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The Automation Bomb
Topic Started: Aug 12 2016, 09:10 AM (1,662 Views)
Copper
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Shortstop
Unless Mr. Fusion comes along replacing trains with autonomous trucks for long haul shipping is probably not a great idea.
The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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Rainman
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Fulla-Carp
But Ax, that is my deal with government!

I pay taxes, lots and lots and lots of taxes, and in all things covered with these monies, I expect my street to be paved every 20 years or so. Is that too much to expect for my "contribution?"

Edit: my bad. It's not a "contribution." If I don't pay, eventually they will show up at my door with guns, and haul me off.
Edited by Rainman, Aug 16 2016, 01:36 PM.
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KlavierBauer
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HOLY CARP!!!
Rainman
Aug 16 2016, 01:03 PM
KlavierBauer, perhaps along the way we might be able to improve and expand rail service as well, and work towards better integration of shipping/rail/trucks for long-range transport.

Before introducing driverless cars, I'd be most happy if they would repave my street first.
I'll give it time though, for that to ever happen. Lots and lots and lots of time.
I totally agree. I have two close relatives who work for the train industry, so I may have a little bias there - but yeah, I think with the modern engines and the efficiencies they're capable of, we should be using freight trains more than we are.
I think there's an uptick in train usage overall right now. I don't know that for certain, but one relative who's a federal line inspector says that she's traveling now more than ever before. I'm guessing it's because so many places are expanding passenger service and bringing back the American love affair with the train (or trying to).
"I realize you want him to touch you all over and give you babies, but his handling of the PR side really did screw the pooch." - Ivory Thumper
"He said sleepily: "Don't worry mom, my dick is like hot logs in the morning." - Apple

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taiwan_girl
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Fulla-Carp
jon-nyc
Aug 16 2016, 01:33 PM
Moonbat
Aug 16 2016, 07:29 AM
Phooey!

It's true that as we embrace technology we lose specific skillsets and we become reliant on that technology such that if it were suddenly taken away we would be screwed. Those are your downsides, loss of skill and a kind of technological fragility. The upsides are essentially that some component of our life is enhanced, i.e. it costs us less time/effort to achieve an equal to or greater outcome.

But this trade off has been true from the beginning of humanity, if you develop spears then the skill and understanding of how to hand wrestle a wild boar becomes somewhat unnecessary and over time those skills and knowledge are lost. If the fancy neolithic hunters with their high-tech spears had their technology stripped from them then they would be screwed in comparison to their pre-neolithic forebears with their superior boar-wrestling skills.

Every technological step makes some set of skills less relevant whilst opening the door to development of new skillsets.

You're right people are beholden to modern technology. But it's always been true. As soon we developed fire we became reliant on fire, same for clothes, and knives, and electricity, and everything we develop that carries with it some advantage over the status quo.

I dispute that there's any real loss going on here. All that's really happening is change.
Yep, you saved me from writing this exact post.

We notice recent technology and consider it 'unnatural' in some vague sense, while older technologies that had just as big an impact on human development - even human evolution- are seen as natural because we're so accustomed to them.
this is very true. I remember reading an article (cant remember when/where) that was about the horse-shoeing industry in the US, and the great number of people that were employed in that industry, either by direct horse-shoeing or the businesses that support them (it surprised me that it was quite a % of the US working population). Then came the automobile and all of a sudden, the US did not need so many horse shoeing people. People adapted, new skills were developed, etc.

As Moonbat and Jon mention, this happens all the time.
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Steve Miller
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Bull-Carp
The process continues.
Wag more
Bark less
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