Robots incoming. Messy. whiny humans need not apply.

[rcjordan]

https://old.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/xozgwf/robotic_apple_harvester_in_action/

[rcjordan]

Amazon warehouse robots are getting closer to replacing human hands
https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/9/27/23373588/amazon-warehouse-robots-manipulation-picker-stower

[rcjordan]

Chipotle is moving its tortilla robot to a real restaurant
https://www.engadget.com/chipotle-chippy-tortilla-robot-in-restaurant-132117637.html

[rcjordan]

Beach cleanup goes high-tech
https://www.axios.com/2022/09/28/beach-cleanup-plastic-waste-oceans-lakes-bebot

[rcjordan]

Tesla unveils its humanoid robot for 'less than $20,000'
https://electrek.co/2022/09/30/tesla-optimus-humanoid-robot/

+
Musk is Theory X ...and Theory X longs for humanoid robots manning the manufacturing productions lines.

[rcjordan]

^{They've been quietly taking jobs that I didn't even know existed.}

Cheese turning robot flips and brushes 5000 wheels of ageing Cheddar every week at 96 per hour

https://old.reddit.com/r/EngineeringPorn/comments/xst7uc/cheese_turning_robot_flips_and_brushes_5000/

[ergophobe]

>>ageing Cheddar

This is going too far. How are we supposed to get that dirty farmer socks taste in the gruyere cheese if it's all handled by robots?

This thread, though, has had more than one surprise. I was going to post earlier that one of these days I'm going to look for a closeup of the apple picker. My very first paid labor (age 10-13) was working in the apple orchards and picking without damaging the tree takes a little practice. Not like picking raspberries or something more fragile, but still.

I'm not really sure how to think about all this. Just off the top of my head...

Policy and politics have, for so long, been focused on creating jobs. But we are entering a world of very very low birth rates in the rich world, and the big challenge in absence of technological change is creating workers. But of course we are not in the absence of technological change, as this thread demonstrates.

So I guess there is a sort of race between falling birth rates and rising robotics (and immigration fits in here too). Falling birth rates is an asymptotic process (asymptote at zero). Automation cost and deployment are probably exponential processes, though perhaps with smaller exponents than, say, Moore's Law. Still eventually anything exponential is likely to be a shock and overwhelm a linear or asymptotic process.

Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. Up until about 1975, benefits from increases in productivity were shared broadly across society in the rich world. Since 1975, especially in the US, benefits from increases in productivity accrued almost entirely to the shareholding class, and mostly the high end of that class.

[Brad]

Robot lawn mower sneaking up on moose.

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1576115976323858432

[rcjordan]

Amazon and Alphabet unit Wing begin drone deliveries in parts of the US

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/10/06/amazon-and-alphabet-unit-wing-begin-drone-deliveries-in-parts-of-the-us

[ergophobe]

No price is too high to pay for convenience. So the quiet of a lazy Saturday afternoon in Texas will now be a constant buzz of drones like the largest mosquito swarm in history. That's sad actually.

[DrCool]

We just opened a 500K sq foot fulfillment center in Maryland that is much more automated than our other FCs. Still not 100% automated but machines do most of the product moving, picking, etc.. Looking at some articles they mention 135 full time jobs at the facility. I know some of our other, smaller facilities have many, many more people than that.

Haven't seen it in person yet but the videos and pics I have seen look pretty impressive.

[rcjordan]

Road Lining with a GPS premarking robot

https://old.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/xztwj8/road_lining_with_a_gps_premarking_robot/

[rcjordan]

Self-cleaning public toilets

https://old.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/y6eg65/selfcleaning_public_toilets/

[ergophobe]

If the self-cleaning sensor is as inaccurate as the automatic flush sensors, you better wear rubber boots.

[rcjordan]

Swap Robotics: solar panel installations' vegetation cuts and sidewalk snow plowing

https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/18/swap-robotics-electric-solar-vegetation-cuts-sidewalk-snow-plowing/