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The Second Machine Age. Will Your Job Be Taken by Robots?
Japan holds first “robotics revolution” council meeting
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed the ‘robot revolution’ council to:
" work out a strategy for using robots as the key means to solve labor shortages amid the declining birthrate and aging population, low productivity of the services sector and other challenges plaguing Japan and for developing the robot industry into a growth sector to explore global markets."
Some very clever humans are using their highly sophisticated senses (touch, hearing, sight, smell, speech...emotion and thought) to develop highly sophisticated electro-mechanical systems. I mention this as my washing machine just buzzed it has completed washing, rinsing, and spinning my clothes damp dry. Now if it could just finish drying, folding and storing I could focus on sipping my coffee.
Softbank is creating robots. Google is also doing a lot of work in robotics. This video was huge recently - work of Boston Robotics (which...is owned by Google.)
Our Old Washing machine used to just dump water and do the load in 20-30 minutes, now the new one with all the "improvements, censers and all, it takes 45 min Don't see where the clothes are any cleaner,
In another sense, "The Machine" = Orwell's Big Brother. I'm feeling THAT reality every day, more and more! Statistics, computers, Programs for which no one is accountable. But you're still required to support The Machine with your taxes! Even when you're getting hosed by the Machine.
Apple's Siri gets better and better. Of course, your queries go first to Apple's big mainframes where they are processed and saved. A learning curve evolves for both robot and user. I usually have the ipad nearby and connected to car's audio when driving (automatally connects via blutooth). Current time, temperature, weather, stock market reports and distance to destination are a breeze. She'll also locate music tracks, albums, artists, etc. and play them. Don't ask where you can go to get drunk. Won't tell - but admonishs you instead. (But if you ask where to go for a cocktail, she'll provide directions to the nearest establishment.) In another 10 years we'll all be routinely jabbering with an assortment of devices as if they were human - scarey in a way.
I do agree with the underlying theme of the thread. I believe this trend towards automation, which has been going on for decades, has a lot to do both with the unemployment rate and with the increasing disparity of wealth around the world. In Lennin's time the Bourgeoisie controlled the tools of production and through that they controlled the Proletariat working class who operated those tools. We've gone a step further. Now, the very wealthy simply control the robots who are increasingly replacing workers completely. To an extent the "Proletariat" masses willingly feed at the hands of these robots - whether at the self-serve gas pump, automated supermarket checkout, or while ordering goods from Amazon - which of course are sold, packaged and shipped by robots.
(Once Bezos gets his drones, many a FedX and UPS driver will join the ranks of the unemployed.)
But there is inevitably a balance or tipping point where there are not enough people working at good-paying jobs to buy the stuff that the robots are producing and delivering. What then?
(Once Bezos gets his drones, many a FedX and UPS driver will join the ranks of the unemployed.)
As I read your entire post, I cannot help thinking that everyone at MFO is supporting the owners of the robots through investment in the direction you describe. I also wonder what the real problem is. Is it lack of shared wealth or lack of appreciation of the species that created these robots? Logically (chuckle) if robots serve man, then what the robots produce should be almost free. (Slaves needed maintenance as do robots.) So who is man? Is he the creature that is born to find support from his labor or is he, ultimately, the creature that can replace labor with robots and become more and more creative, innovative, curious, adventurous, exploring, entertaining, etc. as he trades the old "hard work" model for one of simply contributing to the world using that which makes him truly irreplaceable?
Of course, man as a species, his art, his music, his technology, his ingenuity may be arriving at a saturation point and the species may not be viable. Pity the robots probably won't find much joy in the world without man. If purpose is the joy of a robot.
One more though. Since we seem to be using up our resources, shouldn't we be looking for new ones elsewhere? Or, at the minimum, alternatives/solutions for the far away tomorrow? Will robots be up to the task?
Per the preliminary gov't. rules released about 10 days ago, Amazon and related won't be shipping via drones any time soon. When Mr. Bezos spoke about this method several months ago; one area that I envisioned is the drone's with their goodies being "popped" out of the air by those with any number of ground devices that could easily bring a drone to the ground for "gathering" of the "goodies". Devices to kill or disable a drone, range from electronic to fire arms.
@Anna - You touched a nerve with: "man as a species ... his art, his music ..."
We are nearing true "virtual reality." I fear what will happen to live performances - like the kind we love to attend on Broadway once VR becomes commonplace. Sure, some folks will still desire to view "the real thing." However, live theater is surviving on a shoestring now. Loss of additional audience may deliver a fatal blow. Even if they survive in the VR world - the experience just won't be the same.
So who is man? Is he the creature that is born to find support from his labor or is he, ultimately, the creature that can replace labor with robots and become more and more creative, innovative, curious, adventurous, exploring, entertaining, etc. as he trades the old "hard work" model for one of simply contributing to the world using that which makes him truly irreplaceable?
Of course, man as a species, his art, his music, his technology, his ingenuity may be arriving at a saturation point and the species may not be viable. Pity the robots probably won't find much joy in the world without man. If purpose is the joy of a robot.
Reminds me of a book I read in my cross country bicycling days (replace the word motorcycle with whatever technology innovation you wish):
Perhaps youtube is the intermediary between yesterday and tomorrow.
Funny you mention virtual reality. I see virtual spaces as tools, just another play toy for the man to manipulate to his own purposes, a fertile ground for future innovation, experimentation, trial and error, and whatever.
My husband and I just happened to be discussing the idea that virtual reality was a space of waste for couch potatoes. That is possible but imagine* the other possibilities. Watch what the kids do with new stuff. They tinker.
*Imagine virtual spaces that are blackboards for innovation. In your example theatre. Much of the "innovation" In movie making in the last century was manipulation of the capabilities afforded by new technologies. There is no reason to think that the morphing of theatre would not be equally breathtaking.
People look down on the youth of today, finding them different and believing that their processes are worthless and trivial. I wonder though. Do they see a new way of manipulating the environment that they take casually as their world to own while we fear it?
Yes bee, Your analogy is appropriate. I'm nothing if not a product of the 60s and all that SciFi of my youth. What's wrong with a little Zen? I sometimes tell people when instruments of my work come up that, yes, there is a piece of me in that there box. I think we all need some sort of connection with our own lives be it offspring, Zen mechanics or brain in a box.
Comments
I could have used a few in my Day....
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed the ‘robot revolution’ council to:
" work out a strategy for using robots as the key means to solve labor shortages amid the declining birthrate and aging population, low productivity of the services sector and other challenges plaguing Japan and for developing the robot industry into a growth sector to explore global markets."
japan-holds-first-robotics-revolution-council-meeting/
My Take:
Some very clever humans are using their highly sophisticated senses (touch, hearing, sight, smell, speech...emotion and thought) to develop highly sophisticated electro-mechanical systems. I mention this as my washing machine just buzzed it has completed washing, rinsing, and spinning my clothes damp dry. Now if it could just finish drying, folding and storing I could focus on sipping my coffee.
I want one of these.
Don't see where the clothes are any cleaner,
Not mine! I'm RETIRED!!!
BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!
I do agree with the underlying theme of the thread. I believe this trend towards automation, which has been going on for decades, has a lot to do both with the unemployment rate and with the increasing disparity of wealth around the world. In Lennin's time the Bourgeoisie controlled the tools of production and through that they controlled the Proletariat working class who operated those tools. We've gone a step further. Now, the very wealthy simply control the robots who are increasingly replacing workers completely. To an extent the "Proletariat" masses willingly feed at the hands of these robots - whether at the self-serve gas pump, automated supermarket checkout, or while ordering goods from Amazon - which of course are sold, packaged and shipped by robots.
(Once Bezos gets his drones, many a FedX and UPS driver will join the ranks of the unemployed.)
Ah, disinflation followed by deflation.........just my thought.
Of course, man as a species, his art, his music, his technology, his ingenuity may be arriving at a saturation point and the species may not be viable. Pity the robots probably won't find much joy in the world without man. If purpose is the joy of a robot.
One more though. Since we seem to be using up our resources, shouldn't we be looking for new ones elsewhere? Or, at the minimum, alternatives/solutions for the far away tomorrow? Will robots be up to the task?
When Mr. Bezos spoke about this method several months ago; one area that I envisioned is the drone's with their goodies being "popped" out of the air by those with any number of ground devices that could easily bring a drone to the ground for "gathering" of the "goodies".
Devices to kill or disable a drone, range from electronic to fire arms.
We are nearing true "virtual reality." I fear what will happen to live performances - like the kind we love to attend on Broadway once VR becomes commonplace. Sure, some folks will still desire to view "the real thing." However, live theater is surviving on a shoestring now. Loss of additional audience may deliver a fatal blow. Even if they survive in the VR world - the experience just won't be the same.
Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469
Funny you mention virtual reality. I see virtual spaces as tools, just another play toy for the man to manipulate to his own purposes, a fertile ground for future innovation, experimentation, trial and error, and whatever.
My husband and I just happened to be discussing the idea that virtual reality was a space of waste for couch potatoes. That is possible but imagine* the other possibilities. Watch what the kids do with new stuff. They tinker.
*Imagine virtual spaces that are blackboards for innovation. In your example theatre. Much of the "innovation" In movie making in the last century was manipulation of the capabilities afforded by new technologies. There is no reason to think that the morphing of theatre would not be equally breathtaking.
People look down on the youth of today, finding them different and believing that their processes are worthless and trivial. I wonder though. Do they see a new way of manipulating the environment that they take casually as their world to own while we fear it?