The iCub is the humanoid robot developed at IIT as part of the EU project RobotCub and subsequently adopted by more than 20 laboratories worldwide. It has 53 motors that move the head, arms, hands, waist, and legs, using accelerometers and gyroscopes. It can see and hear; and it has the sense of proprioception (body configuration). The main goal is to study cognition through the implementation of a humanoid robot the size of a three-year-old child. (Source: icub.org)
You obviously are not aware of the amount of control automation already has in your every day life -- everything from your automobile to the automated doors you walk through thousands of times a year. We accept Windows failures, although I do not think we should, because they are not life threatening. As we have throughout history, engineers work to harness new technology to improve our lives while managing the risks that the new technologies introduce.
This is the ultimate "Pandora's Box" question... For while nuclear tech could be used to wipe out human kind, this tech has a very real possibility of deciding to wipe out human kind. And we will have given robots the ability to do so if/when it happens.
It is of course also possible that we will find a way to contain their self-awareness and will... Indefinitely?
Or they may leap so far ahead of us quickly enough that we become just a minor irritation before they finish the job of exterminating all the nooks-n-crannies of humans; we may yet survive.
If they step out and demand equality/superiority how we react may determine our fate. Turning them all off in the nick-of-time could do it, or trying to do so and failing could seal the deal... "Sterilize"
In any case the scenario is likely to play out sometime during this century. How many horse and buggies do you see lately? How many large jets...? 100 years progress2 coming our way... and we need to choose wisely.
"I suspect that eventually the supply of cheap labor will fall, unless we keep the current politicians in office who maintain the open borders"
I strongly disagree with this statement. Population growth coupled with imergration makes the pool of workers in the USA larger every year. MEanwhile, advances in robotics and computers are reducing the number of jobs available for that growing labor pool. Eventually this will lead to a massive decline in skilled as well as unskilled jobs. I don't see any easy way out of this dynamic. more and more people on the dole through no fault of their own. Does anyone have any idea of how to deal with this?
So now we have to be politically correct with a machine?
We all know we have freedom of expression - p.c. is a farce and unconstitutional. It is just another way that evil reverses everything good upon itself. Only our spiritual side can keep us straight - the mind alone is lost.
Civil is the right word - we all need to be civil.
My post has nothing to do with political correctness or religion. My point is simply that the digital age does not require as much manpower as the industrial age did. I guess its more a question of logistics. What do we do with all the unemployed people?
Sorry, I was responding to an earlier part of this discussion that your post was connected to.
Time was - everyone made what they needed for themselves.
Then they specialized at making fewer things and traded with others.
Now it's getting so machines make most everything - so a big part of the people have no trading status because they cannot compete against the machines.
In response to ChasChas, the products that can't be produced by robots or cheap labor is insight and understanding. Those, and creativity, simply because it requires insight. Robotics and automation can indeed produce new random collections, but all of that must be programmed in somehow.
What I am able to sell is my understanding of systems and how to get them working again, when they fail. Insight allows me to bypass a lot of diagnostics and find the problem faster than others.
So there is still something that some of us can do that neither machines nor automation can approach. HAH!
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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