by OldGuy » 12 Aug 2024, 01:49
Tens of thousands of former jobs suddenly came to an end when something came along that did it better and faster. Even back before electricity, the old lamp lighters had to retire when city streets were illuminated by electric lights. Telephone operators have vanished. Many machines have come along to do the job better and faster for what all used to be respectable jobs.
I created computer programs (using DOS/before Windows existed) for my dad's accounting office that completed various reports in about 15 minutes to replace the bookkeepers who used to do the same task in an average of 8 hours. We just no longer needed them as we more than quadrupled our client list. New computer programs have come along to replace what I used to do and I am no longer needed there either.
One of my closest friends spent his life in a career as a technical illustrator. He hand drew every illustration for every assignment, including detailed drawings of proposed new buildings from the blueprints; even multiple images used in the NASA space program for various spacecraft in their operating manuals. They could not just include photos because the object did not yet exist. He drew from designs and blueprints of proposed items. He was accustomed to $30 to $40 per hour wages with daily stipends for travel, motel and meal expenses. That was back when the average Joe was happy with $3 to $5 bucks per hour at most typical jobs.
He would finish one job, call a jobber to get the next assignment and was off to the next that could last a few years. His expertise took him around the globe including the oil fields in Saudi Arabia for several years. In fact, one of his funniest stories was about a building he was hired to draw for a Muslim client. He craftily included the Star of David that covered the entire front of the building in the finished product. It was a huge billboard sign in front of the proposed building site and the client did not even notice it until someone pointed it out. It was glaringly obvious once you saw it.
He was on his last job for about 5 years when it finally came to an end. He began calling the job shops for his next assignment and most had gone out of business while he was busy with that last gig.
Seems someone had documented all those hand drawn images from all those illustrators in some computerized program so a guy earning $5 per hour could duplicate his hard work using those programs.
His illustrating expertise and career came to an abrupt end. He spent the last 10 years of his working career in a county run adult service for seniors for minimum wage.
It has indeed happened before. Just now, everyone is faced with AI taking over their jobs. If you don't learn to run the AI systems in the future, you are SOL.
Tens of thousands of former jobs suddenly came to an end when something came along that did it better and faster. Even back before electricity, the old lamp lighters had to retire when city streets were illuminated by electric lights. Telephone operators have vanished. Many machines have come along to do the job better and faster for what all used to be respectable jobs.
I created computer programs (using DOS/before Windows existed) for my dad's accounting office that completed various reports in about 15 minutes to replace the bookkeepers who used to do the same task in an average of 8 hours. We just no longer needed them as we more than quadrupled our client list. New computer programs have come along to replace what I used to do and I am no longer needed there either.
One of my closest friends spent his life in a career as a technical illustrator. He hand drew every illustration for every assignment, including detailed drawings of proposed new buildings from the blueprints; even multiple images used in the NASA space program for various spacecraft in their operating manuals. They could not just include photos because the object did not yet exist. He drew from designs and blueprints of proposed items. He was accustomed to $30 to $40 per hour wages with daily stipends for travel, motel and meal expenses. That was back when the average Joe was happy with $3 to $5 bucks per hour at most typical jobs.
He would finish one job, call a jobber to get the next assignment and was off to the next that could last a few years. His expertise took him around the globe including the oil fields in Saudi Arabia for several years. In fact, one of his funniest stories was about a building he was hired to draw for a Muslim client. He craftily included the Star of David that covered the entire front of the building in the finished product. It was a huge billboard sign in front of the proposed building site and the client did not even notice it until someone pointed it out. It was glaringly obvious once you saw it. :lol:
He was on his last job for about 5 years when it finally came to an end. He began calling the job shops for his next assignment and most had gone out of business while he was busy with that last gig.
Seems someone had documented all those hand drawn images from all those illustrators in some computerized program so a guy earning $5 per hour could duplicate his hard work using those programs.
His illustrating expertise and career came to an abrupt end. He spent the last 10 years of his working career in a county run adult service for seniors for minimum wage.
It has indeed happened before. Just now, everyone is faced with AI taking over their jobs. If you don't learn to run the AI systems in the future, you are SOL.
