Re: Robotic nation

From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Thu Jul 24 2003 - 12:44:45 MDT

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    The jobs soonest in danger are not the boring, repetitive physical ones,
    but the boring, repetitive mental ones. And it's a toss-up whether the
    next to go will be the boring physical jobs or the challenging mental
    ones. Which is easier: to be a mathematician, or to be a janitor?
    Surprisingly, there may not be that much difference in intrinsic
    difficulty.

    Maneuvering through crowded spaces, recognizing and manipulating objects
    seems easy to us, because our minds have evolved to specialize in those
    tasks over hundreds of millions of years. Abstract thought is difficult
    because it is a relatively new capability. But for computers it is often
    the other way around. A computer defeated the best chess player in the
    world, while robots can barely even walk.

    It's questionable to predict that machines will take over the menial jobs
    while humans are left with the challenging ones. By the time computers
    are smart enough to handle menial tasks, they may well also be smart
    enough to take on the challenges as well.

    Hal



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