How Robots Will Change the World - BBC Documentary (vid)
 

cliff notes?

i don't have 40 minutes now :)

robots in a documentary.

I actually just read an article in Economist about how robots and automation will put many low wage workers out of jobs in the next 20 years and how the government better make changes to the tax system and the education system if they want to ward off some serious trouble.

Of course much of it is educated speculation, but it was still pretty interesting.

Just great...the middle class is going fast and now the lower class is being outsourced to robots! :thumbsup

I don't see how that can't happen. I look at my industry. Hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been replaced by technology. Not just in boring production jobs. Tool rooms today look nothing like they did 15 years ago. We turn out much higher quality tooling faster and cheaper than we ever did and we do it with fewer employees. We have a number of machine tools you press *start* at the end of the shift and come in the next morning to a completed project.

Every facet of a manufacturing business has either mastered technology or are very close to it. Things from order picking to moving goods are all happening autonomously today. Our injection molding department runs lights off. One employee per shift moves and sorts.. A setup man changes molds. And the machines just sit there and crank out cash. :)

But wasn't that important because finding machinists was becoming harder and harder to find? I remember hearing it was a dying profession and the ones left were all old. What are you going to do with all those people out of work. The more things are automated, the less people needed. Got to do something with them.

20 years ago,, parents made their kids go to college and get a degree. The trades were pretty muched ignored. Now society is paying for it. You have a ton of highly educated cab drivers and not enough skilled trades people to supply the needs of a growing and aging population.

The rest of it is someone elses problem. It's a Brave New World coming?

You are right and its sad. My father had a friend who restored old old mg's like from the 30's as a hobby. He used to tell my dad it would of been crazy expensive to do, if it was for his retired machinist father who liked to work on them with him.

One of the industrys that has really changed rapidly is agriculture. Today, tractors really don't need drivers, harvest does need a few people(for now) to drive trucks back and forth from the fields to the processing plant. Dairy is all automated now. In Wis 30 years ago there were 58,000 small farms of 110 acres that milked 40 head 7 days a week. Today there are around 17,000 that are all corporate type operations. You look at anything in the AG business and it's automated.

When the population turned on actually wanting to work for a living, business adapted.

Let's see who is going to buy all the molds/products/tools/stuff made by all the robots who will replace the low wage people. Our economy is based on mass production und mass comsumption... If there is no money for buying stuff then you can have all the robots in the world...the'll produce for nobody...

When can I have sex with my own Olivia Wilde robot? Will I be too old to perform properly when Amazon sends her?

IF there is NOBODY alive on earth, you'd have a point.

We can be billions but if we are poor there is not much chance in buying ... Just look at the Africans , there are millions there but only a few can afford even water...

That's not even close to the reality of Africa. Sure there are people who live in huts. But there are millions of people that live in cities and drive cars and live in houses and apartments. Not buying is not possible. The way the world values and pays for things will continue to evolve but as long as there are humans on earth there will be the need for manufactured products.

Minte I sincerely hope you are right but I've seen the realities in Africa and living in a city, driving a car and having an apartment does not makes you rich and nor does the place really great...

Just imagine that there are 1000 producers and around 100 buyers. You are a manufacturer but so are the rest of 999 battling for the 100 buyers and in these scenarios there is usually place only for number 1.

Robots tend to overdrive production and that goes far beyond demand. Robots eliminate the need for humans and we all now that humans are a resource that if depleted (of financial sources) gets the demand low and there for there is no need for manufacture and production.

thanks :1orglaugh

check out a show called futurescape. We may all be part robot in the future

Mike Rowe has been talking a lot about this recently. He was saying that right now there are about 3 million jobs in America that simply can't be filled because there aren't enough qualified people to do the work. This is because more people are going to college to get a bachelors degree and not going to trade schools so we actually have a shortage of things like mechanics and plumbers etc. These are jobs that can't really be outsourced.

Add in that we have twice as many people graduating with liberal arts degrees than degrees in various applied sciences and many of those who have gone to college now have a degree that doesn't really help them get a good job so all they really have done is likely run up a bunch of debt while going to school.

we are so behind the times.....

WTF is this?? :Oh crap

This too... A lot of people study and qualify in various domains that are not needed or are overcrowded..

We have partnered with the local high schools to entice young people into the trades. A couple of weeks ago we had 60 kids from an industrial arts class tour the plant. We had 2 fellows apply for work release jobs from that and they are both digging in already in the weld shop. It's the one very rewarding thing from my job. Over the years we have been able to train a lot of people in different manufacturing careers.

We also work with the local vocational school and have interns(paid) on a regular rotation.

Last fall we graduated another Journeyman Tool & Die maker. That's a 5 year program. And when it's finished the earning power is on par with most fields having a masters degree.

If more people realized at how much these jobs pay, I think welding schools would be filled. Starting wage for a fresh out of school welder is well into the teens. After some years of experience and if they are good welders they can write their own ticket. There is a huge demand for welders.

Sex workers will be challenged as advaces in erotic haptics take hold. Initially teledildonics acts as a tool for sex workers to increase their value and improve their productivity, however once this matures you will have very convincing AI/NPC virtual sex partners using the same tools as the human workers. There will be a squeeze for sure, especially cam models but also escorts.

The automation of orgasms will have big consequences not so unlike automation of other industries over the last 100 years, and will also seep into the shape of relationships. With sex being ubiquitous and cheap, people will have to try harder to be better more well rounded partners with more to offer to justify a relationship.

There will always be demand for flesh, but it will become more and more niche as technology makes more and more viable alternatives.

One of the jobs Mike was talking about is diesel mechanic for big equipment. He said the CEO of CAT told him that they have many openings that they can't find anyone to fill and these jobs start at about $50K and within 5 years you are making around $100K.

Like you said, if people knew these kinds of jobs were out there at these good wages they would be lining up at trade schools. When I was in high school in the 80's there were some programs similar to what you have done. In many cases the business owner or rep came to the school and they talked to us about different trades and jobs at their company and what they pay. It got people thinking about different options.

I think sometime in the last 10-15 years there has been this strange shift where suddenly being a welder or a machinist or electrician or plumber is suddenly a bad thing. The idea that you might get dirty at work has turned people off. If those people knew they could go to 1-2 years of schooling and make a good living in many of these trades VS running up a ton of debt for a BA degree that will qualify them for a job selling shorts at The Gap they might change their minds.

http://themillerminute.files.wordpre...ture_robot.jpg

http://adventuresinmountaintime.file...1240501302.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DQpth.jpg

http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleim...botletter3.jpg

:stoned

ADG