Future vision - Do you agree?

[flatbutt]

Anyone else here remember the planet Trantor? Bearing in mind that very, very few people have the ability to feed themselves now, the dystopic future people are envisioning could be like the society on Trantor.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by Deschodt

>nukular submarines

Pretty sure those will never happen... No such thing as nukular anything, yet ;-)

I agree with Thom, I've seen the same outsourcing thing happen over and over in every IT organization... Teaching your job to someone that barely speaks english leaves a special taste in your mouth... The catch though, is that 2 years down the road - invariably - the outsourced staff shows itself to be either incompetent, raise their prices, too slow, too buggy, don't deliver as advertised, or "All of the above". Customers (external or internal) get pissed off, trend is reversed... No matter, the genius in charge already got his bonus.... Same with customer service with an indian accent - works for some, usually a big no-no internally.

But you can now reasonably "speak" to a phone (called your bank lately?) with almost any inquiry and cut the middleman quite effectively. No questions things are changing, good luck to our kids as far as figuring out a career plan... Gotta think of stuff that are hard to outsource (ironically I went into IT for a big hospital thinking no way these guys would want remote support, has to be on site and quick, right ? .... 6 month into the job, they are also outsourcing ;-)

The effects of outsourcing? This is only the beginning.

Recently the company I work for (A major IT Outsourcing company based in the US but with a Global presence) lost a major global client to an IT support company based in India.

So the new support deal for our ex client is ALL support is done remotely from India. If your PC or laptop fails you get a new one from a storage area, set it up and then log onto the network. Then all the final settings are done remotely.
Meanwhile you failed PC or LT is then sent to India were the data is taken off then transferred to your new PC or LT via the WAN. And that's it. (Which typically can take up to 10 days)
All network and sever support is again done remotely. If they absolutely have to send someone on site they engage a contractor through and agency but that is an absolute last resort.

When I first heard about it I was surprised at how stupid and short sited some people are but at the end of the day it all comes down to the bottom line.

Meanwhile our ex client is finding out exactly what their new support deal is costing them.

[RF5BPilot]

My son is a musician. That may be an oddly protected/human endeavor....creating engaging lyrics and music.

Of course, the songs may start to include:
- laments that AI and 3d printing stole my job
- my 4.2 verizon of AI can kick your 3.8 version's a$$
- I lost my honey to a sexbot
- I cloned my dog so Rex will always be with me (but the clone just drools a lot)
and other warm country favorites.

[scottmandue]

Not sure why everyone is pointing at solar as the only alternate energy source.
The ocean is a massive energy source.

Tidal turbine: World's most powerful generator built in Belfast - BBC News

Let me be the first to say..... yeah, it looks like a big wiener

tidal energy - National Geographic Society

Plus there are wind turbines too (cue pictures of turbine on fire).

[jyl]

It might be interesting to think about what occupations meet these criteria:
1) cannot be done by an AI and/or mechanical system
2) require skill, talent, training, cultural knowledge not possessed by lots of people
3) are in sufficient demand to produce useful income

[motion]

A rising tide lifts all boats...

As the world economy equalizes amongst nations, the USA will have no choice but to begin manufacturing and farming again. We are already well on our way to becoming a 3rd world country.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by jyl

It might be interesting to think about what occupations meet these criteria:
1) cannot be done by an AI and/or mechanical system
2) require skill, talent, training, cultural knowledge not possessed by lots of people
3) are in sufficient demand to produce useful income

The world will always need ditch-diggers!