Ever notice how the human element is disappearing form the way we use to do business

[INdemo]

Oh I know this has been happening for some time but there is no direct contact with humans anymore when it comes to doing everyday business.
You can email someone and expect a computer to email you back confirming it has been received. then thats it.You might have a real person contacting you in a couple weeks but dont count on it. So my question is what do these people do that work in offices such as a local utilities office,or phone companies,or union halls..you name it ..it is all run by computers now.Where is the human element.
Want a bank account balance go online type in a pin number or call, enter a pin number and a computer tells you. Want to apply for anything over the phone talk to a computer..Tell someone to go to hell when complaining about a bill, a computer will hang up on you.

Oh yes,I forgot to mention that computer is probably in India,Philippines,Taiwan..or anywhere but the US Right?

[sinkingfeeling]

1. We constantly 'feed' the computers... update the software and hardware. Handle the coding errors.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. Take up smoking

At the office, some days the only human-to-human interaction is out in the snow, huddled around a community ashtray. Everything else can be done virtually.

:hi:

(not really advising anyone to take up smoking)
:hide:

[handmade34]

3. and job growth is in

...the service industry. Service????

[onethatcares]

16. service,

ever take a cow to have it serviced by a stud? Now you know what the "service" industry is.

[handmade34]

19. as a matter of fact I have

taken a cow to be "serviced" excellent analogy

(or brought the bull in - or the AI guy) :-)

[BR_Parkway]

4. The more folks support small, locally owned business - the less of that

depersonalization you'll have to deal with.

[GreenStormCloud]

7. That small, locally owned business will have a lower inventory...

...which will lead to a much smaller selection, and will have higher prices. Sorry, but small selection and higher prices don't benefit me.

That little business won't be open 24/7/365. I work night shift and am asleep when they are open.

That little business is likely to be miles away from me. That means driving costs and more of my time spent on the commute. That doesn't help me.

[uncle ray]

10. you think about you a lot, huh?

employees at other businesses have lives to live too, they have bills to pay too.

hey, i work night shift too, funny, by my calculations that leave me MORE hours to spend the daytime patronizing local businesses.

[GreenStormCloud]

12. So I am supposed to pay more so they can have a job?

What do I get out of that? It is costing me extra money and time. You are wanting me to contribute to charity, that's fine. Call it a charity and be done with it.

Where do you live? You may have local businesses close by. Here, even the local supermarket is part of a national chain. In fact it is hard to find a business that isn't part of a national chain.

[BR_Parkway]

15. I'm sorry - my prices are no higher than my large, big box competitors

I realize that is not always the case, but to state it as a blanket coverage is inaccurate.

I also have the flexibility to adjust my hours for customers that a large store doesn't - either routinely or as needed if a customer were to call.

It's also possible I'd deliver - we do some of that now already.

[Xipe Totec]

5. There's a fundamental flaw with that strategy

taken to the extreme, where all jobs are done by machines, where are the customers going to get the money to buy the products?

No jobs = no customers.

[GreenStormCloud]

9. TheLuddites made that argument centuries ago.

It was false then, and it is false now. Machines can only do SOME of the jobs humans do. Machines can do the boring, repitive stuff. Humans have to do the stuff that needs real intelligence and flexibility. By real intelligence, I don't mean so-called high IQ stuff, just ordinary common sense to handle the out-of-the ordinary and let the machines handle the routine stuff.

I can make an ATM withdrawl of a multiple of $20, just fine by myself. I am happier not waiting in line for a cashier to cash my paychecki while the person in front of me takes a half hour with some convoluted transactions. But if I need an odd entry explained to me, then the human gets to us their ability to impress me.

[Xipe Totec]

13. Humans have to do the stuff that needs real intelligence and flexibility

What are you going to do with the half of humanity that has below average intelligence?

Oh, and by the way:

Scientists have created a "Eureka machine" that can work out the laws of nature by observing the world around it – a development that could dramatically speed up the discovery of new scientific truths.

The machine took only hours to come up with the basic laws of motion, a task that occupied Sir Isaac Newton for years after he was inspired by an apple falling from a tree.

Scientists at Cornell University in New York have already pointed the machine at baffling problems in biology and plan to use it to tackle questions in cosmology and social behaviour.

The work marks a turning point in the way science is done. Eureka moments, which supposedly began in Archimedes' bath more than 2,000 years ago, might soon be happening not in the minds of geniuses, but through the warm hum of electronic circuitry.

"We've reached a point in science where there's a lot of data to deal with. It's not Newton looking at an apple, or Galileo looking at heavenly bodies any more, it's more complex than that," said Hod Lipson, the computer engineer who led the project.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/apr/02/eureka-laws-nature-artificial-intelligence-ai

So the other half of humanity should not get too cocky either.

[GreenStormCloud]

17. You missed part of what I said.

"By real intelligence, I don't mean so-called high IQ stuff, just ordinary common sense to handle the out-of-the ordinary and let the machines handle the routine stuff."

True AI is still a long ways off. The Eureka machine is basically looking for correlations among huge amounts of data. It isn't taking smaller amounts of data and being inspired.

[GreenStormCloud]

6. It all started with the first Sear catalog in 1894.

The internet just made it far more efficient.

For that matter, when I order something online, unless there is a problem, I don't want to take extra time to deal with a human who is likely to misspell my name, (I have an oddly spelled name.)or get the order wrong.

Comupterized banking allows me to check my balance and cleared items 24/7. That is handy because I work nights, and am asleep while the bank is open. My paycheck are electronic deposited, as is my social security. My wife gets a physical paycheck but we use the ATM to deposit it.

The computers give faster service, around the clock, they take the order correctly, print (As opposed to hard to read handwriting) it out for the human order fillers, print the address labels and shipping invoice.

And I get a far better selection online than I can get in any physical store. I can hunt for clearance bargins much better online than I can in person.

I don't have to burn up gas and time in shopping.

They only time I want the human element is when my need is unusual or something has gone wrong. Otherwise I am very happy with my computer dealing with their computer.

Please notice that you and I are communicating via computer, not face to face.

[zipplewrath]

8. Fewer people or different people?

You may not interact with the same folks, but are you basically getting more time to interact with different people? Unless you are either switching to merely sitting in front of a computer, or otherwise isolating yourself, the time spent going to and from these places, not to mention standing in lines talking to no one, maybe getting used to interact with people you actually know. Employees, customers, family, neighbors.....

[GreenStormCloud]

11. Damn right.. My wife and I spend more time together.

Last night we had a great discussion on the role of the SCOTUS as shown in the McDonald V Chicago case. It revolved around the role of the court to stablize society aganst their role to move society towards constitutional fairness and justice.

[rug]

14. It's getting out of hand.

[fascisthunter]

18. sociopathy

and those who hide behind, "But we are doing our jobs to make money, it's not our responsibility when we fuck up lives.