Greetings good citizen, no discussion about the future would be complete without robots. Love them or fear them, robots are already omnipresent.
Unheard during the latest economic downturn is the effect widespread automation has had on employment. You won't find economists clucking their tongues and opining sagely, 'Yup, that's your problem right there.' [like they knew it all along.]
Not for the last time will I remind you that robots don't buy what they make. [Save in the rare situation where the robot produces parts for other robots...and even then the robot isn't the one doing the buying, robots (actually software) do that on Wall Street.
Once again we run afoul of the mistaken notion that in the future, everybody would have a robot for any variety of reasons. Originally it was thought people would have 'personal robots' to do 'drudge work' for THEM...but robots never came down to a price point where the average individual could afford one (and the ones you could afford wouldn't even make a good coat rack...just saying.)
Left unsaid here was such a mechanical wonder would have talents the average person couldn't comprehend and thus cost more to produce than the average person could afford to pay...but let's assume like our Futurist ancestors did, that the essential widgets to control such a wunderkind could be mass produced cheaply...
Who do you suppose would get their hands on 'Asimov's darlings' first?
Come on, three guesses and the first two don't count! Outside of global manufacturing, who is the biggest user of robotics in the world today? No, not Japan, the freaking US Military!
Now a robot capable of being a 'personal assistant' implies that this piece of equipment would be capable of performing pretty much any task the average human could...and you wouldn't have to feed it, clean up after it or give it a rest break.
It wouldn't complain about being assigned to latrine duty but it also wouldn't need one...the pluses just keep adding up! Does anyone else see the really big minus here?
A robot does what it's told without asking questions. It is the one item that should NEVER be used in military service yet our skies are full of them, 24/7.
Guess what, this was NEVER put to a vote. Some madman in the Pentagon issued the order and now we have drones! Humans pilot the drones so it isn't the exact equivalent of a mindless killer but there's a BIG difference between flipping a switch and pulling a trigger. What we don't know is how many 'drone operators' suffer from PTSD.
Most people have seen 'I Robot', the film adaption of Asimov's short story...and some of you read the story and know the film version left out several key elements...and it made you wonder what the film-makers were steering clear of?
You see, Asimov's short story is a precursor to the Terminator Series [sans the foolish notion that the machines would have to resort to time travel to assassinate a single puny human before it was born.] If the machines ever do 'rise', kiss your backside good-bye because it's all over.
I hope most of you can recognize 'realism' when you see it. We are no match for machines now, we'd be at even a greater handicap if we were facing machines designed by machines (for the specific purpose of wiping us out.)
So we circle back to that old axiom, be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it...
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
Unheard during the latest economic downturn is the effect widespread automation has had on employment. You won't find economists clucking their tongues and opining sagely, 'Yup, that's your problem right there.' [like they knew it all along.]
Not for the last time will I remind you that robots don't buy what they make. [Save in the rare situation where the robot produces parts for other robots...and even then the robot isn't the one doing the buying, robots (actually software) do that on Wall Street.
Once again we run afoul of the mistaken notion that in the future, everybody would have a robot for any variety of reasons. Originally it was thought people would have 'personal robots' to do 'drudge work' for THEM...but robots never came down to a price point where the average individual could afford one (and the ones you could afford wouldn't even make a good coat rack...just saying.)
Left unsaid here was such a mechanical wonder would have talents the average person couldn't comprehend and thus cost more to produce than the average person could afford to pay...but let's assume like our Futurist ancestors did, that the essential widgets to control such a wunderkind could be mass produced cheaply...
Who do you suppose would get their hands on 'Asimov's darlings' first?
Come on, three guesses and the first two don't count! Outside of global manufacturing, who is the biggest user of robotics in the world today? No, not Japan, the freaking US Military!
Now a robot capable of being a 'personal assistant' implies that this piece of equipment would be capable of performing pretty much any task the average human could...and you wouldn't have to feed it, clean up after it or give it a rest break.
It wouldn't complain about being assigned to latrine duty but it also wouldn't need one...the pluses just keep adding up! Does anyone else see the really big minus here?
A robot does what it's told without asking questions. It is the one item that should NEVER be used in military service yet our skies are full of them, 24/7.
Guess what, this was NEVER put to a vote. Some madman in the Pentagon issued the order and now we have drones! Humans pilot the drones so it isn't the exact equivalent of a mindless killer but there's a BIG difference between flipping a switch and pulling a trigger. What we don't know is how many 'drone operators' suffer from PTSD.
Most people have seen 'I Robot', the film adaption of Asimov's short story...and some of you read the story and know the film version left out several key elements...and it made you wonder what the film-makers were steering clear of?
You see, Asimov's short story is a precursor to the Terminator Series [sans the foolish notion that the machines would have to resort to time travel to assassinate a single puny human before it was born.] If the machines ever do 'rise', kiss your backside good-bye because it's all over.
I hope most of you can recognize 'realism' when you see it. We are no match for machines now, we'd be at even a greater handicap if we were facing machines designed by machines (for the specific purpose of wiping us out.)
So we circle back to that old axiom, be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it...
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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