The Robots are Coming!
Posted by freedomforall 10 years, 3 months ago to Technology
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I have long felt that robotic assistance in the home represents our best chance for meeting this challenge. There are already many automated devices that can help people stay at home longer by monitoring activity levels to detect falls and illnesses, keeping track of medication conformance etc.
Over the next few years I expect to see this significantly expand. Japan, which is explicitly attempting to develop robotics for this function seems to be leading the way.
My sister, who works in a nursing home, once told me that often a simple thing like not being able to button your own shirt throws a person out of their home and into nursing care. The threshold to make a difference is low.
The day may come when we don't have nursing homes, that robot companions take care of us. But, in the meantime, if something can keep someone out of a nursing home for two or three years longer there is a pretty impressive market to be met.
And, along these lines, with the advent of self driving cars, the point at which one loses their mobility because they are no longer safe to drive disappears.
If you find something you disagree with please comment.
shirt buttons, for example. -- j
.
One of the biggest ones is having something happen to you with no one to notice. "I've fallen and can't get up" is no joke. My wife had an aunt fall in her back yard and freeze to death before anyone found her. Someone else I know had their sister lie on the floor for three days before someone found them.
There are already tools for these things. There will be more.
Anything that can get people like this back on their feet again is good in my book.
May I add my "headshake to yours, khalling? Talk about looking the gift horse of technology in the mouth!
Jan
We already have robots taking care of us. They are called ...Predators? Terminators? Ahh yes I have it!! Politicians.
If you notice though, there are still people living in mud huts as compared to others living in luxury on Earth. The so called military living the best. Shouldn't they all be living the same???
On another note: Robotics: They already have a machine that will make burgers and sandwiches to order and make them the way you want them. If they keep pushing for a "Living wage" for starter jobs, they will be replaced by these machines. I'm sure that day will come soon!!!
I can't recall any screen depiction of the political system of STNG. That would have been a revealing episode albeit perhaps not a ratings winner,
More on that (with some speculation):
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/United_F...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui6g23yg...
Picard would have to get a productive job as an arbitrator if the federation wasn't looting from all the producers who invent things for self interest at home, and from colonists who desire more and become brave pioneers creating new trade routes, and deveoping natural resources on new worlds.
There does appear to be an obvious difference in the federation between STOS and STNG. The federation in STOS is helping protect the private interests of producers and pioneers. In STNG the federation is pursuing their own holier-than-mere-producers interests. The STNG universe is filled with politically correct looters like Picard subtly telling everyone to be cute, fuzzy little altruists because he has this powerful warship, one of many, that won't tolerate mere self intersted free individuals. STOS is a free, late 19th century culture. STNG is a 21st century Mommy-state socialist empire. I choose a place where I can live free even if I must work to survive, not a socialist "eden" where the state as god dictates what I must do.
Here's a good one!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQWmMfja...
This was a particularly bad episode. Here's an entertaining critical review of it:
http://blip.tv/sf-debris-opinionated-rev...
Yes, I know that sounds pretty repugnant, but I keep coming back to a solution like this when I imagine a world where sufficient goods and services for the entire population can be produced with minimal human effort.
You could, for example, hire people to weave clothes and pay them a nickle an hour, making up the difference with a negative income tax. But even then it's not clear they could compete with automated looms.
And at this point is there any real point to them doing it?
At some point in the past, there was no government welfare, but now it is the largest part of our government spending. Seems there is 1) no incentive for those participating to get off, 2) ever-growing minimum needs, and 3) no plan to address it.
However, with the rise of technology that may not always be the case. It's one thing to tell people to get off their a-- and get a job if there are jobs, but if there aren't? What alternative do we have?
Automation has always provided new jobs to replace the old ones, but we can't count on that continuing to be true as the automation becomes more capable. At that point we need to rethink the requirement that people produce.
Does that make us a world of moochers? Maybe. We could require people to dig holes and fill them up to get food but I have no enthusiasm for non-productive activity. I also don't want a business to be required to hire people if robots are more productive for the same cost. That's just a hidden tax.
I was on to the next problem.
And they did. You cannot make a living weaving -- except for very high end specialty goods, and few people can afford them. I know a number of people who are weavers, my wife among them, but you can't make a basic living weaving -- yet we have more clothes than at any time in history, We can make t-shirt so inexpensively that companies give them away.
Musicians have pretty much also been automated away, not by actually automating the music but by recording. Local musicians have to compete with the best musicians in the world with the best production values. Yes, live music is still popular, but as my brother says, who's the best guitar player I've ever heard, "I'm a roofer because that puts food on the table".
How can you make a living spending hours doing something that can be produced for a buck?
Now I'm in computers, so I'm not worried about my job going away. But I am worried about my kids being able to get those first few jobs and experience that get them into the labor force and those are the jobs being lost to automation because government rules are making them too expensive for business owners to offer!
Old people's problems aside, there is no doubt that robotics will play an increasing part in human lives. This year can most likely compared to 1980, when computers were first making their appearance. Soon, robots of varying kinds will be as common as pets are today.
Once the technology matures, there's no reason a home robot should cost more than a car.
I suspect we are a (human) generation or two from used robots being nearly as functional as new, but at least the programming should be upgradable to some extent. Can I code it in java? ;^)
Its only 2 generations since those early computers.
But what happens when these docile companion robots get infected with malware? Picture a robotic "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane".
And Ray Bradbury would laugh!
Jan
Jan
wonderful, over here!!! -- j
.
Another misguided misdirection from Emperor O.
We see it flirting in the picture.