Automation begins to replace the unskilled
Whenever I see articles like
this, I realize that there will soon come a period when the unskilled will be simply extraneous to the functioning of our economy. Here's the key graf:
Getting reliable workers to operate conventional checkout lanes is hard, particularly in 24-hour supermarkets. Self-checkout lanes are not entirely unstaffed — Optimal Robotics' U-Scan system, for example, requires an attendant to monitor the activity at a cluster of four self-checkout stations — but they do provide more service for less staff time than conventional checkouts. Optimal Robotics estimates that the four-station, one-attendant configuration provides a level of checkout service that would cost a supermarket an additional 150 labor hours a week. This means that the systems can pay for themselves in about nine months, the company says.
We had better develop intelligence engineering before the replacement of janitors, gas station attendants, and home economics teachers becomes a real problem...