Looking back through history, it's clear that some occupations have become obsolete. People who stick to outdated roles without adapting often find themselves unemployed.
Here are a few jobs that used to be common:
1. Milkman They used to deliver fresh milk daily before fridges came around.
2. Knocker-Upper Before alarm clocks, these folks would wake people up so they wouldn't miss their plans.
3. Lectors They read stories to factory workers for entertainment during their long hours.
4. Lamplighters These were the people lighting lamps before electricity became a thing.
5. Switchboard Operators They manually connected phone calls before automation took over.
So in today's world, which jobs do you think are fading away?
These are ancient jobs, I can't even remember some of them actually happened. When I think about jobs that are going into extinction or have already gone, my mind goes strait to post office jobs. This job have been destroyed by instant messages which the internet and various messaging platforms have made possible. Another job I that is being challenged is photography, although I doubt this will go into extinction because it is also innovating and adapting but the available of phones with wonderful cameras is a big threat to them.
Jobs that have gone into extinction that I know of, I think the job of a town crier, who usually go round towns and village giving announcement while holding a Gong and hitting it loud to capture the ears of his audience, I believe communities now have social media platforms where messages are been passed, so there is basically no need for that anymore.
Another job that I know that has been taken over by modernization is the Messenger job too, most big firms and companies use to have Messengers that stick around the office premises, they help to carry files from one office to another, they also run personal errands for most desk office that are very busy with work load especially getting food for them, I believe sharing of files and documents have been made easier with the computers in the office, so those messengers are have literally gone into extinction. No matter how busy a desk officer is, he/she call always book their food online without the the help of any messenger.
This has not gone extinct at all, it is still experienced in remote areas, mainly villages. Funny enough it has been modernized too. We almost no longer see town criers who beat gongs and shout at the top of their voices, most of them have now resorted to using bikes and cars with mounted loudspeakers to convey urgent messages in a particular environment, but they still do the same town crying since they move around and manually deliver those messages.
In most offices, the secretaries' double casts as messengers and in others they still exist. Not every activity done in the office is purely digital, files are still moved around and require signing by various officials and these are now mostly carried out by the direct secretaries of persons concerned or still some messengers lurking around.
Manual typewritering is another job which have gone obsolete. A few years ago it was common to see manual typewriters in almost all organisations and these typists occupied important positions. Today it has been replaced with computer operators. Those typists who failed to advance their skills using computers lost relevance.
With the rate of banking activities moving online, the services of bank tellers are becoming less needed. Banks are now closing physical offices because customers can easily use online platforms or ATMs. Last year a leading bank in my country sacked a large number of bank tellers because fewer customers were visiting the bank to collect cash.
Advancement in technology is also making demand for services like interpreters, proofreader and editors less in demand. A simple application could perform these tasks seamlessly.
I still see them in court environments, seems they are still important there. In my country, Affidavits and age declarations are not issued as printed copies, they're typed with manual typewriters and sent to the judge to sign and stamp. Maybe it is only for my country, but I would still want someone to confirm if it is printed and issued in theirs.
I agree that the most typists lost their jobs as a result of not upgrading their skills, there was mass layoffs with the arrival of computer.
I was expecting you to list jobs we saw in the last few decades. The jobs you mentioned existed 50 to 100 years ago. What do you expect that they will remain?
I will mention three jobs that are gradually going extinct; we only see these jobs exist in undeveloped areas of the countries.
Newspaper/Magazine seller
Video store/CD seller
A traditional travel agency
These are the few I can remember.
Most of the jobs you mentioned are things most of us here never knew ever existed in the first place because they probably ceased to exist long time ago. At present, a lot of jobs have surfaced and some have ceased to exist expecially due to advancement in technology that now means that certain services can easily be sorted out with the use of a basic technology.
Typing job for instance are no longer a big deal, same with a lot of the heavy physical jobs which are not replaced with the use of machines to carry out those kind of jobs. As machine and tech grows, those working in those sectors will certainly loose job. As a person, it's in your place to look for the possibility of your job being replaced and try to make yourself irreplaceable by skilling up
Every jobs which can be replaced by AI are slowly going extinct, at same time humans who make constant usage of this technology for every daily needs are going to get dumber, decreasing their ability to think critically and creatively, as everything is done automatically through a simple command.
Ironically, AIs are already getting more interesting to interact with when compared to other human pairs. At least, AI listens to what you have to say and answers accordingly. After all, I think the real question here is: what jobs aren't going to be extinct by AI anytime soon? I'm not sure about any jobs anymore...
Well they AI can help a bit in some jobs but they cant completely replace them..they are lots of jobs AI cant really replace uptill now and even in the future it will be very hard to achieve that. I remember reading about the jobs free of the threat of being replaced by AI but Id actually forgot where I read that.
For real most of our youth nowadays are dumb..they lack critical thinking skills and problem solving skills, they refer every of their works to AI for the thinking and solutions which is the real bad side of the advancement in the AI industry.
In the future when most people that use AI have gradually become dumb, the small fraction of critical thinker and unique problem solvers will have a very important influence and role in the society.
Extinct? I do not consider some of the jobs in your post extinct, in our modern age. Sure, they might be rare but not extinct.
If some woman can sell her bathwater on the internet and become a millionaire, then any kind of money making scheme is possible in our modern times.
anybody can call themselves a milkman and deliver milk for his customers to their door. Although that may be similar to doordash or something.
So it is not that they are extinct, just different now...
The old photographers, the ones where you had to wait a few days before you got the results, and you had to wait a few more days before you could print them. I noticed that they are almost gone. Back then, you could still see them at wedding events and even at tourist attractions, but now I only see them for school trips, and they are very rare. Since everyone now has their own phone, and with just one click, you can see the results immediately, they are almost gone. I miss them too, but we need to accept that times are really changing and people really need to upgrade if they don't want to lose their jobs.
Milkmen are still common in our country and it's true that some of these jobs aren't extinct. Many jobs lose their relevance with time because of the Developing technologies and and change in demands of the society. A person shouldn't mourn about his job losing relevance but people should adapt with the changing times. Evolving with the demands is an essential thing to survive or the person who doesn't adapt has bear the consequences of left alone. By aligning skills with current job requirements individuals remain employed and are able to survive.
I am sorry but a town crier still exist in most rural areas so for the fact that it has gone out of fashion in your community does not mean that other small villages ain't still using it as a part of relating information to the villagers. It will interest you to know that there are still places that people goes to the stream to fetch water in this modern day so those things that used to happen in our villages those days are still happening in other places so we can't really say that they have gone into extinction.
Some jobs has really gone into extinction, I can recall in the past where some raffia roof where used in building construction, their some who are specialist on the preparation of this roof, and some art craft men who prepared clay pot, and all sorts of things used in the past but today it's no longer there, you hardly see some basket used in the past in most village and town is carrying palm fruit, tomatoes and others food items, as another product like rubber basin, stainless basin plastic has taken over even in the pot metal and brass and other element has taken over , in the past most of this items are manually produced but today is mechanically done and different knowledge making most of this manual skill extinction already. The most commonest example is the use of slate in our educational system people where know for production of slate in most community but today such things are no more in used even if it exist hardly you see it.
Most exactly! I was expecting him to make mention of things or let me say jobs like CD selling which was at some point dominating and on top. During those days, people didn't just buy movies from these CD shops but also were renting movies. We go to the shop and look for a movie that we think might be interesting (like a scouting process), then we pay for it so we can go home and see it then return it back to the shop the next morning.
But today, we now have streaming sites like Netflix and even Showmax that we do not have to walk a distance to get movies. We can just scroll through our devices and get to watch as many movies as we want, wherever and whenever we feel like.
Movie cassette sellers are the ones who will disappear. They still exist in some areas, but they will soon disappear as consumers switch to products directly through videos and apps that can be used easily without having to have a lot of media required to watch the film.
Internet quota sellers will also be eroded. There are still many of them now, but if a system like Elon Musk's satellite is adopted widely, it's very likely that those who sell phone credit to top up your internet quota will disappear.
These is like the instagram reel that has coming to me several times this week I think you probably should have credited the reel with a link attachment.
For me I think those jobs stop serving purpose then they went extinct. We dont use lamp on the street anymore, we have fridges now to store milk, alarm clocks and our phone alarms can wake us up.
A job will go extinct when it stops serving a purpose.
In this digital age, the number of jobs that this digital era has put in extinction is many that have run analog for a long time.
I am sure the use of our personal smartphones has shown the way out for cybercafes as they are no longer needed in today's market.
Another job that has gone extinct is the CD plate manufacturers, as digital downloads are on the rise.
What about a video rental store, their jobs are no longer in demand as streaming platforms like Netflix have taken over the entertainment industry
I know for sure it is not software engineering. Everybody thinks nowadays ai will make software engineering obsolete. They are dead wrong. AI will only make software engineers faster and smarter. Thats all there is to it. Did c++ make assembly obsolete because it was easier to code using c++ instead of assembly? (You can replace c++ with any other modern high level programming language) Same logic applies. Just because it is easier to code the basics with ai doesnt mean engineering is dead. On the contrary, it will be needed more than ever.