Engraving is now reportedly the most automated profession

The article is interesting and I am glad to see some contrarian point to the main &quot;automation will destroy jobs&quot; narrative but...<p>But I think that they are comparing apples to oranges here. The engravers have not been &quot;automated away&quot; - in their case technology <i>augments</i> them, so it&#x27;s not like &quot;I used to be an engraver but now I have lost my job to a robot&quot; but - as the article says &quot;I am an engraver and thanks to technology I have to say <i>sorry but I can&#x27;t do that</i> ten time less often than before&quot;.<p>Same goes for office automation in general. Technology have augmented human-unassisted output (well, in case of office automation a lot of that has been wasted on futzing around with fonts and so on, but still...).<p>But I wonder what would happen if self-service engraving (via web interface, at a fraction of the cost and with your item delivered by drone or automated van in case of larger packages) entered the market, and if they would keep the same level of enthusiasm about automation.<p>I wonder what would they say

The difference is they own the means of production. Many workers in automated industries do not.

Well great article however two noteworthy things to point out. Over the last 10 years the hourly wage has stayed the same meaning the workers have lost purchasing power due to inflation.<p>If the prices of the product have gone up with inflation this just means a bigger part of the pie has gone to the owners of the business. Pretty much what one would expect with automation.<p>This is not a sunshine story, even if they attempt to paint it as one, and that&#x27;s before one contemplates full automation where no workers are involved.

&gt; “It’s not like you’re employing fewer people,” says Rader, who has about 10 employees, including his bookkeeper. “I can just do more things. I can tell fewer people, ‘sorry, I can’t do that.’”<p>That was refreshing to hear.<p>There was another more detailed treatment of automation&#x27;s impact in the Economist a while back, which mentioned graphic design, a similar profession, where human jobs weren&#x27;t replaced, tasks simply became redefined as designers started using more computer aids to let them perform more complex work:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;special-report&#x2F;21700758-will-smarter-machines-cause-mass-unemployment-automation-and-anxiety" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.economist.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;special-report&#x2F;21700758-will-s...</a><p>David Autor had a long academic survey of the topic, it&#x27;s detailed and in-depth, but a good read if you&#x27;re interested in this area, with a fascinating discussion of how we quadrupled the number of bank tellers after the invention of the ATM, and the role of good governance in mitigating labor shocks due to sudden increases in roboticization.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;economics.mit.edu&#x2F;files&#x2F;11563" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;economics.mit.edu&#x2F;files&#x2F;11563</a>

Automation is doing no manual labor. Technical improvement&#x27;s mentioned in the article is not automation. It&#x27;s the same as a accountant who uses software. He can do more in less time

This seems absurdity polyannaish. Surely it&#x27;s obvious that the parts that are currently done by people - laying out the design, and handling handling awkward shaped objects - can and will be automated. Developing such technology specifically for the engraving industry probably isn&#x27;t cost effective and so for now humans remain employable in this industry, but those jobs exist so commonly across industries that it&#x27;s inevitable that they will be automated away in due course.

As a music engraver, someone who creates scores on computer, no longer on metal sheets, I feel like my niche industry dodged a bullet here. But alas, it is less about the literal engraving part and more about the design of the graphics involved and new software like Dorico is a big step forward for increasing the output of the average engraver leading to more scores in general.

Massive survivorship bias here. They only interviewed engravers who haven&#x27;t lost their job so of course they&#x27;re not hurt by it. What about those 6 guys he didn&#x27;t need to hire because of the machine? What about businesses which shut down since the advent of machines?

Taking a job from 2 hours to 20 minutes is ... impressive, but, as someone else pointed out, it&#x27;s augmentation, not really completely automated.<p>I will not be surprised if Amazon offers drone-based engraving in 10 years; you&#x27;ll just have someone drop the headstone, and their drone will do the rest.