Though this is an older article from back when the book "Bullshit Jobs" was being promoted, this topic is perhaps worth a new look. In the era of COVID office closings and lists of "essential workers," the past few months have amounted to a massive experiment in which jobs did productive work in our society, and which did not. Many companies switching to remote work have noticed no drop in productivity, but there's two possible explanations for that. Either people are just as productive at home or most workers were never producing much in the first place.
In a related note, there's a front page news article about the PS4's manufacturing being almost completely automated by robots that have even replaced the fine motor skills of human hands, handling flexible tapes and ribbons. There is a series of photos of a factory with more robot arms than people. Much has been made over the past few years of automation and machine learning. Maybe, just maybe the prognosticators were not wrong, just early.
In a related note, there's a front page news article about the PS4's manufacturing being almost completely automated by robots that have even replaced the fine motor skills of human hands, handling flexible tapes and ribbons. There is a series of photos of a factory with more robot arms than people. Much has been made over the past few years of automation and machine learning. Maybe, just maybe the prognosticators were not wrong, just early.