Skilled work, without the worker
August 19, 2012
Chinese factory workers (credit: Robert Scoble/Wikimedia Commons)
A new wave of robots, far more adept than those now commonly used by automakers and other heavy manufacturers, are replacing workers around the world in both manufacturing and distribution, The New York Times reports.
Factories like a Philips Electronics factory in the Netherlands, where 128 robot arms do the same work as hundreds of workers in sister factory, are a striking counterpoint to those used by Apple and other consumer electronics giants, which employ hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers.
Such advances in manufacturing are also beginning to transform other sectors that employ millions of workers around the world. One is distribution, where robots that zoom at the speed of the world’s fastest sprinters can store, retrieve and pack goods for shipment far more efficiently than people. Robots could soon replace workers at companies like C & S Wholesale Grocers, the nation’s largest grocery distributor, which has already deployed robot technology.
Rapid improvement in vision and touch technologies is putting a wide array of manual jobs within the abilities of robots.
Robot manufacturers in the United States say that in many applications, robots are already more cost-effective than humans.
Comments (11)
by Fred Bosick
So, your solution is a lassez faire capitalistic economy where the vast majority of people grovel on the streets because they can’t buy a good lifestyle and weren’t lucky enough to have rich parents? We have more than enough educated people. enough that many of them are unemployed or wasting their working lives at terrible jobs. Our schools were never the problem.
Whatever you think of unions, they are addressing a problem which will become all encompassing very soon, if not already. What to do with all the “unnecessary” workers. Not everyone can be a programming “ninja” or wizard, an actor, or even a criminal banker. Everyone deserves a shot at success and a piece of the economic pie.
by JPA
Your argument mirrors those made in the beginning of the industrial revolution. Lo and behold, youre life is FAR better materially as a result of labor saving devices that you now rail against.
by Stephen Willemse
As a younger scientist I foresee a very bright future. Of course there will be a painful transition , but were a in the midst of reshaping our society entirely. Every institution that has brought us this far will be radically reshaped or completely done away with , work , politics , finance are all age old institutions that will be reinvented in the coming years. Robotics will put us all out of work , but who needs a job when all your needs are catered for. The scarcity that we live with now will be a thing of the past and humankind will be free to colonize the galaxy. Who will pay for it ? We will have an abundance of resources that are all around us in the galaxy , and robots will fetch all the resources we need , for no cost. This will all carry on merrily , until we become robots ……..bring it on
by TFC
I was a steelworker in the 1990′s and maintained the instrumentation, electronics, and electrical at the mills. One day I was talking to an operator in the air-conditioned control room and he made the comment that no one in the mill was a real “steelworker” as in the past because all they did was sit around and watch the machines work on the nearly 3000 degree steel. All the remaining humans in the mill were there to setup, operate, service, or repair the manufacturing systems (management was an overhead cost burden). As automation becomes too fast for people to interact due to increased production demands, workers will become nothing but machine “managers” who make sure the machines are performing correctly. Since future automated production gains will depend less on manual labor, labor will not be the major deciding factor to where factories are setup. Since labor skills will likely be “equal” in most major places, it also will be less of a factor. What will be the deciding factor will be the cost of transportation. Thus moving factories closer to where it is consumed (i.e. USA) will be the deciding factor and by default the US will benefit. This is ending up being closer to 3D printing being the ultimate solution (no labor, no storage, no delay, and close to consumer).
by Tim
As a scientist, I love science and technology. All these new advances excite me but, as I get older I begin to wonder about the future and while I probably won’t be around to see many of the advances being predicted I can’t help but wonder where we are headed as a human race.
Everything is relative, what was norm when I was younger has vastly changed to the norm at the moment, but with the logrithmetic advances in technology and science we are seeing these days I can’t help but thinking that we are on the verge of altering life as we know it.
Soon robots will be building robots and almost everything else which, will ultimately result in enormous unemployment and skipping ahead population control (we’re already nearing carrying capacity worldwide), loss of the middle class (beginning to show) and a reduction in expectations for a successful financial future (the American Dream). One could go on and include education, health and practically every other facet of life.
So, while mankind is following the laws of entropy and becoming more diverse and complex we may soon find that robotics may very well reverse this to a less diverse and less complex future. And while my grandchildren will find this to be relative and norm for their moment…I’m thinking I’m glad I won’t be around.
by Qwerty Jones
“I feel kinda worried for kids being born at this time. They’re going to have to compete with amazing technologies to make a living.”
Theirs will be the eternal life of art and leisure instead of the daily grind and rat race we were born into.
by JPA
what took so long for someone to say that? Has anyone on this website heard of a guy named Ray Kurzweil? :)
by Bri
This is still just the tip of the iceberg. Robots are going to evolve at an ever increasing rate. No job whatsoever is going to escape thier ever increasing capabilities
by MrFriendly
We really are creating our successors (that’s becoming so cliche these days).
I feel kinda worried for kids being born at this time. They’re going to have to compete with amazing technologies to make a living.
by GatorALLin
Robot manufacturers in the “United States” say that in many applications, robots are already more cost-effective than humans.
…and the Netherlands…. but not any Asian countries. …or not yet…
Might bring up some debate about Unions in USA that ironically were there to protect the rights of workers… but now make them too expensive to use or keep long term… If evolution must evolve…then what does it leave behind? …Everything that does not evolve to keep up.
I want to be clear that I think there are some GREAT things about unions and their original intent, but I want to be even more clear that ANY system that does not change or have the ability to adapt quickly is doing damage to the ideas it was set out to protect.
If you have not seen this documentary the school system in the USA, and the affect of teacher unions on our education this is a MUST SEE video! One of the best documentaries on any subject I have ever seen.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566648/
it will change how you think about broken systems and the need to bypass them at all costs, even when they are so entrenched that they refuse to change. Evolution will find a way with our without you…(us).
by Dan S
“more cost-effective than humans… but not any Asian countries. …or not yet” Actually, Foxconn, the maker of Apple products in China, recently announced the purchase of 3 million robots to replace workers. When it makes sense to replace workers that earn an average of $400/month, it makes sense to replace pretty much all low skilled manufacturing jobs.