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Comment by johngarrison | Hacker News Reader

If someone doesn't think "robots" (i.e., automation) hasn't devastated the usual human modes of keeping a livlihood, they haven't been paying attention.

When you consider how nearly half of working age adults are unemployed, how many of those actually in jobs spend most of their time largely inactive and unproductive, and how many people are removed from the job market entirely by being warehoused in education or incarcerated, it's astonishing how much our lives have been "taken over".

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Looking at history, the "usual human modes of keeping a livelihood" are 97% of people engaging in sustenance farming. So, yes, automation has definitely ended that.

Automation may have contributed to dragging society out of sustenance (subsistence?) farming, but many other factors have been hugely significant. Agriculture, irrigation, hygiene, sanitation, medicine, cities, etc etc etc. Automation -- in the manner signified in this thread -- has only contributed in recent years, whereas other factors have been significant for decades or even centuries.

sustenance (subsistence?) farming

Ha, yes, obviously meant subsistence. Damn you autocorrect, etc. :)

When you consider how nearly half of working age adults are unemployed

Labor force participation rate is not the inverse of the unemployment rate. To support your position, you'd need to show dramatic reductions in labor force participation and show a causal link with automation. I am skeptical that you can.

And under-employment is not the same as employment.

Automation may not be solely responsible, it is one of many synergistic factors.

90% of people used to work on farms. Should we return to that lifestyle?

We should return to a nerfed version of the hunter gatherer lifestyle, it's what we were designed for. The whole agricultural/industrial civilization thing is a hack.

If you can't get hired and have some land that you can cultivate, you got a job working the land. The land will always hire you and feed you, unlike big-corporation.

I think that is the most likely outcome for those who don't own the robots.

Why wouldn't they make their own robots?

Also, I stubbed my toe yesterday! And look at Hurricane Irma! Does the perfidy of robots know no bounds?

How about some evidence that the things you point to are in some way connected to increased automation.

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