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Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

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Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#21

Post by JoeAltmaier »

trhway wrote: post #13
Crito wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ultimately better education isn't going to be good enough. 100 workers replaced by a robot won't all get 100 jobs fixing or making that robot. Buggy-whip factory workers may have found new jobs in car factories, but it would be a mistake to assume that is how things will always play out. Unless we want serious societal unrest, I am convinced that we need to get something like basic income off the ground sooner rather…

>100 workers replaced by a robot won't all get 100 jobs fixing or making that robot. they will get jobs servicing each other as doctors, teachers, nurses, lawyers, soldiers, playwriters, government clerks/officers, etc... Basically actively employed in a re-distribution of the products made by the robots. Government for example one can see as an instance of such basic income program (it just comes with such strings a…

That's optimistic! Why aren't they doing that now, then? Not the right training, or no job available? Why is that going to suddenly change when McD's starts automating the driveup window?

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#22

Post by NickNameNick »

rhino369 wrote: post #8
merger wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quadcopter Drones are just not viable for delivery with current battery technology. Maximum lift is a couple of pounds for 15-20 minutes of flight. Wide use of overhead power lines in cities makes drone delivery unsafe in cities. Rural areas could make sense, lots of open space for landing, sparse population and long drives for drivers,straightforward navigation and obstacle avoidance. But that's not something Quadco…

Are gasoline quadcopters viable?

Depends what you want to do,

Gas engines are heavy, compared to electric motors and lithium batteries, so for modest endurance flights, electric works out better now, but for long endurance flights gas or diesel would be better.

Curtis youngblood demo'd a nitromethane powered quad as seen here

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/curtis-youngblood-single...

I can't imagine anyone would use a nitro powered platform for any commercial use, the fuel is too expensive and the motors require too much maintenance.

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#23

Post by grandalf »

startupfounder wrote: post #3

I have mixed feelings about the rapid pace that technology is replacing human jobs. As a consumer I couldn't be happier about getting things delivered faster and higher quality experiences with sub 1 hour delivery. Across the board technology companies are replacing humans and consolidating services. My concern comes when I think about the accelerating rate that technology is replacing human jobs faster than humans c…

It means that human labor can be put to more productive use. Would you be happy delivering packages all day? Why would you assume someone else would be?

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#24

Post by vijayr »

serge2k wrote: post #4
startupfounder wrote: post #3

I have mixed feelings about the rapid pace that technology is replacing human jobs. As a consumer I couldn't be happier about getting things delivered faster and higher quality experiences with sub 1 hour delivery. Across the board technology companies are replacing humans and consolidating services. My concern comes when I think about the accelerating rate that technology is replacing human jobs faster than humans c…

We shouldn't be impeding progress to save jobs. I believe an ultimate goal should be to reach the point where people don't need jobs.

I wonder the suffering that humanity has to go through before we reach a stage where we don't need jobs (assuming it is even possible to reach that stage). If we can replace human workers systematically, thoughtfully and steadily with the goal of freeing humans from work (at least most of it), that would be awesome. But I can't think of a single leader/country who is that forward thinking and smart. Every new technology (self driving cars for example) is going to very quickly replace humans, and nobody is going care about those displaced humans and that is going to be a big problem.

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#25

Post by grandalf »

serge2k wrote: post #4
startupfounder wrote: post #3

I have mixed feelings about the rapid pace that technology is replacing human jobs. As a consumer I couldn't be happier about getting things delivered faster and higher quality experiences with sub 1 hour delivery. Across the board technology companies are replacing humans and consolidating services. My concern comes when I think about the accelerating rate that technology is replacing human jobs faster than humans c…

We shouldn't be impeding progress to save jobs. I believe an ultimate goal should be to reach the point where people don't need jobs.

That's a form of utopia I find extremely fascinating. Like it or not we (the animals called humans) need meaning in our lives, and (also like it or not) work provides many with meaning or at least the illusion of it or some kind of distraction... the need for meaning would likely become much more acute if nobody needed to work.

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#26

Post by merger »

trhway wrote: post #10
merger wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quadcopter Drones are just not viable for delivery with current battery technology. Maximum lift is a couple of pounds for 15-20 minutes of flight. Wide use of overhead power lines in cities makes drone delivery unsafe in cities. Rural areas could make sense, lots of open space for landing, sparse population and long drives for drivers,straightforward navigation and obstacle avoidance. But that's not something Quadco…

>Quadcopter Drones are just not viable for delivery with current battery technology. AMZN can allow itself to implement infrastructure/process to use something like Al metal-air cells. Stick in, stick out, sent resulting Al oxide to re-processing. You'll get efficiency and range of at least gas engine without mess/maintenance. There are more advanced schemas available (like potassium based - more energy dense, easier…

Something just tells me transportation is not going to be the industry revolutionized by drones. I'm sure they'll revolutionize another industry, and another tech will revolutionize tansportation.

I guess at least companies are dreaming again and trying crazy ideas, aka "moonshots".

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#27

Post by trhway »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #21
trhway wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>100 workers replaced by a robot won't all get 100 jobs fixing or making that robot. they will get jobs servicing each other as doctors, teachers, nurses, lawyers, soldiers, playwriters, government clerks/officers, etc... Basically actively employed in a re-distribution of the products made by the robots. Government for example one can see as an instance of such basic income program (it just comes with such strings a…

That's optimistic! Why aren't they doing that now, then? Not the right training, or no job available? Why is that going to suddenly change when McD's starts automating the driveup window?

it wasn't optimism really :) People in general aren't happy for changes. I've been through a country size systemic change in economy - USSR 25 years ago - when suddenly many jobs disappeared (or salary for those jobs disappeared). In a bankrupt country of collapsed economy it wasn't pretty obviously. Yet, there opened new possibilities and people who was open to change, they adjusted. The need for a welder on Navy destroyer disappeared, yet a need for an individual entrepreneur in retail appeared, etc...

(The opening a this book describes it pretty artistically. It is a mental shift one is forced to make. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_%22%D0%9F%22 )

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#28

Post by hayksaakian »

startupfounder wrote: post #3

I have mixed feelings about the rapid pace that technology is replacing human jobs. As a consumer I couldn't be happier about getting things delivered faster and higher quality experiences with sub 1 hour delivery. Across the board technology companies are replacing humans and consolidating services. My concern comes when I think about the accelerating rate that technology is replacing human jobs faster than humans c…

I would prefer a world that rewards people who pro-actively re-educate themselves.

At the very least, it punishes people with a "fixed" world view.

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#29

Post by cmurf »

serge2k wrote: post #4
startupfounder wrote: post #3

I have mixed feelings about the rapid pace that technology is replacing human jobs. As a consumer I couldn't be happier about getting things delivered faster and higher quality experiences with sub 1 hour delivery. Across the board technology companies are replacing humans and consolidating services. My concern comes when I think about the accelerating rate that technology is replacing human jobs faster than humans c…

We shouldn't be impeding progress to save jobs. I believe an ultimate goal should be to reach the point where people don't need jobs.

OK. But what's your proposal for how they get food, clothing, living space? The labor portion of food, clothing, shelter being automated only eliminated a part of their cost. They still have a cost, so if people don't have jobs, how do they continue to acquire the things they need to live?

Re: Amazon Can Now Test Its Delivery Drones in the U.S

#30

Post by jsprogrammer »

manachar wrote: post #19
startupfounder wrote: post #3

I have mixed feelings about the rapid pace that technology is replacing human jobs. As a consumer I couldn't be happier about getting things delivered faster and higher quality experiences with sub 1 hour delivery. Across the board technology companies are replacing humans and consolidating services. My concern comes when I think about the accelerating rate that technology is replacing human jobs faster than humans c…

If you see a human doing something it's only because it's too expensive for a robot/machine/software to do it. Delightfully, robot comes from a Czech word originating in "hard work, servitude, serfdom". Basically a slave. Any business looking to drive down costs push their human components as close to slavery as is allowable by law or acceptable to the workers. So when people fight to preserve human jobs in say, fast…

Why would one need to 'make profits' in a post-employment world?
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