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Get Ready for Killer Robot Technology.

Easy fix. Capture a Terminator, send it back in time and have it kill the Terminator's inventor. I think I've seen a movie with a similar storyline.
 
I am more worried about robots replacing people at ordinary jobs.
I see a uture with a lot of unemployed doctors.
If a robot replaces you in your job, what good are you? You're just sucking up resources.

Perhaps there will be jobs building these Robots, until Robots are employed to do that job as well.
 
I am more worried about robots replacing people at ordinary jobs.
I see a future with a lot of unemployed doctors.

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If a robot replaces you in your job, what good are you? You're just sucking up resources.

Perhaps there will be jobs building these Robots, until Robots are employed to do that job as well.

You've got it all wrong.

The robotization/automation of labor is just the means of concentrating control of the means of production into a smaller and smaller group of people. It isn't that robots allow businesses to replace workers, it's that robots allow business OWNERS to keep a larger share of the profits of their business. The business model for autonomous robots would almost certainly depend on the ability of robot manufacturers to continue to be able to profit from their product; in that case, robot makers will probably lease -- not sell -- robot labor to manufacturers and service providers and collect the wages themselves.

On the one hand, this would rapidly increase the gulf between the rich and the poor and would (eventually) lead to a self-cannibalizing economy that becomes a nightmare for anyone who isn't extraordinarily wealthy. On the other hand, robot labor would tend to give poor people greater opportunities to start business ventures of their own since they can more easily convert an idea into a business without having to acquire or train dedicated workers (they can just buy/borrow/steal robots from venders).

The combination of these two things would probably lead to some kind of epic scifi dystopia. If you think mass shootings are bad now, imagine what it'll be like when pissed off rightwingers figure out they can program their laundry droids to carry assault rifles.
 
Perhaps there will be jobs building these Robots, until Robots are employed to do that job as well.

You've got it all wrong.

The robotization/automation of labor is just the means of concentrating control of the means of production into a smaller and smaller group of people. It isn't that robots allow businesses to replace workers, it's that robots allow business OWNERS to keep a larger share of the profits of their business. The business model for autonomous robots would almost certainly depend on the ability of robot manufacturers to continue to be able to profit from their product; in that case, robot makers will probably lease -- not sell -- robot labor to manufacturers and service providers and collect the wages themselves.

On the one hand, this would rapidly increase the gulf between the rich and the poor and would (eventually) lead to a self-cannibalizing economy that becomes a nightmare for anyone who isn't extraordinarily wealthy. On the other hand, robot labor would tend to give poor people greater opportunities to start business ventures of their own since they can more easily convert an idea into a business without having to acquire or train dedicated workers (they can just buy/borrow/steal robots from venders).

The combination of these two things would probably lead to some kind of epic scifi dystopia. If you think mass shootings are bad now, imagine what it'll be like when pissed off rightwingers figure out they can program their laundry droids to carry assault rifles.
I am not that pessimistic about robot economy. Robot will change prices of goods and services significantly. Also, I am not buying your argument about control concentration on means of production, i think opposite could happen, production will become so cheap and uncomplicated that small businesses could make most of the stuff which is today is made by multibillion corporations.
 
And if one robot is as productive as 50 humans but only requires 5 for upkeep and maintenance, what do the other 45 do?

They can be used for target practice. Just because the weapons systems are on a robot doesn't mean that they suddenly don't need calibration from time to time. It's called quality control and it's what lets your killer robots win the fight against the other guy's killer robots.

Oh, a lot of this stuff is self-calibrating now. A weapon system can switch back and forth from tracking the target (you) to tracking the first few rounds being fired at the target (again, you) and adjust accordingly. Your only hope is to serpentine.
 
You've got it all wrong.

The robotization/automation of labor is just the means of concentrating control of the means of production into a smaller and smaller group of people. It isn't that robots allow businesses to replace workers, it's that robots allow business OWNERS to keep a larger share of the profits of their business. The business model for autonomous robots would almost certainly depend on the ability of robot manufacturers to continue to be able to profit from their product; in that case, robot makers will probably lease -- not sell -- robot labor to manufacturers and service providers and collect the wages themselves.

On the one hand, this would rapidly increase the gulf between the rich and the poor and would (eventually) lead to a self-cannibalizing economy that becomes a nightmare for anyone who isn't extraordinarily wealthy. On the other hand, robot labor would tend to give poor people greater opportunities to start business ventures of their own since they can more easily convert an idea into a business without having to acquire or train dedicated workers (they can just buy/borrow/steal robots from venders).

The combination of these two things would probably lead to some kind of epic scifi dystopia. If you think mass shootings are bad now, imagine what it'll be like when pissed off rightwingers figure out they can program their laundry droids to carry assault rifles.
I am not that pessimistic about robot economy. Robot will change prices of goods and services significantly. Also, I am not buying your argument about control concentration on means of production, i think opposite could happen, production will become so cheap and uncomplicated that small businesses could make most of the stuff which is today is made by multibillion corporations.

But without a workforce who will buy them? Cube dwellers?
 
But without a workforce who will buy them? Cube dwellers?
Nobody, that's why your theory is no good. Robots will make complex manufacturing and services dirt cheap/efficient. Most of the material stuff will be pretty much free because of that. The main problem I see with this is that most of the current gene pool people are incapable to have so much free time.
 
But without a workforce who will buy them? Cube dwellers?
Nobody, that's why your theory is no good. Robots will make complex manufacturing and services dirt cheap/efficient. Most of the material stuff will be pretty much free because of that. The main problem I see with this is that most of the current gene pool people are incapable to have so much free time.

Must keep them occupied then. Train them as gladiators.
 
Nobody, that's why your theory is no good. Robots will make complex manufacturing and services dirt cheap/efficient. Most of the material stuff will be pretty much free because of that. The main problem I see with this is that most of the current gene pool people are incapable to have so much free time.

Must keep them occupied then. Train them as gladiators.
Good luck with that.
 
ZiprHead's link with its title: Robot kills man at Volkswagen plant in Frankfurt, Germany | Daily Mail Online. "The 22-year-old man was picked up and crushed by an automated arm while working on the production line." Industrial robots are still very dumb machines, like that mechanical arm.

As automation and artificial intelligence continue to advance, we risk putting large numbers of people out of work, and we may already have started to do so. I've seen discussions of a "post-work society", like this: A World Without Work - The Atlantic.

I suspect that many right-wingers will gloat about how many losers and failures will be put out of work, until they themselves get put out of work. Then it will become a left-wing plot against all that is good.
 
But without a workforce who will buy them? Cube dwellers?
Nobody, that's why your theory is no good. Robots will make complex manufacturing and services dirt cheap/efficient.
Alot of those services are ALREADY dirty cheap and efficient. Some of the most expensive products on the market right now are manufactured by third-world sweatshop labor and sold with a 900% markup. This isn't going to change when the sweatshop workers are replaced by robots.

There's also the fact that manufacturers of labor robots will be well aware of the value of their products; they aren't going to be selling the ROBOTS cheaply either.

The pool of actual buying power will contract until it is concentrated into a group of people more and more closely related to the investor class.
 
Nobody, that's why your theory is no good. Robots will make complex manufacturing and services dirt cheap/efficient.
Alot of those services are ALREADY dirty cheap and efficient. Some of the most expensive products on the market right now are manufactured by third-world sweatshop labor and sold with a 900% markup. This isn't going to change when the sweatshop workers are replaced by robots.

There's also the fact that manufacturers of labor robots will be well aware of the value of their products; they aren't going to be selling the ROBOTS cheaply either.

The pool of actual buying power will contract until it is concentrated into a group of people more and more closely related to the investor class.
Competition will not allow to keep robots expensive. I think the opposite to what you think will happen. Investor class will contract. Most of the manufacturing would not require much logistics and will be very local. Conventional capitalists would have no use in the future because they will be replaced by robots first.
 
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