"The Coming Robot War - And It's Not with Robots" Topic

"The last time I spoke at West Point, I was asked by a cadet if I worried that increased automation would lead to an eventual robot war. I joked that I wasn't worried about the Cylons from "Battlestar Galactica" or Skynet from the "Terminator" movies. The reason I'm not scared of these scenarios is because everyone else is.

For decades sci-fi authors have been bombarding us with images of robots rising up against their human masters. Those images resonate because they tap into a much deeper anxiety towards thoughts of becoming "robot slaves." Keep in mind the original Slavonic word "rabota" literally means slavery.

And that's why we don't have to worry about a robot uprising. The idea is just too scary to ignore. That's why we made it through the Cold War without nuking each other. The nightmare images of Hiroshima kept our fingers off the button. That's why the global response to Ebola rivaled Operation Desert Shield. Greater fear means greater response…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I wish, sometimes, that Max followed his dad and made comedy movies!

<shivers>

The real fear of robotics is the massive structural unemployment it could very well cause. This could lead to massive economic and then political disenfranchisement of the workforce. The unemployed could become radicalized and be viewed as a threat to the elites who are not disenfranchised. They might very well turn to para-military, police and military forces to control the growing numbers of redundant labourers. To tip the scales to their advantage, robots, drones and pervasive surveillance might be used by such forces to "maintain order" and protect the happiness of those who still have clout. So, it's not the robots which we should fear, but the humans behind them.
Rod Robertson.

With a career in high technology manufacturing, I can state that robotic manufacturing will not be replacing human labor any time soon, if ever.

The speed of changing technologies and the fickle demands of consumers require too many changes in production componentry to ever have fully automated assembly. Factories cannot afford to design, test and manufacture full robotics for every model, version and color of product that comes out every season. This is why there will always be a need for cheaper, and more adaptable human factory line workers.

Good or bad, there will always be a human element to manufacturing. The real war will always be how much to pay them.

Cwlinsj:
There is certainly doubt about the impact but there is also a great deal of people in-the-know who forecast great dislocation due to a fusion of computerization, robotics and artificial intelligence. See links below:

link

link

Cheers.
Rod Robertson

Rod,
You can read all you want, but I've spent 2 decades directly involved in technology develpment & manufacturing at the Director and C-level.

I know quite a bit about global manufacturing, in the USA, LatAm, Asia and Europe. Been paid well for this knowledge.

I've seen years of attempts, but products/ components change faster than dedicated robots can be developed to manufacture, especially as the investment cannot be recouped completely before obsolescence. Certain levels of automation is used, but there will always be a need for human assembly during high volume manufacturing since humans can be easily retrained.

cwlinsj:
My apologies if you think my citations were to diminish your experience and authority in this field. They were not and I give your posted comments due consideration and gravitas. However, when I walk into a bank or a more modern local factory, I can't help but notice that far fewer people are working the floor in the last thirty-five years. The massive de-industrialization in my neck of the woods is in part due to the replacement of labour-intensive industrial practices with capital-intensive production. A greater culprit is globalization and the off-shoring of manufacturing, but those industries which remained became more capital-intensive in order to survive and under-employment, unemployment and hidden unemployment have increased here and persist.
Cheers.
Rod Robertson.

Entry level retail jobs are in some danger:

cw … just for the record … I would have liked a couple of T2s in each of my squads when I was a Cdr. I'm sure many ground commanders today would feel the same … See what you can do ?