gecko? REH
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of pete Sent: Saturday, March 09, 2013 11:07 PM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] FW: New robots in the workplace: Job creators or job terminators? Grrr. People being sloppy. "a spider-like robot that climbs and maintains wind turbines". Really? No. From a single reporter's story, archived at gizmodo but only it seems on .com.au and .co.uk, we have an article from nine months ago about a "spiderman-like" wall climbing robot. There is nothing spider, or indeed spiderman -like about this robot except the reporter, who, it turns out, seems to have a thing about spiderman, and like Jane Siberry's dog, everything reminds her of spiderman, as becomes evident if you google "leslie horn" and "spiderman". So some hack reads this, without digging further, and truncates spiderman to spider for the current article. In fact, the robot is described and pictured in the original press release from GE, which Ms Horn's Gizmodo article links to, here: http://www.gereports.com/go-go-gadget/ and the word "spider" is conspicuous by its absense. The robot has soft flexible caterpillar treads, which surround it forming a soft seal, and a vacuum motor pulls a vacuum in the space thus formed under the robot's "belly". It relies on a relatively smooth surface and an umbilical to power the pump. Oh, yes, and this robot does not "maintain" anything. It uses a video camera to do inspections. A modded version may use radar to ping the blades for defects, but it has no capacity to do any sort of repair. Another example of the wretched quality of modern reporting, where a sensational lie seems to always be preferred to the truth when it can garner more eyes, and thus more pennies, for the website. -Pete > From: Portside labor [[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 8:20 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: New robots in the workplace: Job creators or job terminators? > > > <http://portside.org> <http://portside.org/> <http://portside.org> > Portside Labor > > <http://portside.org/2013-03-08/new-robots-workplace-job-creators-or-j > ob-ter > minators> New robots in the workplace: Job creators or job terminators? > > Cecilia Kang > March 8, 2013 > Washington Post > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/new-robots-in-the-w > orkpla > ce-job-creators-or-job-terminators/2013/03/06/a80b8f34-746c-11e2-8f84- > 3e4b51 > 3b1a13_story.html> > > > > Today's robots can do far more than their primitive, single-task ancestors. > And there is a broad debate among economists, labor experts and > companies over whether the trend will add good-paying jobs to the > economy by helping firms run more efficiently or simply leave human workers out in the cold. > > > > > > > BOSTON - At MIT, a management robot is learning to run a factory and > give orders to artificial co-workers, and a BakeBot robot is reading > recipes, whipping together butter, sugar and flour and putting the > cookie mix in the oven. At the University of California at Berkeley, a > robot can do laundry and then neatly fold -T-shirts and towels. > > A wave of new robots, affordable and capable of accomplishing advanced > human tasks, is being aimed at jobs that are high in the workforce hierarchy. > > The consequences of this leap in technology loom large for the > American worker - and perhaps their managers, too. Back in the 1980s, > when automated spray-painting and welding machines took hold in > factories, some on the assembly line quickly discovered they had become obsolete. > > Today's robots can do far more than their primitive, single-task ancestors. > And there is a broad debate among economists, labor experts and > companies over whether the trend will add good-paying jobs to the > economy by helping firms run more efficiently or simply leave human workers out in the cold. and maintain> > "We've reached a tipping point in robotics," said Daniela Rus, > director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence > Laboratory. The possibility is to run a factory, she added, "all while you are sleeping." > > U.S. firms have already begun deploying some of these newer robots. > General Electric has developed spiderlike robots to climb and maintain > tall wind turbines. Kiva Systems, a company bought by Amazon.com, has > orange ottoman-shaped robots that sweep across warehouse floors, pull > products off shelves and deliver them for packaging. Some hospitals > have begun employing robots that can move room to room to dispense > medicines to patients or deliver the advice of a doctor who is not on site. > > Many companies see such automation as the key to cutting costs and > staying competitive. Sales of industrial robots rose 38 percent > between 2010 and > 2012 and are poised to bring in record revenue this year, according to > industry analyst Dan Kara. > > CLICK HERE TO VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/new-robots-in-the-w > orkpla > ce-job-creators-or-job-terminators/2013/03/06/a80b8f34-746c-11e2-8f84- > 3e4b51 > 3b1a13_print.html> > > > > > > > > > <http://portside.org/2013-03-08/new-robots-workplace-job-creators-or-j > ob-ter > minators> VIEW ONLINE > <http://portside.org/print/node/1959> PRINT > <http://portside.org/subscribe> SUBSCRIBE <http://portside.org> VISIT > PORTSIDE.ORG <https://twitter.com/portsideorg> TWITTER > <https://facebook.com/Portside.PortsideLabor> FACEBOOK > > > > > > > > > > > > Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left > that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. > > > > <http://portside.org/submit> Submit via web > > <mailto:[email protected]> Submit via email > > <http://portside.org/faq> Frequenty asked questions > > <http://portside.org/subscribe> Manage subscription > > <http://portside.org/archive> Search Portside archives > > > > > > > > > > > > To unsubscribe, click here > <http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/listserv/wa?TICKET=NzM0OTY1IGxlcm5l > ckBVV0 FURVJMT08uQ0EgUE9SVFNJREVMQUJPUk/o8EbTH3pK&c=SIGNOFF> . > > _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
