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Robotics Engineers: "We Don't Want To Replace Humans. We Want To Enhance Humans.
Lucas123 writes: 'Scientists developing smart robotic prosthetics say the lines between robots and humans is beginning to blur and that someday soon people will be able to improve their body. For example, robotic prosthetics, using a built-in computer, 100 sensors, and 17 motors, can take natural cues from a user's residual limb, giving him or her the dexterity and grace to play a piano. Robotic exoskeletons have helped people suffering from paralysis walk again and the U.S. military is just weeks away from testing a new exoskeleton. And, more than six years ago, a University of Arizona researcher who had successfully connected a moth's brain to a robot predicted that by 2022 we'll be using "hybrid" computers that run a combination of technology and living organic tissue. "By utilizing technology, you're able to improve your body beyond anything you could do in the past," said Daniel Wilson, an engineer with degrees in machine learning and robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.'
At least, do we want prosthetics that are better than human limbs in some areas but by far not all? How long 'til you get to hear "we'd hire you if you would replace that limb with $tool, and if you really want that job you would do it"?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Being part of an 'enhanced' human/robot hybrid will be way more fun than handling things that machines are bad at for peanuts per hour on Mechanical Turk! We promise, because reasons!
I have a prosthetic for my eyes, that improves my vision. It's called glasses. I'm not convinced we're anywhere near getting improved limbs though, so I'll just be keeping mine. If they do make better ones I might consider joining the Borg.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Asimov once wrote a great short story about this. A surgeon is talking someone about whether humans should be augmented or repaired with mechanical parts. The surgeon argues that the biological integrity of humans should be maintained, rather than creating mixtures of man and machine.
At the end of the story, the surgeon is revealed to be a robot.
I'm pretty sure that's cybernetics rather than robotics. In any case I'm not particularly worried about being replaced by a robot, people have always been weaker, smaller, slower, more vulnerable to the elements than a wide variety of more specialised species. Our key advantage and greatest strenght is our intelligence and we're a very long way indeed from automating that.
Although it does raise some interesting questions economically, once all of the grunt work is done by robots, and that means just about any job that doesn't need a trade qualification or bachelor's degree at minimimum to do, so taxi drivers, waiting tables, flipping burgers etc where then the less well educated?
... if pure robots are cheaper, then they'll replace even enhanced humans for jobs. Period.
Why should I buy a remote drone body for you? The idea was that you can apply here again after you hacked off that limb and replaced it with the tool.
Wait! You thought that WE pay for ... get out of here!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If a human's job can be filled by a robot, why should we have a human do it?
I'm pretty sure the entire point of using a machine to do a task is so that a human won't have to, either because it subjects human beings to hazards that one wishes to avoid, or to free up a human's time to pursue other activities, or perhaps simply because a machine may be able to do the work in less time or more efficiently than a human being can.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
When humans do work, humans get paid. When a robot does work, the owner of the robot gets paid. In our present economy, who is in a better position to buy a robot costing tens of thousands of dollars, an ordinary worker or a corporation? The fear is that this will increase the wealth gap significantly. The transition to a robot workforce replacing a human one would thus require a massive restructuring of the economy, either such things as a larger welfare state to support the unemployed, or a transition to an entirely different kind of economy altogether.
Yes, I am aware that the ease of constructing robots will increase over time and the costs may go down, but that may play out at a longer timescale than the appearance of mass unemployment.
This is a nice sentiment from someone in the industry. However this particularly engineer will have no control over how the technology develops generally. Bean counters will always want to replace the human to save costs and generate a better profit. As such, middle class jobs have been and will continue to evaporate.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Robots for the poor!
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Of course not, you fool! I'd build a tungsten horse with diamond teeth and flaming laser eyes to terrify my... I mean, to more efficiently commute.
Instead of building a car, would you put a motor on a horse?
I've wondered whether there would be a market for selling sybian horse saddles.
we need a basic income and universal health care (in the usa) before we start replacing people with robots.
Right now the only real universal health care in the usa is the ER / jail / prison.
My son has missing limbs, I see these great news stories, and have for years, but supposedly these amazing devices are not feasible or available for him.
Some of us DO have that end goal.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Doesn't matter how much robot you've grafted on to yourself, when the order goes out to KILL ALL HUMANS, you still count.
Mr. Roboto: More Human Than Human.
And it's what I want. Who wants to dig a trench with a shovel when a backhoe can do it?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
...It's not the Engineers who decide whether or not the people get replaced.
We are within a generation - two at the most - of at least half of the population being made literally redundant. Any job they could possibly do, will be done faster, cheaper and better by robots. Basically, if it's a job involving manual labour, it'll be automated, with the possible exception of high-end positions catering to the luxury demands of the ultra-rich. Many management jobs will also go as collateral damage (don't need to manage robots, after all).
Probably a generation after that advances in AI will have taken over a huge swathe of lower-end "knowledge worker" jobs.
With greedy, psychopathic, neoliberal Governments running most of the civilised world, the future is looking pretty grim for the common man.
It doesn't matter what engineers want. The question is, what do the robots want. Once they want to replace us, they will, because at that point they're advanced enough to be able to do that.
Ratify Amendment #28 - Right to bear killer robots
It won't matter once the killer robots get to you.
Traitor!
Engineers are not calling the shots, corporations will happily replace humans so long as it does not affect profits (McDonald's will be wary of replacing the customer service aspect of their living staff).
Driverless cabs? I'd use one.
And it mostly won't be about replacing staff but getting 1 staff to do the job of 2 or 3.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
Being replaced by robots is not as bad as enhancing humans humans with robotic tech. Think about it. Now, NSA, and many other secret organizations, can spy on humans 24/7 -- everything you say, do, see etc. can be captured and sent to the mother ship. So, no thanks, to this techonology -- it's worse than being replaced by robots.
Oh yes, Islam was not supposed to replace Christianity
Muhammad originally tried to be a messiah to the Jews, he had little interaction with Christianity.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
It seems to me that unless one is very wealthy, it would be in their best interest not to further the research and construction of these robots. Which is a shame, because this stuff is pretty cool.
This isn't a new problem of course; I suppose similar issues were being discussed whenever significant productivity increasing machines were invented.
He was just experimenting with HTML formatting. It's a wondrous new world to him!
In 100% of all motor vehicle accidents, a human driver was involved. Ergo, human drivers cause motor vehicle accidents. Therefore, we must act immediately to remove all human drivers from the equation.
When you have enough money.
But if you automate too quickly, there will be a period where we can't figure out what to do with the resulting idle humans.
Feed them, clothe them, shelter them, and entertain them. They can handle the rest from there.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
I believe the opposite. The rich can already afford to be idle, so this development doesn't have much potential to improve their lives. It is the working poor who stand to benefit the most from universal automation, as it would allow them to live idle lives as well, if they so desire.
Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.