Looking through history, there are countless examples of huge industries that became obsolete through technological developments.
The blacksmith all but died out with the motorcar, digital vs. chemical factories for camera technologies and other recording equipment. etc etc.
Are there any inevitable technological developments that will spell the end of industries sitting pretty now?
I thought of this when I saw Google (?) had tested the first driverless car. Think of the implications of that. Drink and drive? Bye bye taxi. Car insurance will go from fire, theft, fully comp. to just fire, which most people aren't insured on anyway (just 3rd party to meet legal req's). Would even extend to public transport networks, coach/truck/bus drivers, time to rethink.
Does anyone else think about these things?
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You know what I find surprising? The fact that there are even any Blockbuster stores still standing.
How about computing replacing human traders? An old timer, who used to do capital structure arbitrage on the floor of the Curb exchange, lamented to me the other day that the only reason traders still exist is that they're reluctant to put themselves out of business by switching over to automated or semi-automated systems. He may be a crazy old man, but I mean eventually, I can't see how this won't largely be the case - at least for most market making and arbitrage strategies.
Heh. No shit. Isn't the NYSE still operated by specialist brokers? The fuck do we even still need these guys for?
Right. But I think he was referring to the entire equities market, not just exchange brokers. Maybe for the more illiquid stuff, it is still more art than science to make a market or what have you, but his perspective was that there is no good reason for a human to be involved with a trade after the customer places the order online.
Pilots. Why in the world we haven't created a computing system to perfectly fly a plane, and adjust accordingly. Even if it was controlled from the ground....
Screw that, I wouldn't fly if I didn't know there is a qualified pilot flying the plane I'm on. A computer won't be able to pull off what that pilot did landing on the hudson river....
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