See some funny things living in the city of the future, I thought these things were just some sort of Open University science project.

https://www.starship.xyz

Turns out they are delivering takeaways & shopping

Cabbies getting upset about Uber are in for a shock,

How long before there’s a Butlerian Jihad ?

How many times will the company behind that get fed up of the robot wheelbarrows being thrown in canal / wheelie bin / back of truck …?

Robots do my job. I go mountain biking. Seems ok to me.

Was thinking the same, Matt.

Pick it up, carry it off.

The new version of students collecting traffic signs and cones on the way back from pub…
You could have a game of curling with them.

Students would just line up a triangle of plastic cups on their top and play a more advanced version of beer pong with them.

I actually think all this stuff is brilliant. I sometimes wish I hadn’t transferred out of my AI course to philosophy back in 2001…

It’s going to change the world, and a shit ton of people are going to find themselves left on the scrap heap.

I guess the smart move is retraining as a robot mechanic. A really smart move is building the robots. The smartest move is patenting the robot that can build and fix the other robots.

But then, with robots, why would we need money anymore?

But do we think we’ll move into a world of leisure and intellectual pursuits? It’s what we were promised back in the industrial revolution.
I doubt it. The idea, like communism, misunderstands humans. Casts them in too noble a light instead of the grubby little things we are.

If your job <b><i>can</i></b> be done by a robot, it’s probably not that good a job as you think it is…

Same as every other progression of technology. This will be no different.

Best robot I have seen demonstrated recently was one that you could teach basic pick and place by showing it the item  and doing a few guided runs. No programming required. Cost. £26k. Not that much different from employing a minimum wage worker after all tax, admin etc is taken into account

Robots do my job. I go mountain biking. Seems ok to me.

But you’re not going to be able to afford said mtbs, because that robot, (or more accurately, it’s owner), is getting your salary now…

Many low skilled jobs have already gone, how many factories employ labourers or broom pushers these days. Forklifts and floor sweepers put paid to those sorts of manual jobs years ago.

Many low skilled jobs have already gone, how many factories employ labourers or broom pushers these days. Forklifts and floor sweepers put paid to those sorts of manual jobs years ago.

That’s the point with this stuff though, as AI comes closer, it’s not just the low skilled jobs. it’s YOUR job, and MY job.

What happens then?

I guess the smart move is retraining as a robot mechanic. A really smart move is building the robots. The smartest move is patenting the robot that can build and fix the other robots

The even smarter move is to become a robot! That way you get to keep your job.

(Quite sweary…)

That’s the point with this stuff though, as AI comes closer, it’s not just the low skilled jobs. it’s YOUR job, and MY job.

What happens then?

A lot of people seem scared, but surely goods and services become so cheap that we don’t need to earn as much. It’s just a logical extension of exactly where we are now. We no longer need 11 year olds to be running around under dangerous spinning machines and that’s a good thing.

What happens then?

Perhaps we will all be working in the service industry. Unless we have some sort of utopian society where everything is free manufacturing companies will have to have people who can actually buy their products so ergo we will all have to be earning money somehow.

Universal basic income? Though its logical antecedent is to dispense with money. Once the robots figure out how to synthesise resources

but surely goods and services become so cheap that we don’t need to earn as much.

Isn’t this just incredibly naïve though? What possible incentive will the owners of the robots/industrial processes that make people redundant have to share their increased wealth and power? They have no responsibility to the workers (costs) that they have shed, any more than Asda do to the checkout operator they would have employed had they not conned their customers into doing the job for them…

The robots I have come into contact with, and I work in an industry that is heavily automated, are not reliable enough without human supervision. I agree that the time will come when they are reliable, but what is in the market place, or more precisely, what is being used in industry, is not much better than it was 15-20 years ago.

The line from Terminator:

It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop… ever, until you are dead!

All very well and good, but we can’t make an automated forklift truck drive around a warehouse and pick up the correct box ATM. It all relies on all of the operating systems to work seemlessly. Unfortunately the systems manufaturers seem to think Windows XP is perfectly fine for the job.

It will happen one day, and we’ve come a long way in a short space of time, but we are a long way off yet.

I always find it odd that people think the cost savings will be past on to us the consumer and not just make the corporation more profitable, seems to me that robots and automation will just accelerate wealth transfer from the many to the few rather than liberate us to pursue a life of leisure and unburden us from work

It’s not fork lift operators, shelf stackers or even Uber drivers that will be the first to go extinct. It will be those in call centres, whether in Sheffield or Mumbai. With voice recognition software getting so advanced and ubiquitous why would you need a 1,000 person call centre when a single computer will do 99% of the work. In as little as five years time I can see that job disappear.

Isn’t this just incredibly naïve though? What possible incentive will the owners of the robots/industrial processes that make people redundant have to share their increased wealth and power? They have no responsibility to the workers (costs) that they have shed, any more than Asda do to the checkout operator they would have employed had they not conned their customers into doing the job for them…

I see it as just a logical extension of where we are now. We could live incredible cheaply if we wanted. The fact we choose not to and instead live in increased luxury, consuming and disposing of much more, is an indication that that trend will continue into future.

I always find it odd that people think the cost savings will be past on to us the consumer

But don’t we see that already? There are all sorts of robots and automation involved in food and goods manufacturing and distribution. Essential goods have never been cheaper compared to income as they are now.

The real problems lie elsewhere – with land ownership, controlling of building, etc, etc.

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”>seadog101
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If your job <b><i>can</i></b> be done by a robot, it’s probably not that good a job as you think it is…

I’m not sure if that’s an attempt at humour but do you really think Tesco delivery drivers or taxi drivers are mistakenly believing they have great jobs? Regardless, hundreds of thousands of people make a living by driving something and automation poses a very real threat to that.

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It’s going to change the world, and a shit ton of people are going to find themselves left on the scrap heap.

Yeah, right, of course it is.
Maybe.
One day.
I can remember reading an article about this subject, although it was more about automated production, but much the same argument, in the NME around the mid-60’s, and the conclusion was it was inevitable.
As far as I can see nothing much has really changed, monotonous production-line jobs like car and machine assembly are automated, but warehouses seem to have taken those jobs.
Pretty sure there will always be a place for human involvement, robots will be too costly.

Exactly, it’s just another tool. We have used tools for centuries and constantly improve on them. Various Industries have had massive cuts in labour force throughout history. Nothing stays the same. We just invent new industries and jobs.

It’s not fork lift operators, shelf stackers or even Uber drivers that will be the first to go extinct. It will be those in call centres, whether in Sheffield or Mumbai. With voice recognition software getting so advanced and ubiquitous why would you need a 1,000 person call centre when a single computer will do 99% of the work. In as little as five years time I can see that job disappear.

this has already happened to some extent. Many of the places I call are automated unless it is a really tough problem. The internet also cuts out many of these jobs.

saw a robot security system the other day. It is a very posh area so I imagine they work well enough.

times change and the jobs we do will change.

It’s the middle class middle management jobs that are more likely to go where AI can do 90% of the analysis and decision making.  ‘Robots’ I.e computers, are better at thinking.  Easier to leave humans to the fine motor skills. IBM already have it with Watson.

‘We can’t get rid of Dave he’s been working in x for 30 years no one knows x like Dave.  He’s a wizard.’ Just get Ai to shadow Dave’s every report, email and decision for 10 years (5, 4, 3? Less?) then it’s ‘**** off dave we know what you do now’

google Death of the middle class. Big problem for western democracy when there’s no upward mobility, no dream to sell.

Middle management jobs have always been very precarious, departments moving merging etc