Question: What are the occupations that people do that you believe are essential for your daily life?

submitted by Mcheetah from self.AskSaidIt

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[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

Police exists to make sure the politicians aren't murdered in broad daylight.

I think all the jobs you mention could better be done by machines. So, in a way all those people are just standing in the way of progress. Take garbage collection, which could be implemented with underground conveyor belts or automated trucks using guided rails. This is technology that was possible 40 years ago, but is still being done by humans.

Farmers hardly know what they are doing in my experience.

I think 99.9+% of all people are a waste of the oxygen they consume.

UWB-technology would be useful to me for civilian purposes, but it's basically considered a military technology. UWB would eliminate entire job categories, if it would be widespread.

Commercial truck drivers do a thankless job that won't exist anymore in 15 years, if the right laws are passed.

Grocers don't exist anymore; supermarkets are still a thing, but given sufficient time they will likely become a thing of the past too.

[–]Dontcaretoday 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

You don't think supermarkets will exist in the future? What will be in their place?

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

14 years ago its replacement was created: https://www.ocado.com/webshop/startWebshop.do. Some parts of the concept need to be refined, but ultimately the only thing in their way is old people that need to die first. The future is already here, but it's just not equally distributed.

[–]Dontcaretoday 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Online groceries are fine when it comes to packaged goods, but with fresh food, especially produce, I would want to pick it out myself to make sure it's ripe and I'm getting what I want. There's also last minute shopping, like I've been in the middle of cooking something and realized I'm missing an ingredient and had to run out. Or even just if you don't know what you want for dinner today and so go to the store and browse until you find what you want, or if you decide you want something spur of the moment. Online shopping has its place, but I don't think grocery stores will ever be phased out.

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

The only reason why you want to pick it out yourself is that you do not trust the supermarket not to distribute rotten fruit. I also don't trust them, no worries. The question you need to ask yourself is whether or not an apparatus can be designed to grade fruit cheaply (the answer is yes), which means that all it takes is for one company to stop lying about the quality of their fruit (a typical approach is to place one piece of worthless fruit in a bag with ten items (humanity disgusts me)).

I hate having to "select fruit", because it's something the supermarket should have been doing for me in a modern country, but apparently they still elect to have a hostile relationship with their customers.

The missing ingredient aspect also won't happen in the future, because you would have a robot kitchen with an API to some supermarket. Even then a single ingredient would be delivered via drone. Really, it's just a dying business, but it just depends on how well it is implemented and what the local laws are regarding autonomous driving, etc. The technology isn't the problem; it's just politics holding back technology.

[–]Dontcaretoday 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Fruit has a lot of natural variation even when it's not rotten. I would still rather pick what I get myself. Same with cuts of meat, even if it's graded correctly there is still variation. Having drones buzzing all over delivering single ingredients would be annoying as fuck. I wouldn't want a robot kitchen either, technology is nice but I don't want to be connected to the internet for every aspect of my life.

Overall I can see not liking grocery shopping, but some people would rather go out and see things in person and walk around getting it themselves. I would absolutely hate it if I had to order everything I ate online. It's good to have online shopping be an option also for those who feel differently or don't have the time for it, but I don't think grocery stores will ever disappear regardless of what happens with technology.

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I think I don't even want to eat anymore; just beaming the personalized nutrients into my blood (based on indicators) seems like an adequate solution as long as it is a healthy solution (doing it naively might result in stomach not working anymore).

I wouldn't mind an "upgrade" where I would run on solar energy and didn't need to consume food in the first place anymore. I understand that these would take longer than 15 years to happen, but ultimately, depending on supermarket logistics is a human weakness.

The only reason to go to a supermarket is when you are too poor to have a professional chef produce the food for you. Why would anyone want to prepare their own food?

[–]Dontcaretoday 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Lol I guess that explains why we feel differently about it then since I enjoy cooking. Sometimes if I'm busy it's a necessary chore, but other times it's more of a hobby. I think it's fun to try new recipes and to see and taste how I've improved over time, and to make other people happy by serving them good food that I made.

Being able to get calories beamed into your body would definitely be more convenient though for people who don't want to bother with it, and it would be helpful for people who have trouble controlling their weight also

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I am just depressed to the point that I can't imagine anyone ever enjoying anything anymore.

[–]Dontcaretoday 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

That really sucks. I was severely depressed for a long time also and am gonna have to be on meds for life to stay normal. I know pills aren't the answer for everyone though, I hope you find what works for you and start feeling better