Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Better than human - Imagine that 7 out of 10 working Americans got fired tomorrow. What would they all do?



We talk about send in the robots to do jobs in space and we have seen them used more and more in manufacturing. Does this present a problem to those looking for employment?  The type of jobs have changed over the years and change requires the ability to adapt.  Back in the 70's the term was "future shock" and Alvin Toffler wrote a book about it.

The other day I read an article in the January 2013 'WIRED" magazine about automation and robots that might do your job better than you and could replace you. The Kurzweil news letter referenced it an you can read on line.  You might be interested in some of the comments both at Kurzweil and WIRED.
- LRK -

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Better than human

Imagine that 7 out of 10 working Americans got fired tomorrow. What would they all do?
January 2, 2013
It’s hard to believe you’d have an economy at all if you gave pink slips to more than half the labor force. But that — in slow motion — is what the industrial revolution did to the workforce of the early 19th century, says Wired maverick Kevin Kelley.
Two hundred years ago, 70 percent of American workers lived on the farm. Today automation has eliminated all but 1 percent of their jobs, replacing them (and their work animals) with machines.
But the displaced workers did not sit idle. Instead, automation created hundreds of millions of jobs in entirely new fields. Those who once farmed were now manning the legions of factories that churned out farm equipment, cars, and other industrial products.
Since then, wave upon wave of new occupations have arrived — appliance repairman, offset printer, food chemist, photographer, web designer — each building on previous automation. Today, the vast majority of us are doing jobs that no farmer from the 1800s could have imagined.
It may be hard to believe, but before the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation. …

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I suppose you can think of the coming future with dread and doom or check out what the possibilities for advancement might be.  Back in 1998 I bought a book that Mark Prado put together from his web site about using the resources of the Moon and Near Earth Asteroids. The website still exists with some updates and thoughts about how we are now at a point  where we could go extinct if some bioterroism act went wrong.  The CDC has an Emergency Preparedness and Response page.

Does this mean we should push for off world communities or just clean up our act here on Mother Earth?
Mark has a lot of information and thoughts if you have the time to read.
- LRK -

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 In summary, PERMANENT is for developing outer space on a very large scale, rapidly, by using materials already in space -- asteroids near Earth and/or lunar material -- instead of expensively blasting up from Earth all the materials used in space.After all, the Europeans who settled America didn't bring their bricks and cement from Europe...

This is an urgent matter for the survival of the human race because we have advanced technologically to the point in time where we can create new biological agents which could be suddenly lethal to all humans on Earth such as a supervirus, as well as nanotechnology which could kill all humans and possibly wreak havoc to the biosphere as we know it.
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So you have decided to help build a lunar base.  I suggest you take a look at the contract and read the fine print.
- LRK -

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Welcome To Moonbase
by  Ben Bova

-From Publishers Weekly

With the premise that man returns to the moon in 1999 and establishes a permanent base there by 2020, science fiction author and editor Bova here fashions an intriguing "manual" for pioneers arriving at the lunar community. With 50 detailed illustrations by NASA artist Rawlings, the guidebook covers Moonbase history, architecture, ecology, transportation, science projects, jobs, training, industries, tourism, sports ("lunar jai alai"), entertainment, day-to-day life, duties, rights and laws: "No one is allowed to walk on the surface alone, except in the specially marked 'Moonwalk Lanes.' " Combining fact and fiction in this "future history," Bova presents a compelling and persuasive argument for mankind's continual exploration of the moon and the establishment of a base on the lunar surface.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Well, while I am awake, I will watch, and wonder. :-)
- LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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