Powerful humanoid robots will take all blue-collar jobs

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PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston The day when robots in human-like forms take over most unskilled jobs has arrived sooner than you may have thought
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ibe98765, rc primak, fisher75, schmootoo, DLivesInTexas, Mr. Austin

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Watch out NBA players

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SueW

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B. Livingston wrote:

The day when robots in human-like forms take over most unskilled jobs has arrived sooner than you may have thought possible.

That day has already arrived?

B. Livingston wrote:

They’ve eliminated the jobs of 14% of the workers in companies that automated,

Ah-ha! Not quite yet then?

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rc primak

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A few years ago I watched two robots playing tennis. Boring game since they were too perfect but they were doing it. The future is robots. We just have to figure out how to tax them so that humans still have income or change the concept of income all together. That would be something

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Master @Brian –

You know waaaaayyy more about this than I ever will or want to know. Although I’ve invested decades in being uniquely human, and working to leverage that through my activities, and that of my companies’. And developing in me (and sometimes teaching) all of the things that it’s unlikely robots will be able to ever perform. But I and my companies are very different.

A few years back I chatted with a Google VP who was making a presentation at a very special (public) event about creating “God” consciousness in a machine. He is/was actually intellectually far smarter than I. A worthy acquaintance who graduated from MIT and also had an awakening of his own consciousness invited him to the event. I asked him a germane question about his desired exploits. But the Google VP had zero applicable wisdom at his disposal about what his work would mean or imply or set in motion. His whole talk was recorded. And later mysteriously disappeared from the interwebs.

Also, once upon a time, not long ago, I had a chat with Hanson Robotic’s marketing officer. A very unusual, very smart cookie who also had taken training in qi energetics and healing. She would be a candidate for the sort of person who a team would be wise to involve in such a project. Met her husband. Watched their adult kid record the event. And I’m acquainted with another gifted alum of Hanson’s.

In the DARPA Challenge days (1999? Autonomous, self-driving vehicles.), as I drove my car into the infield of SoCal’s Auto Club Speedway to run a weekend of hot laps, I was astounded to see signs over the infield entrance that the DARPA challenge entrants had *just* gathered there.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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” The day when robots in human-like forms take over most unskilled jobs has arrived sooner than you may have thought possible.” – yeah, no not really… Nothing I have seen in those videos of S1, or any humanoid bot, has me convinced that there are ANY menial, non-assembly line tasks performed by humans that autonomous robots will replace in the foreseeable future. The initial cost, maintenance, support/update/oversight-supervisor/repair of screw-ups will far outweigh any expectation of speed or quality of work performed. Unless it’s on a factory floor/controlled environment, it will be decades if not centuries before robots can duplicate let alone replace non-stationary, non-repetitive work performed by even mediocre manual labor workers. What would happen if the veggies slicer that robot was using broke? Will plastic or metal end up in the finished salad? Will it go to walmart to buy another one? Is it going to order another online? Will it improvise and use another tool?  Will it simply stop meal prep?  Yes, some of those “stunts”/tricks are impressive, but non of it will yet replace someone that runs a weed-wacker, any ‘helper’ in construction trades, shade tree mechanic, not even a burger flipper (who does a lot more than just flip burgers). Even at $20 an hour for a unskilled human, how soon will a small business see any ROI, much less turn a profit on bot purchase and support? – currently, not likely ever…

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b

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Doug Reed wrote:

Nothing I have seen in those videos of S1, or any humanoid bot, has me convinced that there are ANY menial, non-assembly line tasks performed by humans that autonomous robots will replace in the foreseeable future. The initial cost, maintenance, support/update/oversight-supervisor/repair of screw-ups will far outweigh any expectation of speed or quality of work performed.

This is true, and in grocery stores and stores like Walmart and Target, those Self Serve Human Cashier Replacements are also allowing so much shoplifting that the stores are seriously considering ditching them and going back to human beings at the checkout counters.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Charlie wrote:

…Self Serve Human Cashier Replacements…

By that you mean the self-serve checkout lanes, right? 

When I first read that, I was thinking that there were now robots at checkouts instead of people, and the robot was running the register somehow. 

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Yes, I’m referring to those self-serve checkout lanes.  I was being a little sarcastic calling them Human Cashier Replacements.  Sorry for any confusion.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Yeah, after I got over the senior moment I was having I thought a bit more about what you said and that’s when it dawned on me that you were most likely talking about the self checkouts.

I, too, have heard the same thing…that some store chains are considering dumping them due to excessive theft that occurs in their vicinity.

BUT, that’s what the stores get when they assign a single person to oversee eight to ten individual self checkout posts. A good example of trying to save money the wrong way. To put it another way, penny-wise, pound foolish.

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Charlie

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China has a huge  supply of either under paid or no pay  workers.    With “just in time ” manufacturing  when a robot breaks down it causes a back up and  causes problems with the supply chain.

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Brian nice article ,yes they have their place. Just do not include “organized labor snarks” as I will be long gone from plus list support if continued.

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rc primak

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It seems to me that stationary programmable robots like the ones used by auto manufacturers to build your car are really all that’s necessary. These same robots can even do that beautiful paint job on new vehicles as well.  If we make robots too smart they will quickly outpace humans and when they are able to self program themselves, we will not be needed anymore.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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It seems to me that stationary programmable robots like the ones used by auto manufacturers to build your car are really all that’s necessary.

I have worked in warehouses, and there’s a lot more than stationary tasks going on. In fact, most jobs in manufacturing and logistics require moving materials from point A to point B and efficiently arranging them without physically injuring yourself, the product or others you work with. Robots can do all of these things very consistently. And if they get “injured” they are a lot easier and cheaper to repair than humans with Workman’s Compensation or the EU equivalent.

I have long advocated that an answer to this challenge is free and public post-secondary STEM education. (Free Community College in the US.) STEM is not for everyone, but it can make a real dent in the current American low-skilled worker surplus.

I don’t think Brian is anti-Union. He just likes to make off the cuff remarks. For myself, I come from a long line of Union people in my family, and I would take serious offense at Union-bashing. Please remain civil in these Forums, everyone. And try to avoid becoming too political.

-- rc primak

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