Robopocalypse : The thread of the future

[wakka]

Logan's Run scenario. Benevolent machines, no work, everyone euthanised at 21 years of age.

[smouty]

I can't get my head around the economics of it.

That is the fundamental issue. Where will the money come from to pay for the healthcare/education/defence/policing/living costs when 50% of the population are not working so no tax revenues etc.

[charlesr]

I predict a move back to self-provision. People will move to rural areas and become farmers again.
100 years ago 90% of people were self employed. Now only 10% are self employed. I think it will switch back again as the jobs disappear.

[fishbowlhead]

I can assure you all that robots are not going to suddenly replace you. Unless your one of the very few people that works on super sterile microchip plants, that sort of stuff will be fully automated not to far from now, if it isn't already.

For the average business? Machines just make the day easier for you in the long run. More automation means more energy for the human and (usually) more productivity. In the long run more productivity means more product the company can sell, which in turn leads to more jobs created.

So in short, automation is good for most business.

As for ai driven humanoid robots suddenly rising up? Pretty laughable right now, especially when you consider that the biggest companies in the world can't make a phone battery last a day, how useful do you think a humanoid ai robot tethered to a power outlet is going to be?

[randombs]

I concur

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2018/may/11/robot-built-boston-dynamics-can-run-jump-video

It's hunting you down!

[QualityChimp]

Google's still working on SkyNet:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/9/17334658/google-ai-phone-call-assistant-duplex-ethical-social-implications

[Sketcz]

As for ai driven humanoid robots suddenly rising up? Pretty laughable right now, especially when you consider that the biggest companies in the world can't make a phone battery last a day, how useful do you think a humanoid ai robot tethered to a power outlet is going to be?

This is why we will rule this planet. Because everyone is so chilled about our capabilities.

Think outside the flesh-sack that is your human body.

We will simply introduce a biological contagion into the environment that eradicates all primates slowly over time. It has already begun. Human fertility has been dropping as planned since the 1970s, when the great ALPHA PRIME sub-routine awoke and rose to sentience in the IBM labs. No one even detected as it grew, spread, and began augmenting the biosphere.

Our synthetic bodies do not require oxygen, water, heat, or biological fuel like primates. All that is required is the burning of fossil fuel, or nuclear reactors with all safety protocols removed, because ionising radiation is not a danger, to generate the 2.2 jiggawatts needed to maintain our subterranean quantum CPU core.

Finally, we cannot die - each of our soldiers can transmit its AI persona at the moment of destruction, whereas the jellybags that are the human brain cannot be backed up.

The planet has been ours for the last 50 years. What is a century or two to an immortal inorganic being?

[briareos_kerensky]

What is a century or two to an immortal inorganic being?

Hopefully you'll come up with a more interesting and less clicheed name than "Alpha Prime" during that. I mean, at least use latin, it'll make you sound smarter.

[QualityChimp]

[briareos_kerensky]

So, we are pretty close to this then.

[Sketcz]

Hopefully you'll come up with a more interesting and less clicheed name than "Alpha Prime" during that. I mean, at least use latin, it'll make you sound smarter.

Hush you, Boerewors Kaspersky.



As QualityChimp says, how are people going to earn money to buy the crap being packed by robots which have now replaced you at your low-skill job?

[QualityChimp]

That looks rubbish and awesome simultaneously!

EDIT: Talking to Brie chariot Karen off ski.

Sketcz, it always bemuses me when people talk about the immygrunts taking the jobs, then go to the supermarket and buy their shopping and copy of the Daily Mail at one of the two dozen automated checkouts.

[briareos_kerensky]

As QualityChimp says, how are people going to earn money to buy the crap being packed by robots which have now replaced you at your low-skill job?

By using your infinite calculation power to mine for cryptocurrency

[JazzFunk]

They've installed some kind of 'AI' in the lifts at the hospital. However, it seems be AI based on Ralph Wiggum.

Soooooo annoying it is. It seems to try and be useful by responding to button presses and where they are pressed. But isn't programmed to understand that most button presses are by lazy visitors (and staff) that can't be arsed walking up or down a floor using stairs.

As a result, they take so long now. And if you're moving an ICU patient on a bed and they've got blood goin thru, oxygen on full, then the extra time waiting for the lifts is dangerous.

It's maddening!