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Comment by danielovichdk | Hacker News Reader

Name one technology that has come with computers that hasn't resulted in more humans being put to work ?

The rhetoric of not needing people doing work is cartoon'ish. I mean there is no sane explanation of how and why that would happen, without employing more people yet again, taking care of the advancements.

It's nok like technology has brought less work related stress. But it has definitely increased it. Humans were not made for using technology at such a pace as it's being rolled out.

The world is fucked. Totally fucked.

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Self check-out stations, ATMs, and online brokerages. Recently chat support. Namely cases where millions of people used to interact with a representative every week, and now they don't.

"Name one use of electric lighting that hasn't resulted in candle makers losing work?"

The framing of the question misses the point. With electric lighting we can now work longer into the night. Yes, less people use and make candles. However, the second order effects allow us to be more productive in areas we may not have previously considered.

New technologies open up new opportunities for productivity. The bank tellers displaced by ATM machines can create value elsewhere. Consumers save time by not waiting in a queue, allowing them to use their time more economically. Banks have lower overhead, allowing more customers to afford their services.

If I had missed the point I would have given a much broader list of examples. I specifically listed ones that make employees totally redundant rather than more useful doing other tasks.

When these people were made redundant, they may very well have gone on to make less money in another job (i.e. being less useful in an economic sense).

Where to even start?

Digital banks

Cashless money transfer services

Self service

Modern farms

Robo lawn mowers

NVR:s with object detection

I can go on forever

Please do. I'm certain you can't, and you'll have to stop much sooner than you think. Appeals to triviality are the first refuge of the person who thinks they know, but does not.

Come on and give me some arguments instead.

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