Robots...good or bad?

Since the 1960's, robots have been widely used in a variety of things. Automotive manufacturing and tool manufacturing to name a few. This has been in a span of about 40 years. What will robots be used for in the next 40 years?

I have a very bad feeling about personal assistant robots. Robots that do EVERYTHING for you. Cooking, cleaning, working, getting you a drink, etc. Now, that may sound nice...but will YOU be replaced by a robot at your workplace?

Think about it. How much work would a robot get done more than you. They can't stop working, at least until they break down. You could do 50 orders in a day, while the robot could do 500 orders in an hour. Think how companies would much rather prefer robots over you.

Now, the only bad part is the cost of a personal assistance robot. If a PAR is more than $1000 (which I could see), companies would much rather resort to cheap labor with humans. But, if robots are mass produced and very cheap, like around $100, then there is no question that a robot will replace several million workers across the globe.

I'm sure several companies would pick a robot over a human, and millions would go out of work. Robots will be used for EVERYTHING. Delivering mail, fixing electronics, driving cars, etc. It will be extremely hard for a human to find a job if this becomes true.

So what will happen? People will be out of work. They will become lazy. They will lose money. Crime would skyrocket (unless there are robot cops). What the hell will humans do with their lives while robots can do everything for them? Will this lead to the downfall of humanity?

Will robots be used for evil? Think of the GIGANTIC robot armies. Look how easy it will be to create the ultimate supersoldier. Just right off the assembly line! Robot assasins...

Think of how people could reprogram robots to rob banks, kill people, and steal things. But, worldwide governments can create the famous "3 laws" (Isaac Asimov), so that robots can not do this. But who knows. I'm sure there will be robot hackers.

So, what are your thoughts on robots? Will they replace humans? Can they be used for bad things? What do you think people should do? Should robots even be developed?

I think that after the robot has replaced the human, governments worldwide will realize their mistakes, and decommission robots, due to increased crime, skyrocketing unemployment, and loss of funds. Humans learn from their mistakes. Do you think we will learn that robots shouldn't do everything for us? Or maybe humanity will never learn anything...

Well, if the world doesn't turn out to look like this in the next 50 years I'd be happy



Seriously, there are some amazing robots being developed in Japan. I saw a show showing ones that responed to emotions etc.

Then theres that little guy who watches your kids when your out What was it's name again?

I SERIOUSLY hope robots won't be used for war. It will be a war that will never end.

[edit on 20-12-2005 by Amschel Rothschild]

Ahhh, well the government will use anything for war my friend.....

They are still using napalm (they just switched gasoline for keroscene)


Well, they are using UAVs. They can be considered robots.


[edit on 20-12-2005 by Spreadthetruth]

I don't think it can be as bad as you predicted. Although robots will be capable of doing great things that doesn't mean they will be adopted universally. Look at high speed internet, here in the United States it is the norm but say in Africa it is a rarity. The unequal distribution of wealth in the world will lead to an unequal distribution of robots. And even then if robots do become popular in America you will still have people who are either to old to use them (see old people and computers) or individualists who would prefer to cook their own meals. And personally I hope robots do replace the infantryman as it would cut down on the loss of armed forces.

Is it just me or does that third terminator robot from the left look just a little too endowed to be out looking for anything other then a female terminator robot?

I work in the auto industry, a wheel plant to be exact, and we use many robots to do the work of humans. We still have to have plenty of humans around to get the job done. Humans program the robots, inspect the finished work, see to it that the robot has fresh product to machine etc, etc etc....

Robots make our lives easier, but they do not replace us.

I look forward to the future when I can have my own PAR

Love and light,

Wupy

Originally posted by Agent47
IAnd personally I hope robots do replace the infantryman as it would cut down on the loss of armed forces.

It would no longer be a war. It would be a game.

Once the enemy's robots are all destroyed, would they send in there regular human troops to go fight an army of metal killing machines?

Its an interesting scenario. Could lengthan the war. Could shorten it without a single life being lost. Depends how far the opposition is willing to go......

Is it just me or does that third terminator robot from the left look just a little too endowed to be out looking for anything other then a female terminator robot?

*Robot wife - "Oooo dear, this reminds me of our honeymoon in Paris!"



[edit on 20-12-2005 by Spreadthetruth]

Sir killalot everytime tbh www.five.tv...

Well, I don't think robots will replace most of the workplace, people really just would not allow it.

I do think that 40 years from now, robots will be the norm in a persons home, in work places and in public.

There will of course be some jobs replaced, but not enough to cause a mass depression, it wil be like when automated machines took over making car bodies in the early 20th century, yeah there wil be people out of work, but there will be enough new jobs to counteract that.

And there will be some jobs reduced, that people will be happy about, for example, prostitution, while illegal in almost the entirety og the United States is a pretty thriving industrie, with the introduction of androids and human robots, sex-androids will be developed, which wil cut the prostitution business some.

i'm working as a cleaner in a cheese factory over summer, and there is a lot of robots working in their.
they stack boxes of cheese.

but their are still a lot of people cutting, boxing, wrapping, cleaning, supervising and every thing. robots just cant cope with wat a person has to do. i think it will be a very long time before a robot is good enough to replace even a cheese packer.

think of those robotic laws for a second if a robot did a surgery and he accidentally did something wrong and the patient died wouldn't he have just violated the first rule of robotics and now need to be terminated or if they let him off the hook saying it was an accident and realize the rules weren't really rules but just guidelines would that make him realize that he didn't have to listen to us humans and instead try to destroy us he would be the first of a robot revolution. So should robot be allowed to even take the place of surgeons after all it could to ctatstrophe

Eventually jobs that humans now perform will be taken by others. Question of time, really. But it does not make robots bad/good. We created society that worries more about profit then about itself. And all the alternatives we tried are even worse.
I foresee that to cope with robot development we will change and become more robot-like. I am not sure that these things will be considered part of humanity or totally different intelligent creature, but personally i do not like it.
However i see no way to escape ourself-made trap.
Nevertheless , robots by them self are no more bad/good then a car or ship.

Well the truth is that robot is good and bad good thing is that it is really helpfull to humans and bad for us because it makes us lazy

Meh, humans are smarter than that. Your apocalyptic fiction is far out of reality.

We would just all become robot creators/mechanics.

No lost jobs, except to those who where too short sighted to change careers

My husband is a robotician ( lol...I made that up). He installs and repairs robots in automotive and plastics factories. I've seen some of the robots at work and wow..some of them are amazing. They have replaced a lot of jobs. They still need people, but not as many. They are always breaking down, so they'll always need roboticians to fix them.

I agree to some posts: there have been robots working from a long time now.
Machines, and now robots, are replacings human labor since the Industrial Revolution. Lots of unemployment at that time... took some time but somehow human work "fitted" again in the scheme.
So the world's always changing, and a scenario like you're proposing, if it ever comes true, is very far into the future. And somehow mankind will fit, maybe as robot technicians as someone said, maybe as artists, scientists, psychologists... or human batteries!

why would you suspect that robots will replace people's jobs? if no one had a job, no one would have any money. Therefore no one would be buying. If no ones buying why would anyone need robots to produce something?

I just skimmed through some responses so please do not hate if I repeat something someone else has already said.

People will probably be replaced by robots soon. If we can show the goverment that we can be loyal instead of being fat lazy bums, they might slow down the robot production. But of course the goverment will find a loopal and find a way to make more of these walking job takers. But serealsy we need to get into shape and show the goverment that they are wrong.

Robots as we know them aren't a problem. Sure they'll keep taking a few jobs away from people here and there, mostly in the fields of precision machine work, textiles, and the like; jobs that are repetitive and take a measure of precision, but that's not a problem. That's how things have been going for hundreds of years, just now, instead of letting one worker do the work of ten, we can have no workers do the work of one.

Real artificial intelligence will be something different, though. If it's possible, jobs will be the least of people's concerns. True, mass-producible machine AI could shake things up to the point of being unrecognizable.

Robots = great
A.I. Robots = not so much...

At least not without a LOT of control built in to allow the human being to always and easily pull the plug...(i.e. not the Skynet scenario)..