smart machine « Limits to Growth

Smart Warehouse Robots Will Eventually Replace Most Human Workers

Robot arms are getting smart, and that’s bad news for human employees who work in warehouses. The New York Times reports that a new component-sorting machine is capable of performing tasks that formerly required a human’s intelligence and dexterity, which “raises new concerns about warehouse workers losing their jobs to automation” according to the paper.

The […]

How to Get Along with Robots in the Future Jobs Environment

Automation is creating a big change that is going to reorder the employment universe fundamentally. People engaged in repetitive type jobs that can be easily automated should consider a Plan B for making money, because when smart machines can perform a job more cheaply than a human, then the worker will be replaced. This is […]

Fox News: 2020 Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Examines the Automation Issue

The presidential election of 2016 had zero mention of the coming automation threat, so the appearance of tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang as a 2020 presidential candidate was a hopeful sign that America might be alerted to the mass unemployment that is predicted for the future by numerous experts.

Andrew Yang discussed his presidential campaign on Fox […]

Jeff Bezos Predicts Advanced Robot Hands in a Decade

Amazon has presented its re:MARS conference in Las Vegas over the last few days, discussing new tech advances in robotics, AI and other topics. For example, actor Robert Downey Jr. announced a project to clean up the environment using robots which he thinks could largely do the job within ten years or so.

Jeff Bezos — […]

Las Vegas: MGM Mulls Replacing Humans with Robots

In 2018, Las Vegas casino workers organized a strike, and the threatened machine takeover of jobs was a major issue: a Guardian headline from June 2 declared, ‘Robots can’t beat us’: Las Vegas casino workers prep for strike over automation. A deal was struck with MGM, but now the casino sounds like it will renege.

Perhaps […]

Amazon’s Reduced Holiday Hiring Indicates Success of Robots Replacing Workers

Companies usually deny that they incorporate automation to take the place of humans, saying instead that the machines are there to “help” workers or something similarly misleading. But obviously, businesses don’t invest millions of dollars without an eye to saving money in the long run. And Amazon is a top example of how smart machines […]

Trump Effect: Farmers Turn from Foreign Pickers to Automation

Farm automation has been progressing along, just like uses of smart machines in other industries, but agbots may now be getting an extra boost. Apparently President Trump’s crackdown on illegal border crossings has decreased the supply of foreign pickers, so farmers are looking more favorably at tech solutions. The transition would have happened anyway, but […]

San Francisco Supervisor Proposes Robot Tax

It’s interesting how Democrats on average seem more aware of how automation threatens the economic system of most of the world, and the resulting mass unemployment must be faced with planning. Perhaps it’s because the Ds are more comfortable with handing out cash (one suggested solution, namely Universal Basic Income), while Republicans see smart machines […]

New Evidence Shows that Automation Is a Threat to Jobs and Wages

A new automation report has been published and it tackles the measurement of a vital trend, namely the amount of robotization that has already occurred.

As has been noted here, in 2013 the Associated Press published a series documenting how the Great Recession had prompted many businesses to invest in technology, thereby killing middle-class jobs and […]

Robot Security Guards May Replace Human Workers

Many news reports about robots and automation are stuck on the cool technology aspect, but the one below from la Times includes the likely disemployment effect near the end of the article.

The Knightscope company’s security guard robot is designed to prowl spaces like parking garages and suck up any loose data along with performing its […]

Security Guard Robot Is Sighted in San Francisco

I’ve reported earlier about the robot security guard. The Knightscope machine is a 300-pound snoop-bot that scoots around parking lots, recording license plates and other useful data.

The security robot is large and imposing, although it is not capable of aggressive action against bad behavior other than setting off an alarm.

What’s interesting about a recent report from […]

Amazon’s Successful Automation Boosts Employment — For Now

Amazon’s automated warehouses continue to show how rapidly smart machines are taking over tasks that were performed by humans. A few years ago, workers pushed carts for miles around the warehouse picking out items for customer orders. Huffpo reported in 2011, “Some workers at Amazon.com’s Allentown, Pennsylvania warehouse are reportedly willing to contend with working […]

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Limits to Growth