Farmers becoming obsolete

[sea2summit]

Amen to that, being in the hvac business for 45 years we worked 10-12 hour days 6-7 days a week in 100deg weather. You worked or got fired, kids now wouldn't last a week.

I know you are generalizing but I sort of take offence to it. I've got four and while I wish I worked on a farm I don't, but that doesn't mean I'm not doing my best to instill those values in my children.

 

[BigBoyToys]

My grandfather was born in 1900 and passed in 2008, can't even image all the change he saw in his lifetime. Born before the car and planes and when he was 69, man on the moon. Like is change

My wife's grandmother lived to be 102. She passed away in 2006. With everything she saw/experienced in her life time, I asked her what was the most amazing to her...she said... "flipping a switch and having your lights come on"! I thought that was pretty funny! Something we just take for granted.

 

[JRobyn]

How about just turning a faucet and having WATER come out?!? And clean, plentiful water at that!

 

[Walt 2002]

With reference to Valveman back up the line, I hear people say, "Americans just will not do that work" and I say if their belly button rubs their back bone hard enough they will do the work.

One of the few remaining survivors of the Great Depression of the 1930s,

Walt Conner

 

[vvanders]

It bothers me, how flaky and of poor quality new technology is. If it works MOST of the time, that's good enough. And if no one can ever establish why it doesn't work the rest of the time, that's good enough too.

Compare that to the old Bell system. I like to watch the old archived videos. One was called "Failure Is Not An Option" Boy, how phone service has changed!

You can build software that never fails, just that no one wants to pay the cost to validate all of that complexity. Most hardware chips are validated to that level(since is many millions of dollars to re-spin a tape out) but consumers want new tech cheaper and faster so we don't build it the same way something physical gets designed. Most aerospace and stuff that goes into space tends to be written robustly but the rest is on a sliding scale depending on cost.

It's a double edged sword. On one hand it means the tech sector has been able to move at an incredible pace, on other other you get things like that.

 

[two_bit_score]

We don't even have to build a wall. Just stop paying people to have more babies and to do nothing. Immigrants will stop coming here unless they want to work, and locals can have the jobs instead of the robots, if they will just show up for a few hours and be productive.

There you are, really. Turn off the magnet!



TBS

 

[cqaigy2]

It isn't just recent. 1971 I worked in an iron foundry in San Angelo Tx as a way to 'get in shape' to retire. I wanted to do something physical in retirement, flew a chair for 21 years, that was enought/ Not unusual local college football coach would send team members down to it to get part-time jobs to shape up some. Start of shift, 4 new ones were there. An hour later one of them asked who was the boss. I pointed out a little mexican. He went to him, couple words and the 4 of them left never to be seen again. I guess wrestling 150 lb castings was a bit too much for them.

Reminds me of the time hand peeling logs for those beautiful log cabins you see from time to time. They would send football players from the university over to get in shape and most would not last a day. That was many many years ago.

 

[CobyRupert]

With all the automation (and off-shoring), what will we do with all the excess people?
If only there was some magic drug to make them disappear. If there was, I guess we would have to invade that country for a decade or two to insure there's a sufficient supply.

But as automation shows us, nothing is impossible.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I guess we are lucky that automation has kept ahead of the lack of initiative from the young ones. I don't think it is something new to say that the newer generation is lazy. I think Aristotle made something of the same statement about the youth in his day.

 

[CobyRupert]

Kids these days have it easy! Why, back when I was young...