407 replies to this topic

[Craven]

Why do you think that once you can be replaced by machine worker, you'll still be supplied with everything you need instead of just loosing your job?

[Raklian]

Why do you think that once you can be replaced by machine worker, you'll still be supplied with everything you need instead of just loosing your job?

I never said that. Read my post again.

The transition I was talking about will probably take years and the risks of economic pain on the unemployed are still real. Its success requires a concerted effort on the part of many parties.

[Deadbolt]

People will elect politicians who promise them robot welfare.

[tornado64]

People will elect politicians who promise them robot welfare.

I'm not sure that's the case... look at the US, if Romney becomes president that would lead to low taxation of the rich, and less social security for the poor.
Maybe a lot of people will end up jobless, homeless and the government will bring them in big dorms who are like prisons to get them out of sight.

[Deadbolt]

When it's possible to mostly automate everything, that's the end of money and taxes for most, because there's hardly anyone to pay for doing the work, except for a few programmers and the owners of factories. Since most people are unemployed, the majority of the populace will demand welfare, and the anti-welfare block of old conservatives would collapse out of necessity otherwise the country would fall into poverty, them included this time, so it would be the ultimate test of their conviction.

Furthermore, if nobody has a living that's bad for business, because there's no consumer spending. By this point, it would be in the best interests of the corporate lobby to demand the government give people money, because otherwise, who's going to buy their stuff? Even the very rich don't buy proportionately more stuff as they have wealth, so all the retailers would have a massive drop in profits if the middle class suddenly became homeless and impoverished, which is exactly why that wouldn't happen.

Of course, by this point, home 3D printers have become ubiquitous, which has undercut a lot of big commercial industry, leaving the things which can't be done by the 3D printers of the future, or leaving big projects which require even bigger devices, so it's hard to say how much current centralized business is even going to be relevant in the same way in a world where that technology is ubiquitous. Perhaps big business will converge on mining the raw resources for use in advanced printing machines.

Eventually, money would naturally tend to worthlessness, because you could have a factory or farm which maintains itself like an ant colony, and then there's nobody to pay. At this point, the government is going to demand ownership of this self-running system for safeties sake, and you'd probably see mass nationalization. Profits would have collapsed years into this without the government giving consumers a living wage, and by this point the factories take care of themselves, so they don't even need human maintenance and a constant supply of technicians. All you're left with is the factory owner or farm head with the ownership deeds, and he or she isn't really gaining anything by sitting on it, because by this point, there's nothing he can buy with money that can't be replicated.

So, because of all this, the trans-formative technologies in AI and 3D printing are likely to raise living standards and collapse class divisions, not put everyone into poverty. It's the transition period that will give us the most difficulty, as old ways are seen to meet their end, but this isn't some insurmountable problem, it's in fact a great opportunity in technology which sets the course towards higher living standards.

[tornado64]

Ok I agree with you on that, I know this stuff... but I'm talking about transition time...I don't think this will happen before we have so much unemployment that the owners realize that there is no one who can actually buy their stuff. I mean capitalism can work without any workers, but you need consumers, without it will collapse. I think the shift to an almost moneyless society or one where the government pays the citizens money, that they are able to buy stuff will be very bad times. Politicians tend to change things from this size only when they tried anything other before...
At the moment I see more a dead spiral, especially in the US where rich people and corporations tend to have massive influence on politics even more than in Europe. Unemployment rate is on an alltime high, company profits as well. The rich people get even richer means they also have more power to change the behavior of politics to charge them less taxes and so the difference between poor and richt even increases further. I really think we will have a big worldwide crisis, bigger than any crisis we have seen before...hopefully after that we change to a new system where countrys fulfill the basic needs like Food, Houses, Communication, etc. for free or give citizens an basic income without any conditions. After that we will be in an Innovation Age, this will be a new era of humankind.

Edited by tornado64, 16 June 2012 - 12:07 PM.

[Time_Traveller]

Russian to fund personal robots quest

A Russian entrepreneur says he hopes to speed up a robotics revolution by creating a $25 million investment fund in New York focused on personal robots.

Dmitry Grishin, co-founder of the Mail.Ru Group, said the technology exists to make personal robots a reality and he hopes to fund an effort to take personal robotics from technology demonstrations to consumer products available in stores, InnovationNewsDaily reported Friday.



From http://www.spacedail..._quest_999.html

[wjfox]

[Craven]

Fantastic!

[kjaggard]

Now when my robot master slaps me in the face for my failures he will hurt his hand. Yay! lol.

[Anu]

interesting thing for prosthesis i already read something about prostesis that can actually feel like a human does

[wjfox]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nxjjztQKtY

[eacao]

Cheat!

[wjfox]

Three Ways Robots Can Help Us Deal With Environmental Catastrophes

In the last few years, we’ve seen an increase in extreme weather events and environmental disasters — costing us money, and far more importantly, human lives.

Some have been natural (or indirectly caused by humans due to climate change), and others, like BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, have been directly caused by us.

With scientists warning that the frequency of wildfires, floods, drought and other catastrophes will only increase as the planet warms, engineers are now focusing on how to use robots and other mechanical gadgets to aid in disaster response. Some of these bots vacuum up oil, some sort rubble and rescue earthquake survivors, and some help battle wildfires. Here’s a look at three of the coolest robotic defenders, both in use and on the horizon.


http://thinkprogress...l-catastrophes/

[wjfox]

The Similarities of Humans and Machines

At Wall Street Journal's CFO, Deputy Managing Editor Alan Murray talks with Ray Kurzweil on the many similarities between humans and machines.

http://live.wsj.com/...68-5D6513BA1BD1

[kjaggard]

http://www.scienceda...20703120535.htm

robots can now have a human like cerebellum

[wjfox]

Video: Four-Ton Japanese Mega Bot Fires BBs At Smiling Humans

[NightWolf235]

^^ I want that thing SOOOOO bad!

[kjaggard]

http://www.scienceda...20803140612.htm

Psychoanalise your AI. If they boom this for training and somebody ports it over to npc AI in gaming we could see this really push AI and possibly robotics forward.

[ro1547]

Ok,whilest the discussion is mostly on ai robots on our day to day lives-i would much like them to be used specifically for exploration because this is where they would be most invaluable to us.