http://wtfrly.com/2014/05/23/the-robots-are-coming-and-they-are-replacing-warehouse-workers-and-fast-food-employees/
> The Robots Are Coming, And They Are Replacing Warehouse Workers And Fast Food > Employees > There are already more than 101 million working age Americans that are not > employed and 20 percent of the families in the entire country do not have a > single member that has a job. So what in the world are we going to do when > robots start taking millions upon millions more of our jobs? Thanks to > technology, the balance of power between employers and workers in this > country is shifting dramatically in favor of the employers. These days, many > employers are wondering why they are dealing with so many human worker > “headaches” when they can just use technology to get the same tasks done > instead. When you replace a human worker with a robot, you solve a whole > bunch of problems. Robots never take a day off, they never get tired, they > never get sick, they never complain, they never show up late, they never > waste time on the Internet and they always do what you tell them to do. In > addition, robotic technology has advanced to the point where it is actually > cheaper to buy robots than it is to hire humans for a vast variety of > different tasks. From the standpoint of societal efficiency, this is a good > thing. But what happens when robots are able to do just about everything > less expensively and more efficiently than humans can? Where will our jobs > come from? > > And this is not something that is coming at some point in “the future”. > > This is already happening. > > According to CNN, there will be 10,000 robots working to fulfill customer > orders in Amazon.com warehouses by the end of 2014… > >> Amazon will be using 10,000 robots in its warehouses by the end of the year. >> >> CEO Jeff Bezos told investors at a shareholder meeting Wednesday that he >> expects to significantly increase the number of robots used to fulfill >> customer orders. > > Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely love Amazon. And if robots can get me my > stuff faster and less expensively that sounds great. > > But what if everyone starts using these kinds of robots? > > What will that do to warehouse jobs? > > PC World has just done a report on a new warehouse robot known as “UBR-1″. > This robot is intended to perform tasks “normally done by human workers”… > >> The UBR-1 is a 4-foot tall, one-armed robot that could make warehouses and >> factories more efficient by performing tasks normally done by human workers. >> >> Unlike the industrial robots widely used in manufacturing today—usually >> large machines isolated from people for safety reasons—this robot can work >> alongside humans or autonomously in a workspace filled with people. > > This little robot costs $50,000, and it can work all day and all night. It > just needs a battery change every once in a while. The creators of this > robot envision it performing a vast array of different tasks… > >> “We see the robot as doing tasks, they could be dull, they could be dirty, >> they could be dangerous and doing them repetitively all day in a light >> manufacturing environment,” said Melonee Wise, Unbounded Robotics CEO and >> co-founder. Those tasks include stocking shelves, picking up objects and >> assembling parts. >> >> The UBR-1 isn’t designed for small component assembly, but it can manipulate >> objects as small as dice or a Lego piece, Wise said. Unbounded Robotics is >> targeting companies that want some automation to speed up their >> manufacturing process, but can’t afford to fully automate their businesses. > > To many people this may sound very exciting. > > But what if a robot like that took your job? > > Would it be exciting then? > > Of course you can’t outlaw robots. And you can’t force companies to hire > human workers. > > But we could potentially have major problems in our society as jobs at the > low end of the wage scale quickly disappear. > > According to CNN, restaurants all over the nation are going to automated > service, and a recent University of Oxford study concluded that there is a 92 > percent chance that most fast food jobs will be automated in the coming years… > >> Panera Bread is the latest chain to introduce automated service, announcing >> last month that it plans to bring self-service ordering kiosks as well as a >> mobile ordering option to all its locations within the next three years. The >> news follows moves from Chili’s and Applebee’s to place tablets on their >> tables, allowing diners to order and pay without interacting with human wait >> staff at all. >> >> Panera, which spent $42 million developing its new system, claims it isn’t >> planning any job cuts as a result of the technology, but some analysts see >> this kind of shift as unavoidable for the industry. >> >> In a widely cited paper released last year, University of Oxford researchers >> estimated that there is a 92% chance that fast-food preparation and serving >> will be automated in the coming decades. > > It is being projected that other types of jobs will soon be automated as well… > >> Delivery drivers could be replaced en masse by self-driving cars, which are >> likely to hit the market within a decade or two, or even drones. In food >> preparation, there are start-ups offering robots for bartending and gourmet >> hamburger preparation. A food processing company in Spain now uses robots to >> inspect heads of lettuce on a conveyor belt, throwing out those that don’t >> meet company standards, the Oxford researchers report. > > Could you imagine such a world? > > When self-driving vehicles take over, what will happen to the 3.1 million > Americans that drive trucks for a living? > > Our planet is changing at a pace that is almost inconceivable. > > Over the past decade, the big threat to our jobs has been workers on the > other side of the globe that live in countries where it is legal to pay slave > labor wages. > > But now even those workers are having their jobs taken away by robots. For > example, just check out what is happening in China… > >> Foxconn has been planning to buy 1 million robots to replace human workers >> and it looks like that change, albeit gradual, is about to start. >> >> The company is allegedly paying $25,000 per robot – about three times a >> worker’s average salary – and they will replace humans in assembly tasks. >> The plans have been in place for a while – I spoke to Foxconn reps about >> this a year ago – and it makes perfect sense. Humans are messy, they want >> more money, and having a half-a-million of them in one factory is a recipe >> for unrest. But what happens after the halls are clear of careful young men >> and women and instead full of whirring robots? > > Perhaps you think that your job could never be affected because you do > something that requires a “human touch” like caring for the elderly. > > Well, according to Reuters, robots are moving into that arena as well… > >> Imagine you’re 85, and living alone. Your children are halfway across the >> country, and you’re widowed. You have a live-in aide – but it’s not human. >> Your personal robot reminds you to take your medicine, monitors your diet >> and exercise, plays games with you, and even helps you connect with family >> members on the Internet. > > And robots are even threatening extremely skilled professions such as > doctors. For instance, just check out this excerpt from a Bloomberg article > entitled “Doctor Robot Will See You Shortly“… > >> Johnson & Johnson proposes to replace anesthesiologists during simple >> procedures such as colonoscopies — not with nurse practitioners, but with >> machines. Sedasys, which dispenses propofol and monitors a patient >> automatically, was recently approved for use in healthy adult patients who >> have no particular risk of complications. Johnson & Johnson will lease the >> machines to doctor’s offices for $150 per procedure — cleverly set well >> below the $600 to $2,000 that anesthesiologists usually charge. > > And this is just the beginning. In a previous article, I discussed the > groundbreaking study by Dr. Carl Frey and Dr. Michael Osborne of Oxford > University which came to the conclusion that 47 percent of all U.S. jobs > could be automated within the next 20 years. > > 47 percent? > > That is crazy. > > What will the middle class do as their jobs are taken away? > > The world that we live in is becoming a radically different place than the > one that we grew up in. > > The robots are coming, and they are going to take millions of our jobs. -- Kim Holburn IT Network & Security Consultant T: +61 2 61402408 M: +61 404072753 mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
