The result of all this may be catastrophic. Should a worst-case scenario ever occur — a cyberattack, a natural disaster, an internet outage — there may be no human workers left with the skills that once kept food on the shelves.
Very nerdy of me, but this reminds me of a Stargate SG-1 episode “the Sentinel.” The team travels to a planet whose civilization relies on fully automated technology. The people don’t have to operate or maintain it (normally), so their society has completely forgotten how. In the episode, one set of antagonists comes in and sabotages their defense system, and another set sees the opportunity and invades. The protagonists have to then figure out the defense system and fix it.
We don’t live in a TV series. There aren’t benevolent outsiders who will swoop down and save our systems in the nick of time when they break down. We’re headed in a bad direction.
When smart home thermostats and light switches were still a new thing, I used to talk about “Jurassic Park Tech”, as in too worried about whether or not they could… and that’s even more the case with AI.
At some point I think this gets to be like S. M. Stirling’s Emberverse, where modern tech stops working and people who know how to make traditional wooden bows become an extremely valuable resource. Except it’ll be having some old-timer on hand who’s able to handle logistics with just spreadsheet, a Rolodex, and a calendar that’s going make or break companies.
Very nerdy of me, but this reminds me of a Stargate SG-1 episode “the Sentinel.” The team travels to a planet whose civilization relies on fully automated technology. The people don’t have to operate or maintain it (normally), so their society has completely forgotten how. In the episode, one set of antagonists comes in and sabotages their defense system, and another set sees the opportunity and invades. The protagonists have to then figure out the defense system and fix it.
We don’t live in a TV series. There aren’t benevolent outsiders who will swoop down and save our systems in the nick of time when they break down. We’re headed in a bad direction.
When smart home thermostats and light switches were still a new thing, I used to talk about “Jurassic Park Tech”, as in too worried about whether or not they could… and that’s even more the case with AI.
At some point I think this gets to be like S. M. Stirling’s Emberverse, where modern tech stops working and people who know how to make traditional wooden bows become an extremely valuable resource. Except it’ll be having some old-timer on hand who’s able to handle logistics with just spreadsheet, a Rolodex, and a calendar that’s going make or break companies.
I prefer the one where Teal’c drinks a fresh pot of hot coffee straighten from the pot.
Also had a civilization that needed robots to help maintain everything.
I prefer the Star Trek TNG episode where they kidnap a dozen children from the Enterprise.