Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/31/will-robots-take-your-job.html
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I don’t know if mechanical engineers are truly as safe from the results of automation as this indicates. As the designers and builders of robots we may not lose our jobs right away, but how safe are we from the mobs of unemployed teamsters seeking revenge?
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Looks like my job as a Software QA engineer is safe (closest match was applications programmer).
I entered “Soylent Green intake hopper attendant” and it claimed not to know anything about that but it would help if I reported immediately to Soylent Green Intake Hopper 3.
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Wait, you mean you aren’t programming all those robots with a secret directive to protect the Mechanical Engineers at all costs? I assumed you’d be the only ones at Disneyland who would be safe when the Pirates turned on the tourists.
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I’ll leave this here.
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Sadly, as a mechanical engineer I’m not the one who does the final software or firmware design.
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Unless you’re in the business of contributing to oppression, the term is “sex worker”.
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But you still have an emergency remote in case you need a hard reset, right? You always carry the emergency remote.
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My various job functions tend to score relatively low (<10%) on these tests. However, because so many of them focus on technical innovation I’m in no way complacent about how quickly that could change, so I’m gettin’ while the gettin’s good.
The real question, of course, is what happens when all this automation creates a permanent 20%+ unemployment rate. Somehow I don’t see the ownership class suddenly embracing the concept of Fully Automated Luxury Communism.
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Why is automation framed in terms of risk/safety? Isn’t that a reactionary outlook compared to one simply deciding what around one needs doing? It presupposes my alienation, that “my job” would be provided to me by others. That sounds more like a dull game of (ineffectively) negotiating roles in society rather than actually budgeting labor or deciding upon societal goals.
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For my job position the intention is to further increase productivity and decrease lead times on projects by implementing more software automation. I would love it if robots, AI or software was able to do the majority of my duties because a lot of it is needless busy work that is not actually productive. I spend more time coordinating, talking to people, chasing paperwork down than actually doing what i was hired to do.
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8.2%. Though I am more of a production designer. Though I think a lot of what we do could be computerized, I have a feeling a lot of people could sell others that they can do it better than a machine.
Production work, though… it would go first.
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Not as long as I’m able to reach around them and remove their power-packs. Refer to below for location"
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Will robots take your job?
Eh - they could do better.
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Every time we try to automate something, we have to hire 2 more people.
Electrical Engineering seems pretty safe.
Well - career advisers already have been replaced by algorithms…
By the way, as long as my new job would be interesting, I, for one, welcome our new technological overlords. Dang. Replacements.
This is why I’m currently training for a sweet robot polisher position. Of course robot polishing could be done by robots but I suspect the robots will enjoy having humans perform such demeaning tasks while they watch.
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Mark, are you trying to disprove Betteridge’s law? 
I often wonder if we will we survive as a species long enough to create self-perpetuating robot descendants.
Edit: depending on which of my jobs I pick, I range from 0.65% to 17% roboticizable.
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17%–no current worries.
