Robots, manufacturing, middle class, what I kept saying for years
 

replying to Ignoramus19840 , passerby wrote:
ignoramus19840 wrote:
And the ruling class will be shrinking, with its lower rungs becoming
underclass.


I'm not sure exactly what you've been saying specifically about robotics all
these years but this is nothing new - open any trade journal from the 80-s,
they are full of doom and gloom predictions about robots taking over. Well,
that and the robotics magazines full of elation about good times coming for
whoever was smart enough to get on the robotics bandwagon early enough. 30
years later and neither view quite materialized.

James Cameron didn't pull the Terminator idea out of thin air- it was the
prevailing "common sense" back then, robots were supposed to take over. Makes
you wonder why they didn't... The suckers require a lot of *manual* work to
get and then keep them going. If there's really anything like a true
resurgence of the robotics enthusiasm of the 80s, it means more jobs, not
less. Good paying jobs, too. Manufacturing, sales, installation, programming,
maintenance, repair - robots need a lot of work only (trained) humans can do!

--
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Robots, manufacturing, middle class, what I kept saying foryears
 

On Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:18:02 +0000, passerby wrote:

replying to Ignoramus19840 , passerby wrote:
ignoramus19840 wrote:
And the ruling class will be shrinking, with its lower rungs becoming
underclass.


I'm not sure exactly what you've been saying specifically about robotics
all these years but this is nothing new - open any trade journal from
the 80-s, they are full of doom and gloom predictions about robots
taking over. Well, that and the robotics magazines full of elation about
good times coming for whoever was smart enough to get on the robotics
bandwagon early enough. 30 years later and neither view quite
materialized.

James Cameron didn't pull the Terminator idea out of thin air- it was
the prevailing "common sense" back then, robots were supposed to take
over. Makes you wonder why they didn't... The suckers require a lot of
*manual* work to get and then keep them going. If there's really
anything like a true resurgence of the robotics enthusiasm of the 80s,
it means more jobs, not less. Good paying jobs, too. Manufacturing,
sales, installation, programming, maintenance, repair - robots need a
lot of work only (trained) humans can do!

What will happen is that the economy will adjust itself as different
skills become relevant.

How this plays out in the long term is unknown to me, and I suspect
unknown to the rest of us, too. However, that won't keep everyone from
making a mental roll of the dice now and guessing, with the winner being
acclaimed as "really smart" in 20 years when it turns out that their
random guess happened to be correct.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com