BenjaminHamnett t1_j8g59n6 wrote on February 14, 2023 at 1:33 AM

Reply to comment by ActuatorMaterial2846 in Is society in shock right now? by Practical-Mix-4332

Where are you following?

ActuatorMaterial2846 t1_j8g9cgl wrote on February 14, 2023 at 2:04 AM

Reddit like this sub, r/futurology, r/technology, r/science, r/futurism etc.

YouTube subscriptions, particularly David Shapiro. Been watching the development of open assistant.

Also various science and technology magazines I have subscriptions for. Since 2017 I've been watching these developments pretty closely.

Also my father runs a technology company that specialises in internal audit automation. He has been operating this company for 23 years and is about to sell his shares later this fiscal year. So I have access to leading experts in the field, particularly in finance and have picked their brains a lot over the last 15 to 20 years.

What has always fascinated me is the assumption that menial physical tasks were assumed to go first, but if you have been speaking to people in these IT industries, particularly ai and automation, over the last 10 or 15 years, they would have been telling you that cognitive labour was always going to be the first thing to be hit in a disruptive way.

BenjaminHamnett t1_j8gjvey wrote on February 14, 2023 at 3:26 AM

Username checks out. You truly are in a more specific niche to know, but the theme of this sub has mostly been scifi nerds being told by industry folk that nothing is likely to happy anytime soon. I never think of IT as being robotics either, and that’s the field that is replacing manual labor.

In fairness, robots HAVE replaced a lot of people. And we’ve chosen NOT to use robots for some things, famously people are just starting to accept self check out and I think the only robot bar tender I’ve seen was a gimmick. Factories are mostly automated. the biggest field, truck driving, will still likely see layoffs faster than tech which seems to be temporarily mean reverting. Warehouses are being automated now. Drones are on the battlefield.

You should push your dad to sell AS ASAP as possible, but that’s probably out of his control. Sounds like he’s about to have a lot downward volatility risk. How old are you? Any interest in helping you dad out? It seems like you have an interest in this. Even if you guys are too rich, it might be fun to have some kind of flexible role. Is your dad retiring?

ActuatorMaterial2846 t1_j8gt5ic wrote on February 14, 2023 at 4:47 AM

I'm 38, but I don't work for him, I'm a PLC electrician (Porgrammable Logic Control or automation industrial electrician), so I program robots in factories like you described, amongst other automated processes. I mean its interesting tech, but they're pretty dumb machines, mostly relying on timing and positioning parameters, I don't write the code or anything, but I do input it and install the necessary equipment. Mostly for smaller factories, but its often the same principles.

His field is in finance specifically, so not really my industry. The decision to sell was based on licensing agreements with the major accounting firms in our home country. My understanding is that they're committed to 5 years using his product, this allows him to consider that revenue in the negotiations. He is already retired, but he is still chairman currently.