Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the point. If you mean bottom of cost, that is. Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs.
They aren’t doing those jobs because they like it, they need it. Sure, they have better things to do, but step one is always, “don’t starve” right? Taking their marginal living and waiting for some mystical market force to save them is just... shitty.
Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
21–30 of 54 posts
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
They aren’t doing those jobs because they like it, they need it. Sure, they have better things to do, but step one is always, “don’t starve” right? Taking their marginal living and waiting for some mystical market force to save them is just... shitty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lump_of_labour_fallacy
Sure, all you need to do is retrain warehouse workers as nurses. Any progress there?
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
By that definition, a clothes dryer with a humidity sensor is a robot. (And I'm fine with that!)
My favourite robot is a dishwasher. Mostly because it is so different from what some people naively imagine when you asked them to think of a design for a robot to wash dishes.
Are these people being naive, or are they just designing a better dish-washing robot?
The typical "dish washing robot" that people draw does a much better job of washing dishes. It doesn't require me to do all the hard work of scrubbing away all the tricky bits of stuck-on food before entrusting the robot with the work, nor the annoying work of unloading the dishwasher when it's done. I'll take my dish-washing robot over your boring old dishwasher any day of the week.
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#24Sounds like another race to the bottom.
That's the point. If you mean bottom of cost, that is. Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs.
> Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs.
Sadly, they also need to eat, and the only way they can do so now is by doing soul- and body-crushing work at Amazon "fulfillment centers."
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#25Genuine question — is $70 million, spread across +4 different competing companies, a lot of money, for an industry like robot makers? Or, said another way, if the article had said the companies collectively raised $700 million, I don’t think I would’ve been surprised. Can someone provide context?
I'm guessing at numbers from my limited experience, but a new robot development (let's say with some sophisticated features either hardware or software--not both) is probably a 20-50 person development. Salary (in normal land, not crazy west coast land) for a 2.5 year development is 6-15 million. Material cost runs 10-40% more. So expect something like 4-10 new robot platforms coming out as a result of this. In a mar…
Is robotics currently limited mostly by money, i.e. with enough investment we could accelerate the robotic future significantly ? or is it mostly the need for new, better ideas?
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the point. If you mean bottom of cost, that is. Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs.
> Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs. Sadly, they also need to eat, and the only way they can do so now is by doing soul- and body-crushing work at Amazon "fulfillment centers."
LA Times published an article that indicates that these warehouse jobs are replacing retail jobs, and they pay better.
Even better, the warehouses are revitalizing parts of the country that have been blighted for decades.
For instance, I used to live in San Bernardino, and these warehouse jobs have created opportunities in that city that simply didn't exist a decade ago. Instead of spending two hours a day commuting to a retail job, people are actually working in the cities that they live in.
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#27I am starting to get annoyed by the overloaded term "robot." This article is really about automated warehouses. That is interesting, but is sufficiently advanced automation truly robotics? If so, where does it cross that line? Many hobbyist "robotics" (think BattleBots) are just remote-controlled vehicles. Neither have autonomous behavior. It'd be nice to have terms for each but I can't think of what would be appropr…
I teach robotics to students age 11 - 14. We have settled on the definition that a robot must do three things: sense, think, act. First thing I do is take away all of the remote controls and tell them they have to program it.
I wish that programs like VEX and FLL would do away with the "tele-operated" portions of their competitions. Kids may enjoy it, but too many of them fall into the trap of treating it all like a remote controlled toy and never get very deep into the programming aspect.
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the point. If you mean bottom of cost, that is. Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs.
> Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs. Sadly, they also need to eat, and the only way they can do so now is by doing soul- and body-crushing work at Amazon "fulfillment centers."
I'm personally of the opinion that we must prepare for a society where unskilled jobs don't exist anymore. Evidently they'll be replaced by machines sooner or later. Cashiers, warehouse workers, harvesters... These jobs are soon going to join carriage drivers and lamplighters in history books.
That's clearly a big problem for our societies which seem to collapse when unemployment raises. It's also clear that not everybody will end up as a software engineer or neurosurgeon. So what's the solution? That's left as an exercise for the reader.
What would a society where only a tiny portion of the population needs to actively work to provide for everybody look like? An utopia for some, hell on earth for others.
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#29I am starting to get annoyed by the overloaded term "robot." This article is really about automated warehouses. That is interesting, but is sufficiently advanced automation truly robotics? If so, where does it cross that line? Many hobbyist "robotics" (think BattleBots) are just remote-controlled vehicles. Neither have autonomous behavior. It'd be nice to have terms for each but I can't think of what would be appropr…
I teach robotics to students age 11 - 14. We have settled on the definition that a robot must do three things: sense, think, act. First thing I do is take away all of the remote controls and tell them they have to program it. I wish that programs like VEX and FLL would do away with the "tele-operated" portions of their competitions. Kids may enjoy it, but too many of them fall into the trap of treating it all like a…
How and where did you get this job? It sounds like my dream job
Re: Robot Makers Fill Their War Chests in Fight Against Amazon
#30Sounds like another race to the bottom.
That's the point. If you mean bottom of cost, that is. Humans have better things to do than grueling warehouse jobs.
Haha yeah, low-skilled workers don't deserve to have food or shelter or any sense of purpose in life... am I right or am I right? Guys???