there needs to be more regulation on the growth of robotics. Elon musk has rather nonchalantly stated that the united states will need to adopt some type of universal basic income policy. why? He knows that A.I., automation and robotics are about to reduce the value of humans drastically. driverless cars will put an estimated 300,000 cabbies out of work in the united states alone. imagine all the other industries and professions where robotics will be applied….now imagine the military and policing applications. it’s downright scary.
don’t get me wrong. i see the amazing potential. i can’t wait to be whisked away in some autonomous flying car but i can’t help but think about sky net. at some point someone will use robots to kill humans it is inevitable and technically has already happened with drone strikes. but there will be something all the more eerie and sinister when the drones killing us bear the resemblance of a human and are fully autonomous.
we have entered a new chapter in the industrial revolution and a new chapter in the arms race all at once. it’s unfolding before our eyes. at a sink factory in china 9 robots do the work of 140 ex employees, and they do it better. Foxconn the chinese manufacturer of the majority of the world’s I-phones just got rid of 60,000 workers and replaced them with robots. their goal is to eventually reach full automation. 1.2 million workers will lose their jobs.
at boston dynamics they build robots for war, they are all marketed as support robots just there to carry equipment for the troops over rough terrain but i can only imagine what kind of experimental stuff they are into that can’t be shown in their youtube marketing videos. i shudder to think about what they have at the pentagon and DARPA. they are probably a lot farther ahead and advanced than any of us think. it’s scary. a national guardsman or woman would ultimately make up their own minds if their commanders went full nazi and commanded them to kill innocent civilians…robots do not question commands. what about the laws of robotics you ask? do you actually believe the military is making robots to carry equipment around? wake the fuck up, they’re making robots to annihilate the enemy. for better or for worse the battlefield of the future will be increasingly robotized.
it won’t be long before we here in U.S. need to keep up with the jones in order to stay competitive. in fact a 2013 oxford university study found that 47% of jobs in the united states will be done by robots by the year 2030. no one ever mentions what half of our nation’s already struggling workforce is going to do when their jobs get replaced by droids. i mean Elon has talked about universal basic income but let’s face it our political system has completely malfunctioned at this point. if we haven’t been able to get universal healthcare then i’m not sure how musk expects us to get universal basic income though i do agree with him.
it’s the year 2017 and we are building our own replacements with reckless abandon. we are rendering ourselves obsolete. will anyone in the future be able to say that they have more value than a robot? doubtful. robots will be faster, stronger, and smarter, they already are in many cases currently, today, right now.
we are creating a new god in our image. the ability to visualize and build things to aid us our journey here is what sets us apart from the other organisms on this planet, but have we gone too far this time? has building a better version of ourselves always been wedged somewhere deep in our subconscious? did we have robots before, deep in our forgotten history? i don’t know the answer to these questions but i do know that if the other organisms on this planet could speak and were asked their opinions on humans there would be unanimous hatred for us(save maybe dogs) and for some reason i think robots would feel the same. logically what purpose do we serve? we certainly don’t help the earth..in fact we are actively looking for new earths for when we ruin this one. we are fragile, emotional, and violent at our worst and now we’re no longer at the top of the food chain as we have created our own replacements, creating skynet.
as our country rapidly changes both politically and technologically it is time to take the reins and address these issues before gangs of angry unemployed rove the streets looking for robots to kill. it’s obvious that robots, artificial intelligence, and mass automation aren’t going anywhere which is why it is imperative that we start to craft some type of legislation now, both limiting use and some type of universal basic income measure would be a good start. also there needs to be a lot more regulation in regards to AI. AI is a national and global security risk. we’ve all seen the terminator. there need to be safeguards in place. once these things can self replicate and have full awareness they may decide we serve no purpose. i would say call your congressman but seem to always be behind the curve when it comes to issues of technology. i sincerely hope that there is someone in the government monitoring and regulating the growth of AI. that would be a good idea.
i have to say that i am both hopeful and sad for the future of this world and the human race. hopeful because i know that utopia can be achieved and that we will travel the stars…the future makes me sad because this great technological revolution is taking humanity further from nature than we’ve ever been before. i just hope we don’t forget where we came from when we get to where we’re going.
