Sam MacDonald writes: > The problem I see in all these browser based tools. The fact that the > administration can be done in India or Brazil at 1/3 the cost of US > workers. The tools make it so easy to administer servers that an > untrained person can do the work. That argument is ridiculous. Why do I want to do a job that an untrained monkey can do? I don't. If my job is so simple that it can be replaced by a better piece of software and a monkey, then I'm worthless. I deserve to get replaced. When that day comes, it's time to do something else. Suppose I'm a system administrator and have a task to do every day that takes me an hour. If I write a program to do that job for me, does that make me less valuable? No, it makes me more valuable. That means I now have an extra hour a day to do things that make my company money. Not writing the program is wasting my company money, assuming the amount of time it takes to write the program is reasonable. Jobs get sent out of country because no one here wants to do them. Very few people want to stand in a factory all day and do the exact same repetitive task. Those jobs are either replaced by a machine or given to a foreigner. Don't be upset because your job was to push a button, and we found a way to eliminate the button or get someone cheaper to push it. > All these companies need to do social impact studies before they > decide to write software. Better technology will always put people out of work temporarily. That doesn't mean we shouldn't create the technology. It enables far more jobs in the future. What if computers weren't created because it put typists out of work? My job consists of solving problems by writing software. There are three scenarios that would force me to do something else: - No one needs new software or needs existing software to be modified - Cheaper people can do the same job as me - Computers can program themselves As long as computers exist, there will always be a demand for new software to be created and for existing software to be modified. I don't just write software. I solve problems. There are a number of steps: understanding a problem, talking to the right people, engineering a design, writing the software, testing the software, deploying the software, etc. Software also has to be maintained and modified. Software must meet business requirements, be secure and be robust. These things don't happen by accident, and they don't get any cheaper by sending them outside the office, much less outside the country. Programming requires creativity, which is a part of sentience. As soon as computers have that, the game is over. Having to find a new line of work will be the least of my worries. I don't know if that day will be good or bad, but it will certainly be interesting. -- David Phillips <david at acz.org> http://david.acz.org/ _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list