Is the future here now? Forbes thinks it might be.

[billbo911]

Here is a fascinating article! $12K for a ready made Humanoid Robot. Kit to build it your self are available too.

[Gdeaver]

I grew up watching the Jettsons. I want a Rosie model.

[JesseK]

The minute robots begin putting humans out of jobs simply because they're "better" at something where it isn't imperative for something to be "better" is a sad day for humanity indeed. Sure, robots can weld my car together any day, yet what about a robot who replaces a grocery cashier, or other such position?

The minute humans begin depending on robots for anything in their daily routine is .... well, let's just hope people "in it for the lulz" don't take notice.

[MagiChau]

What is the future? A prediction of the new present? As of now that future cannot be now because robotics is still developing and not at its prime. Just like how you think you would be guaranteed to win a match during a FIRST Robotics Competition event but anything might happen. The path of technology has not always been predictable. It was absurd after all to think that someone could split atoms causing an explosion of unprecedented power.

Humans have been relying on technology for millenniums to progress. Robotics is one of those technologies. Computers have replaced many jobs with written programs. The assembly line eliminated the need of skilled craftsman to produce good quality products. Humans depend on improving technologies for e.g. economic gains and standard of living. The notable technology I would say has stopped in some parts of the world is nuclear power plants due to fear of destruction it could wreck if it backfires.

Robotics is the 21st century's question of advancement in technology. Will robotics be a technology to die in advancement due to fears about its potential or be embraced to advance despite the harm it can cause? The time to choose will come someday though.

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by JesseK

The minute robots begin putting humans out of jobs simply because they're "better" at something where it isn't imperative for something to be "better" is a sad day for humanity indeed. Sure, robots can weld my car together any day, yet what about a robot who replaces a grocery cashier, or other such position?

It has already happened, and it's everywhere.

The cashier has been eliminated with self checkout stations.

In Michigan (and other states with bottle/can deposit laws) the bottle sorter has been replaced with those machines that take the bottle or can, spin it around, read the bar code, crush it, then put it in the proper bin for the company that produced the bottle.

Bank tellers have been replaced with ATMs and CoinStar.

Etc.

It just happened gradually so people don't notice that much.

While it sucks that a number of low-paying jobs have been eliminated, it's also great that a number of high-paying technical jobs have been created by this automation of mundane tasks. Is the net shift of jobs a good thing or a bad thing? I don't have the data to answer that.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by JesseK

The minute robots begin putting humans out of jobs simply because they're "better" at something where it isn't imperative for something to be "better" is a sad day for humanity indeed.

Word processors? Typists? Typewriter Repairmen?

Pretty much every technology we humans have invented, has displaced human workers.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by squirrel

Word processors? Typists? Typewriter Repairmen?

Pretty much every technology we humans have invented, has displaced human workers.

Or my personal favorite, the automated coffee pot.

[JesseK]

Chris/Jim -- you're slightly missing my point, though I didn't clearly state it. My issue is less about the [generic] technology that genuinely improves our situation(s), and more about a robot that is literally intended to represent a human.

Increasing throughput of a factory or simply increasing the options a customer has available to them aren't necessarily detrimental to society. There is still the person that governs the self-checkout lines, and even on top of that many stores have increased their cashier quantities in order to account for ever-increasing demand for food (etc). There are also some things robots can do that humans simply cannot do -- like 40,000 widgets per hour at arthrtitis-inducing speeds.

As for the net shift of jobs -- well, that's a tough one to answer. Is the world motivated enough to learn what it would take to fullfill those jobs? Given that we're in FIRST, we apparently don't think so.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by JesseK

As for the net shift of jobs -- well, that's a tough one to answer. Is the world motivated enough to learn what it would take to fullfill those jobs? Given that we're in FIRST, we apparently don't think so.

The proper motivation is to remove all incentive to remain unemployed/undereducated/unmotivated/on the dole after (insert reason here) caused people any occupational heartache (or if people never had an occupation to begin with).

Simultaneously, resources previously wasted to keep people unemployed/undereducated/unmotivated/on the dole should be shifted to providing more skilled employment, educational, motivational, and uplifting opportunities to all.

Raise the bar...and simultaneously cut away the lower one many in society currently cling to, so they have to jump to the higher bar. There's your motivation and incentive right there.

Yes, cruel and heartless, I know.

If that doesn't work, you can always tell people the best way to prepare themselves to survive the impending robot takeover of Earth is to go to college so the human race can collectively outthink them.

To stay on topic (barely) - there's one human occupation I do not want robots to usurp, and that is - the military. The potential for great losses of human life is the only thing keeping the dolts running that show from treating it as one giant taxpayer-funded video game, where if you *lose* you simply put another couple hundred billion dollars' worth of quarters in the machine and start over. Plus there's that whole Skynet thing.

Unfortunately, a lot of the technologies being researched and developed now are intended for that EXACT purpose. They market it as "look at all the lives we'll be saving by moving humans off the battlefield" - a short term benefit, one that totally sidesteps the whole point that they are wasting resources on FIGHTING WARS IN THE FIRST PLACE. Well hey now, what would keep the warmongering idiots running global governments from turning robotic armies against the human population in order to better control them and maintain power over them? That is a future I want no part of, yet it is just those kinds of crackpots who are driving the technology bus...or at least putting gas in the tank.

[MrForbes]

I figured I missed your point...but I am a Forbes...and we repair typewriters with robots...underwater...at night...so I figured I could get away with it

http://www.youtube.com/user/jforb427#p/u/28/JvJD7K0724Q

[WizenedEE]

Why is it a sad day when humans don't have to work? It seems like infinite time to do whatever we want is a good thing, no?

[Nomadic Mentor]

I think that it's all implementation. Like so many things if it done well everybody wins and society is better off. If it's done poorly I hope we have one mother of an emp device of the non-nuclear variety.

[Nomadic Mentor]

Originally Posted by WizenedEE

Why is it a sad day when humans don't have to work? It seems like infinite time to do whatever we want is a good thing, no?

Think of summer vacation with kids ....unless your Phineas or Ferb chances are most people are going to have so much time on their hands they're not going to get much done. People benefit from some structure in my experience.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by WizenedEE

Why is it a sad day when humans don't have to work? It seems like infinite time to do whatever we want is a good thing, no?

Usually not working goes hand in hand with not getting paid. That's the main problem with being out of work. The leisure time is great, but the bills still have to be paid.

[MrForbes]

I haven't worked at a job for years, and I don't seem to have any problem at all keeping busy.

The money thing could be a problem if you don't happen to have someone else you can depend on to feed you.