There is a lot more incentive to automate jobs like that in countries where there are strong laws against child labour and dangerous working conditions, because that makes human labour more expensive. But of course, even without automation, if you have those laws you are not going to traumatise your nation’s children in mines.
The conclusion for me is that this needs to be tackled at the government level, by directly targeting the problem, rather than by thinking about robots.
I was speaking aspirationally, as a member of the species. If we could just get our priorities right (as a species) maybe we could outsource pointless, painful, dangerous labor to robots. Instead of throwing foreign children at it by the handfuls because it’s cheaper, where the lucky children get to survive the mine collapses that killed their sister and friends.
This ire isn’t pointed at you, as the person who prompted the response. It’s just peeled the skin off an abiding and yet aimless bitterness. I can only really be angry at the worst of human behavior, and that’s not something I can kneel beneath a guillotine.
Well on the one hand, child mortality has plummeted over the last century, even over the last few decades, including mortality through injury. At the same time, literacy has soared as children are getting an education instead of having to work.
So, try not to be too pessimistic: there is a lot of work still to do in poorer countries, work that has been set back by the withdrawal of developed nations like the US from intentional aid and development programs. But there is still a lot to be thankful for.
There is a lot more incentive to automate jobs like that in countries where there are strong laws against child labour and dangerous working conditions, because that makes human labour more expensive. But of course, even without automation, if you have those laws you are not going to traumatise your nation’s children in mines.
The conclusion for me is that this needs to be tackled at the government level, by directly targeting the problem, rather than by thinking about robots.
I was speaking aspirationally, as a member of the species. If we could just get our priorities right (as a species) maybe we could outsource pointless, painful, dangerous labor to robots. Instead of throwing foreign children at it by the handfuls because it’s cheaper, where the lucky children get to survive the mine collapses that killed their sister and friends.
This ire isn’t pointed at you, as the person who prompted the response. It’s just peeled the skin off an abiding and yet aimless bitterness. I can only really be angry at the worst of human behavior, and that’s not something I can kneel beneath a guillotine.
Well on the one hand, child mortality has plummeted over the last century, even over the last few decades, including mortality through injury. At the same time, literacy has soared as children are getting an education instead of having to work.
So, try not to be too pessimistic: there is a lot of work still to do in poorer countries, work that has been set back by the withdrawal of developed nations like the US from intentional aid and development programs. But there is still a lot to be thankful for.