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Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

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Re: Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

#12
post #4

I strongly feel like this is an insult to life itself. I do not wish to incorporate such technology into my daily life.

When you leave for work, better leave behind your smartphone, car, glasses, shoes and clothes, then. They are apparently insulting you.

Re: Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

#13
post #6

How can you not think this is great? Freeing humans from menial tasks is the way forward. Remember when people (mostly women) would spend hours washing? Machines and automation freed them.

I really want to shout out Maytag for pushing woman's rights forward. Without all that haphazard laundry out of the way, they never would've garnered equal pay or saw themselves as equal in the workplace. Please. To think there are only positives in this change is a naive approach of the future. Sure, there will be some benefits but we are in for a world of hurt if we maintain our current social structures (at least…

With all that haphazard laundry in the way, they would never have even found themselves in a workplace.

Have you ever done laundry by hand? My grandmother did. It took literally an entire day of scrubbing.

Re: Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

#14
post #6

How can you not think this is great? Freeing humans from menial tasks is the way forward. Remember when people (mostly women) would spend hours washing? Machines and automation freed them.

> If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality. -- Stephen Ha…

"__If__ machines produce everything we need..."

People have been asserting that machines imply post scarcity since the communist manifesto in 1848. I am not convinced.

Re: Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality. -- Stephen Ha…

The solution isn't less robots. Automation isn't the enemy, poverty is.

Automation solves problems that can be addressed by people in poverty.

Automation funnels that money away from people in poverty to property owners.

There is no support today, nor is any on the horizon, for people poised to be displaced by automation (in the US).

Combine all of these, and you're going to end up with a class of people with an inability to meet their basic needs, and with no support from the government. This historically doesn't end well.

Re: Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

#16
post #6

How can you not think this is great? Freeing humans from menial tasks is the way forward. Remember when people (mostly women) would spend hours washing? Machines and automation freed them.

> If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality. -- Stephen Ha…

From the quote, I read:

"most people can end up miserably poor" == "ever-increasing inequality"

Which begs the question - is the misery of poverty due to the lack of access to important goods or services, or because of the relative wealth standing?

Re: Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

#17
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality. -- Stephen Ha…

"__If__ machines produce everything we need..." People have been asserting that machines imply post scarcity since the communist manifesto in 1848. I am not convinced.

Even if machines produced all goods, that still doesn’t imply post-scarcity. Some things are inherently scarce: front row tickets to a show, reservations at a hot restaurant, or a certifiably original piece of art.

Re: Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality. -- Stephen Ha…

The solution isn't less robots. Automation isn't the enemy, poverty is.

Poverty will be easier to enforce with emotionless robotic cops.

Re: Everyday robots are slowly leaving the lab

#20
post #5
post #4

I strongly feel like this is an insult to life itself. I do not wish to incorporate such technology into my daily life.

This feels a little hyperbolic - did we read the same article? I'm looking at a GIF of a robot pushing a chair a few inches, and fail to see how it could come across as "an insult to life itself." What provokes such a strong reaction for you? As someone who knows very little about this space, the concept of using a virtual world to rapidly train on various tasks seems fascinating. I had a similar reaction upon hearin…

After a decade of working with computers both in my free time & at work, i'm disgusted by the idea of computers walking around, even having arms.
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