The Robots are coming (Page 11)

kittybobo34: TheCovenant, .. lol I like that idea, a counter robot robot call device. If it weren't for immigration the US population would be going down. Perhaps that is for the better, with fewer jobs for people in the futuire.

TheCovenant: education, not procreation is where the future lies.

ghostgeek: If there's to be any future for humanity it'll need to be upgraded. The old model has been around for a long, long time.

kittybobo34: Our bio-medical technology is in its infancy, much like electronics was in the 1950's. At some point we will be able to correct genetic mistakes, and start making improvements. We will have to , to keep up with our machines.

ghostgeek: One does wonder, at least I do, whether we'll end up with our brains plugged into our machines. Think of all the information one could access with just a thought.

TheCovenant: ghostgeek, you have it completely reversed, think of all the information in your mind that the government could access with just a push of a button.

ghostgeek: Think of all the information the government already knows about you, then add in all the information companies and other bodies hold, and it's hard not to come to the conclusion that you'd have to cut yourself off in the middle of a forest to retain any shred of privacy.

kittybobo34: I know there has been some work with chips and neuron interfaces, but as yet no one has been able to make it work.

freedomfirst1797: It is simply a matter of time before our machines become smarter than we are. It might take 50 years, or 500 years... but it will eventually happen. When that day comes we could have a robot revolution, and be replaced by them as the dominant life form on the planet.

Hopefully, I will be dead by then.

ghostgeek: A lot can happen in fifty years. First and foremost, our technological civilisation could collapse. Just to see the number of potholes in the roads is to be reminded that we live in straitened times. And there is always the danger that politics will intrude and send us back to the Dark Ages. But if, by some miracle, we maintain the rate of technological progress we are witnessing now, the future becomes equally uncertain. We could be evolving our replacements.

And then there is the third way. We merge with our creations. It hasn't happened yet, and it may never be possible, but it is surely the best outcome that could be hoped for?

chronology: ghost. Like I said before, it is not just the technology, it is society in general that will dictate the speed of development of robotics. Consider this example. Self driving cars have been around for years, but they are not yet practical. But self drive cars combined with 'Smart Highways' will allow businessmen to make long journeys while talking on their phone, working on their laptop or even enjoying a nap reclined in their seat. 100pc safe and secure. The problem comes when factoring in weather conditions such as ice and snow, business and private property prices near the Smart Highways. And on, and on.

Drone Airports will also be the next big devellopment. Old disused Airfields could find a new life in places like California and New York State. Drone freight is expected to be an expanding busness. With no services needed for Pilots or many people, the Drone Fields will run 24/7 365 with flights from every and any nation on earth. But very few people will be employed in these places, professional or none skilled.

ghostgeek: About a month or so ago I arranged to get my gas central heating serviced. As one has to nowadays, I phoned the company expecting to talk to a living human being. That sure didn't happen this year. Instead I interacted with a talking machine that could understand what I said. It makes me think that society is less in control of the speed of developments than some of us would like.

kittybobo34: I think the biggest and earliest result will be the loss of jobs to robots. Not sure how capitalism can survive when most of us are not working.

chronology: Robots are not the problem for any economy. Automation has been rolling along ever since the creation of the Micro Processor Chip allowed for multi Function tools on Production lines. In 1980 America began major automation of manual Production Line jobs with large scale instalation of multi drilling and welding tools. What followed was mass lay offs at Car Plants in Detroit and elsewhere. Today Robotics are making such jobs as Forklift truck drivers history, warehousing assistants and dockworkers, and farmworkers jobs and a host of professional jobs history. Accountancy will soon join typewriter reapair jobs as history. Even many Actors in Movies are CGI images. And wages of American workers have been falling in real terms ever since 1980.

There is no stopping progress, so how do countries handle such social change? The two main roads countries can down are the Right Wing road of mass social exclusion of unemployed people and cutting and slashing pensions, education budgets and health care. The Left Wing road is one of High Taxes supporting publicly funded jobs and social services. America faces the option of Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.

kittybobo34: you got that right Chrono, the one difference, is that robots are more than just a tool on the assembly line, they are job replacers, the jobs that used to be protected. This spells major social trouble in the long run.

ghostgeek: One needs a change in thinking. There needs to be a recognition what human beings truly are. Fully functioning consumption units, something no economy can survive the lack of. We must demand to be paid for our consumption, not our labour.

briansmythe: Yeah bring in a minium wage , If there wernt so many war mongers about always going on about brave Miltarys , They could afford it easy , Robots cant take all the Jobs, Its just ant going to happen

kittybobo34: If we could balance our population against the available jobs, that would work. As robotic construction moves forward we let our population shrink, till we have just a few people that live like kings.

chronology: ghost, hmmm Old Chap, I rather think not. When the Soviet Union collapsed it was the end of the communist dream for building a world where human society progressed to the kind of world you and some others here seem to be dreaming about. A Utopia where humans live prosperously in a world free from want and where all peoples needs are met by, wait for it, automated production.
A Soviet commentator was asked why he thought the Russian experiment had failed. He said he believed that it was because human nature was fundamently flawed. People were incapable of living to a higher calling, incapable of living in a cooperative and peaceful society. Instead they want to get rich, ridicule other people with stories of religion, circulate drugs and pornography and prostitution.

David Icke has become popular in Eastern Europe with his theories of Shape Shifting Reptilians secretly controlling the world. To many there this seems to explain the utter banality of human society. But the former communists would just see David as a modern 'Myth Peddler' a kind of Guru who has as much proof for his ideas as the religious crowd have.

Anyway, if you think the world will be a Robotic paradise in the future, forget it. The former communists will tell you the future will probably see half the population of cities living in shanty towns outside of Gated Cities where Robots serve the lucky few, and the outsiders drift along in drug ridden, poverty stricken hovels.

So your future Robot fantasy is a gorgeous fantasy, but that is all it is.

briansmythe: Here we go again. The Soviet Union was doing fine untill they made one drastic mistake They dared to send a rocket into orbit. Thus hurting the fragile ego . Of the Americans In power. Who did everything to destroy it . Even threatend to blow it up with nuclear bombs

kittybobo34: I would agree with most of what you said. It is human nature. Still, this problem is coming, we have to figure out how to deal with it.

kittybobo34: Brian, they also seemed to have a penchant for conquering and adding more countries to their ranks.

briansmythe: Well thats nothing new I suppose every empire does it.America just seems to be out of control . Or they want to be the ones on control. Suppose it depends on witch way you look at it

kittybobo34: Seems to be the latter, our politicians constantly think we should do something about every situation in the world. The military always gets more money so we can play world cop.

briansmythe: Yeah exactly and now they want to program robots . To do it for them have they lost it
lol