This is a subject that has long concerned me. I am all for innovation, automation, and scientific and technological advancement of humanity, of course.
Today, already, we have robot vacuum cleaners
robot lawn mowers
self-driving robotic cars are being tested
Robots produce our cars among other things
continued
I KNEW there was something odd about that guy!
Robots disarm bombs for us
and, increasingly, fight our wars
even unmanned transport helicopters are being tested for the US military now, not sure if they have already been taken on for service
In South Korea, robot prison guards now patrol some prisons
and we all heard of their robotic "sentries" on the North Korean border.
What concerns me is, as the future rolls on, and as robots and artifical intelligence becomes more and more advanced, and as humans have less and less to do, as we are, effectively, replaced by smart machines, in our workplaces, in our militaries, and even in our homes, will humanity not becomes less and less relevant. Today, humans still controll the robots. Will that perhaps change in the future? 50 years from now, who will be running who?
Last edited by The Man; 18th June 2012 at 07:29 PM.
Originally Posted by meridian5455
I KNEW there was something odd about that guy!
Yes, that is what I mean lol
I think Putin
and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko
are robots also.
No. Mundane and dangerous tasks are, increasingly, being performed robotically. But services are needed in greater numbers all the time, which humans are performing. Jobs are not being replaced; they're changing with economy. And it would not matter if we valued our people just the same; and canned stupid ideas such as someone who puts a rivet in sheetmetal is okay to pay a decent wage, but when they put groceries or other goods into a bag they should be paid shit.
The jobs are not the problem. Our thinking the people who are filling them as being less important, is the problem.
That is actually what does concern me.
I'll have plenty to do, back-breaking labor is not on my list of things to want to do.
We'll still be running them. Robots do certain things well, there are many things that they really DON'T do well. Important thing being to operate in the 'real' - analog world.
Take a contrived example. Let's put a basketball pole in rough terrain. I now place any spherical ball (different colors, with different textures, perhaps with a different radius), now I place the robot in any position and the robot will need to 'right' himself, find the ball and shoot it and actually get it in the hoop with some reliability....
Let me know when the robot reliably finds the 'ball'
Robot cars rally for desert race - CNET News
"The major challenge, other than fundraising, is real-time obstacle detection and avoidance. It simply doesn't exist right now as an off-the-shelf item," said Team Loghiq's Cabe. "
That's not the Terminator hunting me down, that's the Terminator not being able to 'get me'
Well, especially the military applications bother me. All those robotic weapons, including the aerial drones, and unmanned ground vehicles like the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle
Or Foster-Miller TALON
And particularly the unmanned Ripsaw tank (yes, unmanned tank... now that is badass lol)
I think that is great, leave less human soldiers in the battlefield, in harm's way. Saves costs too, as this shows
But my problem with further relegating combat and killing to machines is that machines cannot feel. They do not feel mercy or guilt or remorse. They have no morals. They do not discriminate between terrorists, enemy combatants, or innocent civillians. As this technology advances and as the control over these machines will be in the hands of ruthless, greedy politicians, will more and more human lives be lost in Third World countries that have no access to this technology, but find themselves on the receiving end of it?
Nobody ever read Vonnegut's Player Piano?
The increasing cost of labor and the falling cost of automation spells the end of the bimbette running the cash register, and her funny little penchant for slipping the odd twenty into her pocket, will soon be a thing of the past.
You people focusing on war machines?
That's the least of your worries.
Pretty soon people will have to be able to think to get a job, and that spells the end of the DemocRAT voter.
Once you read Player Piano, your RATs should look to the real future you're planning for everyone.
Read The Marching Morons by CM Kornbluth.
Neither did US forces in Iraq in many instances.
This has been feared since the 1934 World's Fair.Robots disarm bombs for us
and, increasingly, fight our wars
even unmanned transport helicopters are being tested for the US military now, not sure if they have already been taken on for service
In South Korea, robot prison guards now patrol some prisons
and we all heard of their robotic "sentries" on the North Korean border.
What concerns me is, as the future rolls on, and as robots and artifical intelligence becomes more and more advanced, and as humans have less and less to do, as we are, effectively, replaced by smart machines, in our workplaces, in our militaries, and even in our homes, will humanity not becomes less and less relevant. Today, humans still controll the robots. Will that perhaps change in the future? 50 years from now, who will be running who?
I have tooled-up robots myself and have direct experience here.
Robots are fast, precise, repeatable, (meaning they are good at doing the exact same thing twice), don't take breaks, yak while they are supposed to be working and a thousand other "advantages" over human workers...
But, there is something most people neglect to consider: Robots do a job that is too miserable for a human being...
At my old job we had an old lady that had her station next to one of my robots.
Ruby's job was to insert these Kapton tubes into a small machine that would cut them to a specific length.
All day long, for twenty years she had been putting a tube in one end and engaging a shear to cut them: "bomp. bomp, bomp" all day long.
I always wanted to automate her station, it would have been a couple simple devices and Ruby would have been free.
Free to inspect the parts that are coming off the machine and maybe run several machines.
Now, the way this was supposed to work, is the workers displaced by robots get even better jobs and many jobs will be created by the robot companies.
The genie is out of the bottle and has been for centuries, automation is here to stay.
If there were not so many factories overseas we would have seen a huge boost in jobs and higher quality jobs.
I will say this: it is very difficult sometimes to get a robot to perform as well as a human. Some of those assembly line workers are blazing fast, it can be a huge challenge for a guy like me to come up with a machine that is as good.
Thx
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