smart machines and jobs

also, this ap article is a must read. an excerpt from it:

To better understand the impact of technology on jobs, The Associated Press analyzed employment data from 20 countries; and interviewed economists, technology experts, robot manufacturers, software developers, CEOs and workers who are competing with smarter machines.

The AP found that almost all the jobs disappearing are in industries that pay middle-class wages, ranging from $38,000 to $68,000. Jobs that form the backbone of the middle class in developed countries in Europe, North America and Asia.

In the United States, half of the 7.5 million jobs lost during the Great Recession paid middle-class wages, and the numbers are even more grim in the 17 European countries that use the euro as their currency. A total of 7.6 million midpay jobs disappeared in those countries from January 2008 through last June.

Those jobs are being replaced in many cases by machines and software that can do the same work better and cheaper.

"Everything that humans can do a machine can do," says Moshe Vardi, a computer scientist at Rice University in Houston. "Things are happening that look like science fiction."

the pace of machine replacement for human jobs is accelerating. watson, the ibm supercomputer that beat jeopardy champions understands natural language. i suspect a massive rollout in health (a tricorder should become available in 5 years) and law. cognitive work will be more easily computer substitutable than work that requires movement - experts beware!

reference - huge collection of links regarding the question of mechanization/robotization