• Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Yeah, but… If we’re paying people to just sit on a train for 8 hours at a time, never actually doing anything…

    • brosaph@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Then they’re really there for when things go wrong. Like pilots, the plane flies itself 99% of the time, they’re just there to take over when things arent going according to plan.

      • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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        3 days ago

        In Sydney, Australia we have fully automated subway with no drivers in them, called the metro

      • Aniki@feddit.org
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        3 days ago

        when some US president once visited china, he visited a construction site where they used shovel to excavate the ground. he asked “why no bagger?” and the chinese president replied “sothat we create more jobs”. the US president said “next time, tell them to use a spoon instead!”

        i think it’s a fitting description. why bother with workplaces; everything that can be reasonably automated should be automated; in the end, it will be anyways. who are we kidding? how long is this game of not-doing-things-the-way-they’re-better supposed to go on? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? then what? we’ll face the future one way or another; why not try to face it in a clear and straightforward way?

        • IronBird@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          funny that this has flipped around now, with china’s many entirely automated factories that can run without internal lighting

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Ok, but you do realize a subway can still catch fire, right? Or someone could have a heart attack. Just because you won’t fall to your death, doesn’t mean people can’t still die.

          • amniotic druid@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            I just don’t understand what good would a human conductor do in those scenarios that sensors and workers at the station couldn’t? Trains go in a tight loop with regular stops on the ground in special tunnels and are under constant watch. A single person adds no real line of protection to that system

            • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Guy having a heart attack. Operator overides the controls, contacts 911, sets an ambulance to show up at the stop that will be fastest for EMS. In my city, sometimes the elevators are down at certain stations. So maybe the operator drives past the next 2 stations without stopping all while being in contact with 911 operators, and at the same time using the intercom to alert other passengers on other cars (since trains are multiple cars long) what is going on so they don’t get mad that the train didn’t even stop at their stop.

              An automated system would have just went to the next stop as normal. Stopped, opened the doors for 30 seconds, and then resumed as normal.

              Fire - If a small fire broke out, the train operator could stop the train, wherever it is, open the doors, use the intercom to evacuate the train. Then use communications to stop all other nearby trains so they don’t hit any passengers now jumping off a train onto other train tracks. Then, when everyone is safe, use the fire extinguisher.

              If automated systems can even detect a fire, the most it could physically do is stop the train, and open the doors. Computer code can’t physically use a fire extinguisher, and I wouldn’t trust AI in an emergsncy situation to get people to safety.

                • TheparishofChigwell@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 days ago

                  Yes, but quicker and more efficiently. Plus there would maybe be hands free to run around with the extinguishers, who knows even the public might act upon an event

                  But we all know the bleakest outcome is the only possible outcome. Firy infinite metro line