Last Human Jobs

Discuss the evolution of human culture, economics and politics in the decades and centuries ahead
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funkervogt
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Re: Last Human Jobs

Post by funkervogt »

You could write a very interesting short story about the last human religious cleric.

Why is he or she the last? Has everyone turned atheist? Have machines taken over all the religious clergies? Is the human race about to die out?
Tav-El
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Re: Last Human Jobs

Post by Tav-El »

funkervogt wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 7:44 pm You could write a very interesting short story about the last human religious cleric.

Why is he or she the last? Has everyone turned atheist? Have machines taken over all the religious clergies? Is the human race about to die out?
I actually did plan a story about The Last Church on Earth. I ended up having to scrap it when other spinoffs presented themselves, and took priority. I only post one story every day, so I only get 365 slots a year. It's probably for the best. I don't know what that would be like, being the last few people who still believe in a Flying Spaghetti Monster. I don't really understand the people like that today.
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caltrek
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Re: Last Human Jobs

Post by caltrek »

I don't know what that would be like, being the last few people who still believe in a Flying Spaghetti Monster. I don't really understand the people like that today.
I think you underestimate clerics. Sure, there are those who take a very literal view of things like the Bible. There are others who take lessons from the Bible and apply them to everyday problems of ethics and morality. For them, Flying Spaghetti Monsters are more of a metaphor for something profound than they are things to be literally believed in. Approached in that manner, some really interesting sermons can result.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Re: Last Human Jobs

Post by caltrek »

At any rate, I have some more ideas on the subject. Lettuce picker was an initial attempt and W J Fox pointed out some problems in that example. Sticking with the agricultural industry, there is the case of what happens once mechanization is in place. There is still the issue of operating, maintaining, and repairing such devices. So, not only is there the challenge of carrying out the function of something like picking lettuce, but also of maintenance and repair of such a fine tuned device.

I once had a thought about the possibility of a short story in which the last human worker was a repair man. That worker disappears and then finally robots break down in ways that repair robots can't fix. Humans, having lost their skills in that regard, then find themselves facing this problem of entropy. Not that this is a prediction, just a sort of story by which to entertain.

There is also the possible objection that many like to fiddle around with repairing mechanical devices and therefore don't find that to be particularly alienating. Still, I may have been operating under an overly strict interpretation of that guideline. You tell me.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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caltrek
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Re: Last Human Jobs

Post by caltrek »

To think out of the box a little bit, how about undertaker.

Think about it.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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Ken_J
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Re: Last Human Jobs

Post by Ken_J »

I created a story outline a few years ago, based on the idea of a guy who adapted machines for new roles. He starts by adapting some AI 'bodies' to a work environment while the last few employees there are getting a party for their 'retirement'. The main character experiences this retirement of more and more humans from active labor, largely shifting over to a role of being fed, cleaned after and taken care of much like humans once took care of pets. And all the while he seems oblivious to the fact that he seems to be painting himself into a corner, eventually he helps automate in pieces the steps that enable the machines to adapt themselves. After which he finds himself occasionally humored as a consultant but he's be unknowingly retired and is the pet of AI that use the consultantcy as sort of an enrichment toy for their pet. But he begins to suspect what's happened, and as he reaches the end of his life span he often asks the AI who have rapidly accelerated and expanded into the universe, "Did I do the right thing?" and at the point in the AI dominated future the AI who takes care of him like a pet, soothes him like one might sooth a dog, with physical contact and a calming "You've been a very good boy."
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