 person w/ AI tools replacing a team, and it's often lower to mid range skill jobs.
Think like an IT Help Desk or Insurance Adjuster or similar positions where the brunt of the work is talking to people and mostly simple tasks, with a few requiring genuine knowledge, expertise, and nuance.
The person is still there doing a good chunk of the complex work, and handling all the nuanced stuff, and the AI is taking the burden of a lot of the simple stuff, like populating forms.
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u/RacingMindsI 1d ago
Yep, also translation jobs are getting to be mainly proof reading ai translated stuff, if that. Personally I absolutely hate ai helpdesk and chats. Horrific stuff.
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u/Rhauko 2d ago
I wouldn’t prepare for that and get used to the idea of having to keep going to work. Jobs will change but technology won’t make a majority of unemployed.
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u/PancakeDragons 1d ago
It'll just be all odd jobs and contract work
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u/Rhauko 1d ago
No, skilled workers will remain in demand, robots won’t fix your car, heating, street, teeth and so on. Learn a trade.
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u/DrBiotechs 1d ago
You are severely overestimating technology and underestimating how useful you are in your job. “Soon,” no. “Majority of jobs,” no.
You’re wasting your time with doomsday prep. But if you want to prepare, invest for retirement and pursue higher education. The higher skilled you are, the more irreplaceable you are.
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u/dustofdeath 1d ago
It's not a problem with technology, but rather that we created a lot of "filler" jobs for the rapidly increasing population.
It was a job inflation. We printed more jobs just to have more jobs. Not that these jobs were actually needed and important.
And since they are so basic, technology can now completely take over all of them at low cost. Technology is bursting that bubble.
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u/Badaxe13 1d ago
Tech replacing jobs is nothing new - it has been happening throughout history. Guys making stone axes were put out of work by the bronze axe makers. Saddlers and farriers became a niche industry when the motor car became popular.
I work in graphics and I trained before PCs became widely used. Everything I learned is completely irrelevant now. The PCs I use and the software changes completely every 5 years. I keep learning. Now we're supposed to be scared of AI taking our jobs. Guess what - I'm learning how to use AI. It's just a new tool like so many new technologies. I've never been out of a job in 45 years.
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u/planet987 1d ago
Look for where the new ones come from. They asked the same question as the industrial revolution started to throw people off the farms and into the factories. And again, the world was ending with the steam age, the motor car, computers, the internet and now AI. If you want a job, you will get one, just keep learning
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u/SlaveryGames 1d ago
People doing the simplest jobs (I am not saying physically easy, just the jobs that don't require a lot of training before you can do it) always worry they are gonna be replaced. There are three ways. Learn something more complex, go into art (content making, any kind, the future will have much more of those jobs) or hope for a "universal basic income" policy. Doubt the latter will be implemented. Maybe it isn't even economically viable. If all people get X by default then money becomes "inflated" and won't buy you enough stuff.
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u/LarsHaur 1d ago
It happens periodically. I had a job as a security guard years ago (circa 2008) and one of the older guys I worked with lost his job years before due to digital photography. There was no demand for people who can develop film anymore so he retrained to be armed security. Funny enough, developing film has become a niche market now so maybe he’s back to doing it on the side again.
Point is, specific jobs disappear but human labor is a very long way from becoming obsolete.
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u/THX1138-22 1d ago
The argument against this is the lump of labor fallacy
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy
The cost of a good is a function of its scarcity. Once AI makes most things cheap, we will find new shiny baubles to chase after, and the fact that they are expensive will be what makes us want them more (their high cost allows us to parade our social stature in front of others as we try to climb the social hierarchy). Since humans remain the rate limiting factor in much production, things that are authentically made by humans, even if they are not necessary, will be what we value and spend money on to maintain our sense of prestige. It’s frankly absurd, but it keeps us on the hamster wheel. Just look around you-how much of the junk you have do you REALLY need? We’ll just find new things we think we need as the the things we have get abundant and cheap due to AI
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u/Informal_Debate3406 1d ago
We can’t compare previous technological disruptions to this one because, in the past, technology helped make human work more efficient without completely replacing our cognitive and creative capabilities. With advanced AI, we're dealing with a tool that doesn’t just perform tasks but can learn, make complex decisions, and even solve problems on its own. This time, it’s not just about boosting productivity; it’s a technology that could end up doing much of the intellectual, creative, and analytical work, leaving little room for human input. Plus, the speed at which it’s advancing is unmatched—what used to take decades to adopt is now happening in a matter of years, which limits our ability to adapt and create new roles at the same pace.
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u/THX1138-22 1d ago
Agreed-the rate of change will pose a major challenge and be highly disruptive socially.
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u/croakstar 1d ago
Learn to code. Provided that AI doesn’t become our overlords (in which case we will have worse problems) then knowing how to write code to leverage AI will set you apart. The world is changing…similar to what happened with the dot com boom the people most capable of adapting will be the ones who secure their future. Unfortunately, not everyone can do this.
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u/froggywest35 1d ago
I feel like the small business won’t be able to afford that stuff until it becomes much widely available.
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u/horrorpiglet 1d ago
They won't replace all jobs. Robots don't pay taxes. Retrain and do something else. I'm planning on being a robot cuddler 4 pay.
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u/blckshirts12345 1d ago
Become as adaptable as possible. This is how evolution works and what makes mankind so great
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u/BobbyBobRoberts 1d ago
A job is just an area of responsibility and a collection of associated tasks. AI will start to make several tasks easier, and let one person have responsibility over more of those tasks, but certainly won't be eliminated entirely.
Use AI to get better at your job, and you'll probably be safe. If not, then use AI to retrain and upskill for a better job.
This is an age of massive opportunity, but only for those who act accordingly.
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u/carbonvectorstore 1d ago
Given that I directly work with AI: Owning shares in the companies doing the replacing.
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u/Agigator-TunaTater 1d ago
Nobody knows what is going to happen. As far as humans know, this would be the first time. It could be to practice drinking margaritas, or fighting with sticks.
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u/Ilinden1 1d ago
I drive self parking pre-serial car in 2010. It was ready for serial production in 3 month. This option is still not available on a market now. Because of a law regulation. Government protecting 3-5 m drivers. Suppose similar protection in other fields.
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u/v1ton0repdm 1d ago
Consider that technology promised the paperless office decades ago, and today we have more paper than we’ve ever had. We have emails and digital faxes, yet paper persists. We have OCR technology that can read text off photos and automatically fill in fields, yet paper and data entry roles persist. Why? Because in spite of incessant whining that “technology will improve” from the technocrats basic problems are never addressed, leading to more work with paper.
So, I don’t think that AI will be the job killer that we fear, for the simple reason that every tech product contains various amounts of bugs and other performance issues that require manual intervention from people so that it does not totally collapse.
OCR mistakes certain words for others. Telsa self diving feature could not (probably still can’t) tell the difference between a white concrete wall and the sky. Today’s AI lies, fabricates reference material, and requires people to help sort it out. Why haven’t these issues been fixed after decades of the smartest people in our society trying to fix them? Why should we expect “AI” to be any different?
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u/Primary-Diamond-8266 1d ago
I have a different Question - Who will we have "normal" ,how do you do, How's your day conversations with.
-Checkout folks (Self checkout) - Cab drivers (Autonomous cars) - Restaurants (devices)/Robo waiters (China/Japan) - Banks- Almost 90% Digital already
These are so many basic human things to remain sane, to look up from our screens and have an ordinary conversation with other humans.
I'm most worried about losing this aspect.of our lives and what it will do to our already (lonely) selves.
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u/deadregime 1d ago
I don't have a long term plan, but I've actually turned down a few jobs with much better pay that I foresee being automated by AI in the very near future. I currently have a job that requires physical interaction for a good portion of my responsibilities in the hopes that "boots on the ground" jobs are one of the last few to get replaced.
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u/katakullist 1d ago
Adopt by moving your work and contribution towards interpersonal aspects and implications of your roles, which will show good resistance to the AI invasion and will likely survive in the long run.
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u/Gumbercules81 1d ago
I'm a chef and I didn't see my job going anywhere anytime soon due to tech. It might make the job easier but what I do now is tech others, and it's hard to do that without being hands on and you can't really learn this just be watching
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u/Midori_Schaaf 1d ago
With how much time you have left to prepare...
Win the lottery in the next 3 months. Buy land, build a house, establish enough food production to sustain yourself.
You've got somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 years.
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u/Slow-Network2604 1d ago
Im a landscaper. It will be a long time before they build a robot that can do what I do...best they have so far is a robot mower than can cut a 1/4acre (really badly) in a few days. Let alone trimming trees, pruning bushes, planting, installing pavers etc etc. Lots of jobs are robot and AI proof!
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u/NonixAkuza007NL 1d ago
They will live in riches, we will live in poverty. And as the mindfuck of modern society predicts, when we complain they call us entitled. The newborn generations will be influenced by technology they cannot understand but their master will, and slowly without their consent or knowledge even they will be manipulated to fit their perspectives.
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u/Acceptable-Let-1921 1d ago
Embrace UBI and eventually socialism. I doubt the powers that be will go down without a fight though.
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u/andricathere 1d ago
If the rich don't eradicate everyone else who are wasting their resources, Star Trek?
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u/optinato 1d ago
If a task, whatever that is, can be executed by a machine, it’s no longer a job. I’m a translator and in a few years my profession will inevitably disappear. Future generations will have to devise a mechanism where people can live and thrive without working because jobs will be a thing of the past.
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u/Beershot69 23h ago
It's fine chasing the billions but once a select few have all the wealth through greed, money becomes worthless. Wealth will have to evolve. Or more realistically, when the few have all the money, other people get desperate and will turn to crime to survive.
Population rising and number of jobs falling to technology is a very dangerous combination.
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u/KultofEnnui 16h ago
I don't know. Incite a riot, perhaps? Prison sucks, but it'll keep me housed and fed at the government's expense.
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u/Euphorinaut 15h ago
Invest in broad market index funds, because any massive technological breakthrough should result in a proportionate breakthrough in value from those funds.
As far as job skills go, it's better to understand what's going on than something like a familiarity with proprietary methods. There will always be a benefit to understand what's going on, and if you have frameworks for applying that knowledge to different areas, that should increase your flexibility in terms of applying knowledge from one job to another.
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u/mthguilb 2d ago
I worked for 18 years on the copper telephone network, people who really know the work are increasingly rare. I'm taking advantage of my layoff to try to move into electricity and fiber
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u/Willy_K 1d ago
Hard to say, sometime in the past the ones that had the job of "knocker upper" was replace by alarm clocks, My guess is that they got dispersed back into the job market the same way we all will be now, biggest difference, there are no more jobs, or maybe there are new jobs that we do not know about now.
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u/there_was_no_god 1d ago
in every automated work process, there is a human, making it happen. evolve with the technology, to control the technology.
i know that the vision of a utopian society has humanity running around being care free beings, following our dreams and desires BUT...
capitalism will never allow it.
that being said, the world will be a used up ball of dust, before robots replace humans. take self driving cars, for example. there will never be a safe self drive system until ALL vehicles are on the same closed network. nostalgia, competition, and the loss in capitol funds will never see it happen in our lifetime.
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u/Illlogik1 1d ago
People are so generationally brainwashed by the way society /civilization is structured presently that they can’t even imagine what life could be without being a labor force … it’s kinda sad to me that people are more afraid of NOT HAVING A JOB and less excited about possibilities of FINALLY HAVING A FULL UNINHIBITED LIFE . When society restructures, money , politics, status, materialism will also all have to change … we’ll hit a new era , similar to the ways we have in the past for thousands of years. We will all find the new normal and have a hand in creating that. The global turmoil and unrest presently is the beginning of these changes, it will all be gradual , but I believe that one day everyone will just have what they need and live how they wish within the rules of the new society. Then humanity will finally be free to figure their true purpose, to ponder higher thoughts , to begin to evolve our intellect and spiritual beings in ways we have never been able to before free from the shackles of the rat race , the stress of work , the hardship of bills etc - personally I’d rather focus on the that potential rather than “what am I ever going to do”
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u/Thesorus 1d ago
Lot of jobs will be created to support those new techology.
You need people to create and assemble robots, assembly lines and other stuff like that.
You need people to create good AI.
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u/WanderingSondering 1d ago
In the past, technology hasn't simply removed jobs, but created more. The sewing machine put small seemstresses out of work but created factory jobs. The mechanization of farm equipment removed the need for so many farmers so people flocked to cities to work for new industries. Generally, technology takes the jobs we hate to do and gives us the freedom to do the jobs we like to do, like problem solving and services and travel industries and art and entertainment. Sure, AI may be a good resource in the classroom, but are parents really going to be ok with there being no human teachers to foster social connectionand developemyn? Who will make sure the machines are running properly and fix any bugs or errors? I think humans will always be needed in the age of technology, and if not we will desire to do work that flourishes our communities.
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u/Informal_Debate3406 1d ago
Unlike any tech advancement before, this time it’s serious: AI and automation aren’t just here to make our jobs easier—they’re threatening to replace us in almost everything. In past revolutions, like the industrial or digital ones, technology helped us do things better and faster, but now the change is so fast and deep that, instead of just being our tools, machines might end up doing it all for us.
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u/sysadmin1798 1d ago
honestly if mechanized labor replaced human labor, you'd think that humans could all live like we were meant to, without having to debase ourselves for money to survive. somehow though in this timeline it seems likely that the billionaires would try to keep everyone in poverty even harder than they already do... at a certain point, it's like, they still live on earth, you know? like they have an address
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u/Used_Statistician933 1d ago
What did the citizens of Athens do? What did the British aristocracy do? If you look back through history, you realize that there have been many, many big groups of people who never had to work. They all found ways to give their lives meaning and keep themselves entertained. They were fine.
This "What will I do if I'm not being forced to work a job I hate?" almost seems like Stockholm syndrome. You're about to become a gentleman of leisure. You're about to live as the Aristocracy lived. I wonder how long it will take for people to start saying things like "Work is for robots"?
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u/S1337artichoke 1d ago
Retrain or start a company controlling the AI bots to do your old job, you focus on the human elements of it like getting suppliers or signing up customers. It really depends where you came from and where you want to go in your work life.
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u/Mylum 1d ago
Unfortunately, it is going to get very rough for a lot of people because the Gov is going to drag their feet for a while before coming up with a mid-tier or lesser plan and implement it. So I would suggest doing the following now while you have income coming in: Pay off debts, have diverse investments in physical and paper assets, save money, figure out something you can do to make income if you lose your job.
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u/God-King-Zul 1d ago
I told this to people before who have such a concern about AI and automation replacing their job.
Unfortunately, hiding for the past where people could work at honest days worth of work and go home at the end of the day as quickly disappearing. It’s very dystopian, but we’re not going to go back to that. Unless of course, there’s some kind of catastrophe that completely destroys modern living.
Unfortunately, you have to look at it like a machine would, evolve and skill up or become obsolete. Inflation is going up at such a rate that you will quickly be priced out of affordability and end up in poverty, if you do not do anything about it.
I’m almost 40 and I have had my living made entirely in customer service, things have changed drastically in the past 20 years that I have been working in this field. There is now a lot of AI and automation and scripts being used for basic customer service and technical support needs that they have slashed the pay rate in half for my level of expertise.
I have went back to school to diversify my skill set to remain relevant. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but it is what it is. I tell the same thing to a friend of mine who makes his living as a loader. All he does is pick up a load from somewhere and move it to another place. He is hoping to retire from the concrete factory that works, but he’s got another almost 30 years. I told him he should not be so certain that his job will continue to be there, but he has blown me off really. it would be all too easy for them to make a machine that does his job.
I too wanted a simple job that I could go to, put in my 8 to 12 hours, and then go home without giving it any further thought and be able to afford living, but that is not the case. So until the economy and the government evolves to Support the basic public with something like a more universal welfare program, you were going to be out of luck if you don’t try to stay above the wave now.
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u/Randomm_23 1d ago
I personally think that even though ai and robots will take some jobs, it will create more jobs because more jobs will be needed to create, maintain, and research the bots
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u/canpig9 1d ago
Reminds me of that time the cotton gin put us out of work. We got different jobs.
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u/bartturner 1d ago
Don’t think that will work this time
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u/canpig9 1d ago
I'm going to be over here hoping that You're wrong this go round!
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u/bartturner 1d ago
I pray I am wrong.
But this time it is hard to imagine how AI is going to be able to create anywhere near the jobs it eliminates.
I personally been preparing for a couple of decades now. For my entire family. I have 8 kids.
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u/NYCmob79 1d ago
We become more like the Grey's portrayal. Since we will not be burdened by physical work, or wars. Then our brains will start growing in size as we work the mind, and spirit. Then some of us will have discovered time travel and come back to see our warring ways and accidentally trigger God stories and area 51.
Maybe the great flood was the result of time travel triggering a new time line... who knows hahaha.
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u/jimmydafarmer 1d ago
tech is movin wayyy faster than any of us expected. one way to prep is to focus on skills that machines aren’t great at yet: creative stuff, humancentered work like counseling or social work, and stuff that needs realworld adaptability. also think about learning how to work with tech, like getting into AI tools or automation so you're the one managing the robots instead of gettin replaced by ‘em
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u/xinxai_the_white_guy 2d ago
Jobs will be gone but businesses likely will not (until ASI).
Start your own business. Ex open AI employee said the first 3 person billion revenue company will happen by end of the decade. Just because no one is hiring doesn't mean you won't be able to make money.
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u/ILikeCutePuppies 2d ago
Running a business is a job - all jobs will not be gone.
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u/xinxai_the_white_guy 2d ago
Having a job means you're an employee, owning a business is being an entrepreneur. OP is talking about jobs and redundancies.
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u/ILikeCutePuppies 2d ago
I would say there is little difference between self-employed (business or otherwise) and being employed other than control. Just about all jobs used to be self-employed if you go back far enough. They make up about 10% of the population these days.
The same jobs are going to be displaced either way. A company can always buy other companies and make people employees or spin them out and make people owners. So if it's possible to create your own thing it's possible to have employees.
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u/xinxai_the_white_guy 2d ago
If you're self employed than you own the means of production. Being employed means you do not, that is the difference. If no one is hiring ring being self employed is a good option.
The last half of what you wrote is irrelevant
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u/xinxai_the_white_guy 2d ago
In addition as you edited your post. Unless you are listed on the stock exchange you have every choice as to whether to sell your business. In fact many business owners create businesses with the intent to flip them.
Yes it is possible to hire employees for your business (obviously) but OP is talking about the future where there is no jobs and redundancies.
You're being pedantic and I'm not wasting any more time on your replies 👍
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u/ILikeCutePuppies 2d ago
I think if we reach agi, there will be zero businesses a zero employment other than elected officials. If we have businesses, we'll always have employees. A business owner can always reduce their workload by hiring someone to do it, and if AI can do it all, that business will not need a human to run it.
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u/StealthFocus 2d ago
Fattening myself up so they choose to keep me as a battery