Robots increasingly used, displacing human jobs

It is an interesting trend.

Frankfurt, September 29th, 2016 – By 2019, more than 1.4 million new industrial robots will
be installed in factories around the world... The
strongest growth drivers for the robotics industry are found in China... in 2019
some 40 percent of the worldwide market volume of industrial robots will be sold there
alone. So says the 2016 World Robotics Report, as published by the International
Federation of Robotics (IFR).


The robotics industry naturally sees this as a good thing for everyone involved:

The positive effect of automation on the number of jobs is confirmed by a
study recently published by the ZEW, in partnership with the University of Utrecht. In essence,
reduced production costs result in better market prices. The increasing demand then triggers
more jobs.


Personally, I'm a little skeptical about that economic logic.
I certainly hope that they are right, but
"The increasing demand then triggers more jobs"
sounds a lot like
"And magic happens here".

An alternate plausible last line could read "The wealth gap then increases, with the robot owners getting richer while the proles eat grass."

Robotic automation is inexorable. Guess it is up to us humans to guide the social consequences.
 
The effects will get more attention as time goes on. Up until now robots have mostly replaced repetitive muscle power jobs... but soon systems like Watson that can read natural language and understand it will be replacing researchers, lawyers and other professions. There are a few that have designed their own drug research experiments, and been credited with the discovery of gene interactions, for example. Not much future in being a Go master anymore either... as the was the last strategy game that had until recently been robot resistant...
 
The faster the better. This will eventually progress society and provide more time for art and creativity and scientific discoveries.

Once the common people are no longer valued only for a dollar per hour rate we can progress past wage slaves and provide more basic necessities for everyone with less resources.
 
joshuahandrich said:
The faster the better. This will eventually progress society and provide more time for art and creativity and scientific discoveries.

Once the common people are no longer valued only for a dollar per hour rate we can progress past wage slaves and provide more basic necessities for everyone with less resources.


The eventually advance society is the tough part... What to you do about the billions in the short term that don't have much artistic creativity, and are plain unable to develop new job skills fast enough to feed their families?

And with mechanical picking, there's already been a trend where resistance to bruising is the primary breeding requirement... not taste. Also, many are picked early to avoid bruising, then artificially ripened with hormones at the warehouse.
 
Voltron said:
joshuahandrich said:
The faster the better. This will eventually progress society and provide more time for art and creativity and scientific discoveries.

Once the common people are no longer valued only for a dollar per hour rate we can progress past wage slaves and provide more basic necessities for everyone with less resources.


The eventually advance society is the tough part... What to you do about the billions in the short term that don't have much artistic creativity, and are plain unable to develop new job skills fast enough to feed their families?

And with mechanical picking, there's already been a trend where resistance to bruising is the primary breeding requirement... not taste. Also, many are picked early to avoid bruising, then artificially ripened with hormones at the warehouse.


Universal income. Everyone's needs are met, everyone does what they're good at and enjoy. If others like some of your side projects and you wish to sell them for a bit of extra disposable income, good for you.

Edit:
If one must still figure out a creative source of income or new employment, we would still be existing as wage slaves.

And, honestly at that point the companies that tend to have their fingers so deep in legislation here would probably finally concede to allowing universal income as it puts more money in the pockets of their potential customers.
 
The rich have never had any interest in advancing society. I can imagine them going for a subsistence wage for all, to avoid unrest. But the ultimate goal would be to eliminate the rest of us. What makes you think they would have any need for "customers" once they could get everything from machines?

Despite their public denial of climate change, they realize that they can only continue to live like pharaohs, if they get rid of the "useless eaters."
 
spinningmagnets said:

Fascinating mechanical design in these devices, and clearly they take a lot of time and labor out of harvesting. One thing they all have in common though (as far as I can see) is their essential wet-ware operational component, typically installed behind the wheel. The emergence of fully autonomous vehicles should eventually free up those components, giving them the option of either developing creative leisure pursuits, or alternatively drinking chilled malt beverages while watching daytime tv. Where better to safely develop and deploy first-generation autonomous vehicles than in large, open, static spaces such as farm fields?

Look ma, no hands...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj_EYZeSkhM
 
3NF0
3NF2

Automation is and always has been a good thing. It allows humanity to meet it's needs with less manual labor and therefore we have more time for leisure and recreation and artistic pursuits.

The part I find curious is the bizarre perspective of the writer:

It’s unclear what this shift means for factory workers in the nation, but it’s not looking positive for those demanding fair working conditions and wages.

As though having robots build things for us somehow sets us up for abuse? It's totally illogical. He seems to be pushing an artificial narrative that technology is bad. Somehow this is probably tied to the push for globalism, or it could be a completely clueless socialist. Either way, I think it shows Monetary Watch is potentially a leftist fake news site.
 
I think I understand both sides. It's hard to improve objectivity, but I think there is nothing good or bad but human thought/action. All else is neutral.

People think of art as paintings and music, but all a human does is inherently artistic. That true creativity vs the apparent set duality in nature of death/life life/death is possibly linked to the above mentioned duality at our core.
Tech can allow for better lives approaching futher toward 'perfection' of life (perhaps eventually evidenced by innocent nature itself not needing to eat itself) or it can allow for the opposite. So it all comes down to how we treat each other and the world, and where we define the difference between right and wrong in those things and the generation and use of 'tech'.
 
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