Bill Gates: Yes, robots really are about to take your jobs.

[hornadylnl]

That's the great thing for mechanical guys...when it comes down to a decision of fixing the machine correctly and cobbling up the program so they don't have to do what they need to do, it's easier for them if you just make a few key strokes to cover up the problem.

Computers fix worn motor brakes too.

My current position is electrical technician. We're a non union shop so our maintenance guys are jack of all trades, not even a novice at any of them. I came from maintenance to this job and when I originally went, I worked for another group. Production pulled me back in.

I'd say I don't even get my laptop out of the bag for 60-70% of the calls I assist on and many of the times I do use the laptop, I do so because it's just easier, not that it can't be done without it.

I spend the bulk of my time on 1 production line assisting 2-3 people who now do the same job I did by myself and I could still run circles around them before my automation training. I've forgotten more about that line than most of the maintenance guys know about it.

Almost day in and day out, I'm called to troubleshoot and fix what the mechanical engineers, management, and maintenance are either too dumb or too lazy to do. That's the great thing about a guy who actually takes pride in his work. They call him and absolve themselves of the problem. And the icing on the cake is they get paid the same as I do. Damn my personal pride.

If these companies want to automate stuff, they damn well better be prepared to pay out the nose for people who can actually work on it. Half of the people we get can't meter 480 volts.

 

[gunsisgood]

Not only will robots take our jobs but they will also be able to take our guns too.
Sorry for the hijack

 

[GeneralCarver]

Human Revolution! Destroy all machines! Humans need to work to live. If other humans are replacing labor with machines to the point that masses of the population start to stuffer and can't sustain a decent standard of living... its time for revolt. Better start building those laser rifles.

This reminds me of the intro for Dune. The old movie version of dune (early 1980s). You can watch the intro on Youtube. Check it out.

 

[Trooper]

Computers fix worn motor brakes too.

My current position is electrical technician. We're a non union shop so our maintenance guys are jack of all trades, not even a novice at any of them. I came from maintenance to this job and when I originally went, I worked for another group. Production pulled me back in.

I'd say I don't even get my laptop out of the bag for 60-70% of the calls I assist on and many of the times I do use the laptop, I do so because it's just easier, not that it can't be done without it.

I spend the bulk of my time on 1 production line assisting 2-3 people who now do the same job I did by myself and I could still run circles around them before my automation training. I've forgotten more about that line than most of the maintenance guys know about it.

Almost day in and day out, I'm called to troubleshoot and fix what the mechanical engineers, management, and maintenance are either too dumb or too lazy to do. That's the great thing about a guy who actually takes pride in his work. They call him and absolve themselves of the problem. And the icing on the cake is they get paid the same as I do. Damn my personal pride.

If these companies want to automate stuff, they damn well better be prepared to pay out the nose for people who can actually work on it. Half of the people we get can't meter 480 volts.

A handful of skilled and highly paid technicians, like yourself, using automation can replace a factory full of low skilled and overpaid operators. The Japanese have been doing it for years. Pay the techs high dollars and save the money by getting rid of the low skilled folks. It is a good trade off.

Plus a high skilled worker is more fun to have around than some idiot.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

Human Revolution! Destroy all machines! Humans need to work to live. If other humans are replacing labor with machines to the point that masses of the population start to stuffer and can't sustain a decent standard of living... its time for revolt. Better start building those laser rifles.

This reminds me of the intro for Dune. The old movie version of dune (early 1980s). You can watch the intro on Youtube. Check it out.

Nah! Just build more and more robots to make goods so cheap that everyone can afford them. Need more resources? The asteroids between Mars and Jupiter have plenty of mineral resources and once we get outside of the Earth's atmosphere, there is plenty of cheap power available. We're on the edge of universal plenty if we have the courage and will to go get it.

 

[oldfb]

Machines rarely call off because a family member is sick, steal, quit etc. With a machine you can project your expenses and plan accordingly with a much higher degree of certainty. Less upper management as well. It will be ugly but profitable.

You could always smash the machines.

Luddite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I do wonder why the move to machines though. Did people become too expensive, or was it just better for profit margins?

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Thread resurrection!

Startup wants to put self-driving big rigs on US highways

Otto is aiming to equip trucks with software, sensors, lasers and cameras so they eventually will be able to navigate the more than 220,000 miles of U.S. highways on their own, while a human driver naps in the back of the cab or handles other tasks.For now, the robot truckers would only take control on the highways, leaving humans to handle the tougher task of wending through city streets. The idea is similar to the automated pilots that fly jets at high altitudes while leaving the takeoffs and landings to humans.
"Our goal is to make trucks drive as humanly as possible, but with the reliability of machines," Levandowski says.
That objective probably won't be reached for decades, despite the progress made with automated passenger vehicles over the past five years, predicts Steven Shladover, program manager for mobility at the University of California's Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

(more at link)

There's a few million jobs on the line.

Though the technology is only in its nascent stages, many are also eyeing so-called driverless trucks as a potential solution to the country's driver shortage. Operations are already on the ground in Australia's mining industry, and mining facilities in Canada are poised to be the next frontier. Alberta's Suncor Energy has signed an agreement with a Japanese vehicle developer to introduce as many as 175 self-driving trucks into company operations.
"That will take 800 people off our site. At an average of $200,000 per person, you can see the savings we're going to get from an operations perspective," Alister Cowan, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Suncor Energy, said in June at a conference in New York City.

Technology and America's Trucker Shortage | US News

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

The lawyers had be on guard as well

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/05/16/meet-ross-the-newly-hired-legal-robot/

 

[poptab]

go dark may be coming sooner than I had hoped:
https://www.ethereum.org

 

[MisterChester]

The lawyers had be on guard as well

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/05/16/meet-ross-the-newly-hired-legal-robot/

They'll be having a field day with the liability lawsuits should anything happen.

 

[eldirector]

The lawyers had be on guard as well

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/05/16/meet-ross-the-newly-hired-legal-robot/

“the world’s first artificially intelligent attorney.”

First? BAAAAhahahahahahaaaa...

 

[GIJEW]

What will the economy look like then? Even more dependence on .gov?

MAYBE manufacturers will become competitive enough that the US will become a net exporter again...and there will be enough tax revenue to support the welfare state. But trying to compete with the labor costs of societies where some people live on a few dollars a day will be tough, that and automation will happen elsewhere too.

start prepping

 

[BugI02]

Which is an argument that no one here is making. Economic mobility is declining, and the wage gap continues to grow. The changing job market will further exacerbate both.



I wonder why all those turn of the century industrial workers, sweatshop workers in China, etc. never realized how simple the solution is. Perhaps because absent some regulation and enforcement, and without unionization, the balance of power is so favorably tilted toward the companies that quitting one suck job simply puts you unemployed until the next suck job, which is no better than the one you came from.

One of the drivers of westward migration (assuming you meant the turn of the 20th century)

 

[Ericpwp]

I'll just leave this here.
[video=youtube_share;zb3zuk1qNDk]http://youtu.be/zb3zuk1qNDk[/video]