Robot proof jobs. If you were advising a 35-year-old to return to school, what field would you recommend?

Assuming you’re in the US.The medical field is growing strong. If the person you’re referring to has a strong stomach, nursing would be a great job. Or being a technician who helps do diagnostics, like a radiology tech…

A trade, like being a mechanic, isn’t a bad idea either.

I’ve noticed that solar technology is growing rapidly in my area. Every month,a house in my neighborhood gets solar panels on the roof. Learning how to install them, or maintain them, in a new and growing business would probably be a good call….

The person who builds, designs or services said robots

That word, “train” …

Another jelly and I once had a short go-round based upon that word. I had used the word in the same way that it has been used in this question, meaning nothing particularly pejorative by it. I used it to say that workers and others have to be trained in certain processes and procedures (and I still think to some extent that that is true), but the other person took strong offense to it. He claimed – and rightly so! – that only dumb animals, and even some smart animals, including dogs, dolphins and seals, can be (or should be) “trained” to do things.

In that sense he’s absolutely correct. While I still believe that it’s necessary to be trained in some specific aspects of a process so that some of the motions can be rote and done by habit and muscle memory, a human can’t be “trained” to any kind of meaningful career or life’s work. So the question in that sense is meaningless. Anything that one can be “trained” to do, career-wise (that is, in a larger sense of the word, for whole days’ worth of work or more) will soon be done by machines. That’s the point of the machine, after all, to do rote work that only requires force, repetition and blind adherence to process.

But it’s going to be a long time before we can produce machines that actually think. I doubt that machine design will surpass good human design for a very long time, and I hope that it never surpasses excellent human design. And while a machine may very well slavishly duplicate fine art: painting, sculpture, wood carving and even writing, I don’t expect machines to originate it themselves. It’ll be an interesting time when that does happen, if it does.

“Understanding” would be another fine thing for humans to achieve, but where there’s any kind of career in that I do not know.

It’s kind of sad, I think, that the things that humans really can do pretty awesomely – if they do those things at all: thinking, expressing artistry, understanding the interplay of organisms and things upon the planet – just don’t seem to pay all that well. On the other hand, when machines can do all of the rote work, maybe there will be more time and thought put into doing the fine things that we can do, too.

Here’s a thing, too: People should start to learn how to kill machines, when that time comes, too.

Training encompasses a little more than fetch, sit and roll over.

Non-academic jobs like carpenters, plumbers and electricians will probably be safe for a while, though maybe not truck drivers.

I work with doctors and nurses. I think they come into their fields with thoughts that they can help people, save people and thus will be appreciated. After about 5 years in, I have yet to meet a health care worker, in my hospital at least, that doesn’t hate their job. They are overworked, understaffed, under appreciated. I wouldn’t suggest healthcare as the field to go in right now.

@ARE_you_kidding_me Those will also be robots. It’s the humans designing/building/maintaining the designing/building/maintenance bots that are the safe jobs.

…At least until AI catches up and then a career in gladiator combat for the entertainment of our robot overlords is probably the inevitable profession for most of us.

In all seriousness, consider finance.

^^^Forgot to add the link.

To all of you who said to stop thinking of it as “training ”, you’re absolutely right.
I’ll change my question to “What is the best field to study? ”