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This really is a question of of will we all become jobless in the future.
The answer is yes the only question is when.
I want to take the example of chess playing computers. Just twenty years ago, most of us could easily beat them. Now even the strongest grandmasters can only manage a draw at best. Now this is not true intelligence, but sheer computing power. The problem is how many people do work that really cannot be automated.
IBM thinks all share dealing will be automated by 2015, that is only 8 years away.
Computers are getting better at predicting even chaotic systems such as the weather.
The speed and cost of computers is always coming down while human costs are always going up. At some point in probably only 20 years computers will be able to outperform people in 90% of tasks.
Another example is computers driving themselves. There was a $2 million dollar prize that the defense department offered for the first computer driven car that could complete a route through the desert. Two years ago, no car could complete the route, last year I think 3 cars completed the route.
There are already things such as genetic programming where computers generate code based on natural selection. This has been used for stock cast forecasting.
This could be a positive thing for the future. I am sure we would all like to pursue more creative and other pursuits. The downside is that how will society survive with the majority of people not working.
These events really are not far away and the more this is discussed the better we will be able to cope.

Learn more about this author, Norman D'Souza.
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