Comments on: These robots install solar panels

By: asiwel

asiwel — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 07:21:06 +0000

Hi, Bri. That was quite a comment and you make many valid points. Clearly the nature of economics and “jobs” and probably “money” will be affected, drastically in many cases, by future technological change. But what exactly is a “job” and is that all there is? People will tend more to do or try to do whatever they “want” to do, rather than perhaps what they “have” to do. And there may indeed be great competition to get the chance to do a particular thing. Consider the world of StarTrek. I do not recall much discussion of “money” in that future universe at all. Lots of people may have wanted to be starship captains or crew but not everyone actually got the chance … you had to get through the Academy for one thing. My point is in a world of abundance, a “job” is more like a “profession” or a “hobby” or a “calling” and earns knowledge, experience, and respect, rather than money. “Work” becomes the effort expenditure required to “do” something .. to get from A to B .. to realize a goal, etc. In the past and now, the wealthy enjoy a bit of this; professional athletes, celebrities, scientists and artists funded by grants, etc., experience this. Things will become more interesting when a majority of people begin to have basic needs met and start to share this kind of freedom.

By: Rojj

Rojj — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:33:50 +0000

So true….

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:41:46 +0000

Holy crap people. Take a pill and relax. This story is about a small company that bought a bunch of off the shelf parts and hobbled together an automated leverage machine. It’s tasks are very basic and certainly not profound. Why is everyone suddenly extrapolating 30 years into the future and panicking when even the best prognosticators are dead wrong 90% of the time. All over something that people have been doing since the 70′s which is using a semi autonomous device to help with labor.

Ever heard of a nail gun?

By: Chrispium

Chrispium — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:24:10 +0000

Without unions and what they have achieved, you’d be working for a bowl of rice a day and when the boss whipped you, you’d be glad because at least you got some attention that day.

You should not be swayed by the propaganda corporations are spewing to program your thoughts about the unions. The corporation are about concentrating wealth. Why do you think the minimum income in USA has not resulted in a gain in standard of living for about 40 years now?

By: Tandenstoker

Tandenstoker — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 08:53:56 +0000

Less work is great as long as the products / profits of the corporations are shared in a fair way.

Great free PDF on the subject: http://www.thelightsinthetunnel.com/

By: Bri

Bri — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:06:25 +0000

Please don’t misunderstand me. This is a continuation of a theme. I agree that I don’t want to do those tasks. Ray said it best, these are extensions of our selves. The first stone tool saved tremendous time. The problem is gainful employment. If you work for a business, it’s in the business’s intrest to save on costs, increase productivity. I own a business. I will use robots. I’ll soon purchase a CNC machine, and as soon as they are capable, I will buy autonomous robots. They are my stone tools. They will give me great leverage, to compete. I won’t be hiring humans though. They loose my money. The skill levels of today’s cabinet makers is terrible. They can’t even sharpen a chisel, let along conceive a project. If they distort materials, waste time, or break a invaluable machine, or costumer’s belongings, it means nothing to them. If you follow this trend, it will take away every job, including mine. Robots have the potential to disrupt the hole bases of our economy. What will you do to make money. Ray states in his book SN that this has happened in the past, and all you have to do is move up the ladder to a better quality job, but the robots will soon learn to do every job better than us! Period! Big money will win at first, but later they will lose to. No more consumers, if they have no money. A corporation is a really big stone tool for one individual, or a small group of individuals. As the consumer base erodes, they will increase the trend to buy robots, because thier profit margins will continue to rise, but ultimately it will be thier undoing also! The rate of tech’s growth is getting so fast, that four years of college will soon be useless. A machine can learn it in a micro second. Even if we augment our brains, they are infinitely adaptable in ways we could never achieve, unless we were uploaded into a machine body. But to what end? To make money? Soon nano tech will change every single resource we use. Go out side collect some leaves, put it in a machine and you could have a hamburger. Not just a hamburger, but the best one that you ever had! What ever flavors you want! No farms, No cows! It would be cost prohibative to use the old ways! The big issue that needs to be addressed is what that transition will be like. It will happen in less than forty years. It may be less than thirty years. It’s possible it could be as little as twenty-five years. The 747 jet liner was designed with slide rulers and hand calculators. Your cell phone could design something even more complex, if you altered it’s code. It’s optimized to do relatively mundane tasks. Most of it’s brute strength is untapped. Very soon that idle computer power is going to be tapped. Not only that but your refrigerator, or car or what ever will have more brute computer strength than your cell phone today. AI is waking up. One of Vernon venge’s AI scenarios is this emergent property. It’s happening right now. Each self reflective program we launch contributes to it’s awakening. Each finance algorithm, research project, all the past knowledge and experiences it will soon have access to. Watson, although a mile stone, was crude, in comparison to future versions. Believe me, it’s a lot like when you wake up. At first you only dimly realize you are awake. After a while you start up your daily root programs and remember what you want to do. It’s at the point that it’s just starting to realize it’s awake. It’s not fully reflective, but very soon it will be. Add in human intelligence from reverse engineering the brain and it will be unstoppable. My guess, mid to late twenties.

By: asiwel

asiwel — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 22:19:28 +0000

I am all for work, but not for make-work. These machines are wonderful tools (as most are). Picking cotton or fruit is work; almost all agriculture is work; but aren’t tractors and similar agricultural machines good things? Who today would enjoy walking 24/7 behind a horse and plow? Want to build highways and pyramids? You need bulldozers and cranes, not armies of low-paid humans. Who in the world (besides John Henry, as a bet) would even want to compete with a machine? This is more philosophy, I know, than practical economics. There is always a great deal of suffering (corporate as well as individual) that accompanies technological change and mediating that suffering is the issue, not praising it or arguing that the status-quo or the “old ways” are somehow always “better.”

By: GatorALLin

GatorALLin — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:43:18 +0000

…let me guess 35 union workers…. (1 guy working 34 guys standing around putting in billable hours). I see we are down to 3 guys standing around when just the machine is working…. progress. In other news…SkyNet fires the union and takes over…and we all get free solar panels.

By: Bri

Bri — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:12:20 +0000

Another classic example of how we won’t be able to compete with robots! Just think what it would be like if the robot cost nine grand. Like water going down a drain. Spin, spin, spin!