OMG, the Institute is already hard at work. Only this one is located in Japan!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-japanese-robots-20160125-story.html

Yeah, I've been hearing a bit about such things over the past several years, and currently it's hard to know what to think about it being a reality.

This excerpt gives me pause: "Nomura Research Institute (NRI) has indicated the possibility that about half of Japan's labor force could be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 10 to 20 years, particularly those in roles such as supermarket checkouts or cleaning." Sure, checkouts and cleaning are not the best jobs for someone to have, but then it makes me wonder where this "half of Japan's labor force" are going to work in 10-20 years. Are there any backup plans, or are these individuals going to resign themselves to being jobless? Actually, this is a very general question/concern I have, with people listing off all kinds of jobs/services that computers, robots, or other AI can do instead of a human. What other job markets will open up to pick up the increased human unemployment?

I know right? It all sounds a bit scary really. Outsourcing jobs was bad enough and now Robots will take over the jobs? *shakes head* And 10 to 20 years isn't really all that far off.

One would have to assume a more "socialist" society where people get welfare enough to live on, otherwise you're looking at a recipe for social unrest and disaster.

It all seems like a "nice" idea, but a backup plan would need to be in place. I guess this is how the citizens of the Commonwealth felt about their loved ones potentially being replaced by Synths, huh?

The vast majority of the working class was made redundant decades ago. The rich have 3rd world slaves to use as labor, robots are a logical progression because they are slaves that can be controlled. Most labor is really beneath a humans capabilites, people waste their lives working for things that could have easily been provided.

On the other hand, given how most people are, at least worst the robots will do is kill me. The people do so much worse and are basically a bunch of dullards and idiots.

Hey Institute! Replace me with a synth! I don't like people anyway.

This was actually an area related to my PhD research project.

The main reason industrialized countries are looking to automate labor is because all industrialized countries are having a major drop in birth rate. Japan is at the top, but the same trend is true for America and various European countries.

As was noted, using people for labor is outdated, anyway, and counter to the entire argument for developing automated tools in the first place. That is, the argument for automation of all kinds has always been to free people from the work so that they can do other things. Problem is that societies around the world, especially industrialized societies, have become enamored of capitalism as though it was the be-all, end-all of socioeconomic policies. It isn't, and never was. In fact, it is a relatively recent concept, historically speaking. It is also a failed system because all the freedom of choice is based on money rather than ability, and all the money winds up being controlled or in the hands of 1% of the population. This means they have power and humans still have not matured enough as a species to be willing to relinquish power in order for people to have equal opportunities and choices. The argument that "if I can do it, anyone can do it" is ludicrous, anyway, because obviously a capitalistic system cannot work if everyone in it is at the top (i.e., there wouldn't be any human resources to exploit for profit and the system would collapse automatically because it depends on exploitation of human and natural resources for profit to sustain itself).

They took R Jobs!

Was that article written by a robot?

Desdemona would be so proud.


DESDEMONA



They grow up so fast...

They can have my job.

Better for mankind to not have to work for our tucker or housing, and for society to move to a Distributist form of economy that forever disassociates Labor from Value.

Look at this as a GOOD thing, every human from Anesthesiologist to Zookeeper will be free to pursue their bliss rather than be a simple drudge (This is, after all, the Star Trek economy from TOS).

we'll either have to quit the concept of needing to work for one's basic needs,

or building robots.

edit: ah yes, i forgot the options "die out" or "drown in global bloody chaos" (or any combination of the two)

edit 2: just occured to me we already chose plan d. sry, my mistake

The job losses won't matter after the culling

Just tell me when a robot writes the next great American novel.

Miltary robots are making great strides as well as driverless cars, and just the other day I read an article about replacing CEOs with robots in 5 to 15 years. It seems nobody is safe, eh? Myself, I'm thinking of being rich for a living, but a robot will probably do that for me too...

The reality is that assuming we continue to make old jobs obsolete with new technology eventually there'll have to be a smarter system in place for dealing with unemployment.

It's actually a good thing if due to technological advancements and general efficiency improvements everyone has to work less and can pursue things they enjoy/have passion for over tedious jobs, it's just that the transition will be rough while people get used to new methods of wealth redistribution and social safety nets to compensate for the fact that we simply don't need as much human labor anymore.

humans will exit the system

Also, if we decide to learn anything from pretty much all sci-fi: Don't create constructs as advanced and intelligent as us, and then make them slaves.

On the positive side, companies won't have to pay there robo employees.

Society will find a way and adapt. It always has ever since the days of the Sumerians.

Only one problem with replacing employees with robots - robots don't buy anything. Eventually the system will crash from lack of demand. No point making stuff, even with cheap robot labor, if nobody can afford to buy it.

they still need maintenance , there will be a cost problem tough will it be cheaper to hire a human or maintain a robot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

Universal basic income. Its going to be needed, and probably sooner than we think.

What about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEjdiE0AoCU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Howell