Jed Rothwell wrote:
The big question is: Will the robots themselves be owned by 1% elite, or controlled the 1%, or will they be like today's personal computers, owned by everyone, and used by everyone? I predict the latter, and I also predict the cost will fall because of competition by different robot makers. If I am right, there is less danger of concentration of wealth by robots, and somewhat less danger of massive unemployment. If I have a robot that produces most of the goods and services I need, I don't need a job. (It isn't quite that simple, as I said, but that is the general principle.)
I see it slightly differently. For at least the next ten years robots will be concentrated in large companies working down to smaller factories, making stuff. It will be a long time before there are household robots that do more than clean and cook. The universal house robot that can make many things is waaayyy off. (3D printing?) So again the car analogy holds. Robots will probably be made by a dozen or so large companies and bought and owned by the user. I suppose they could be leased too. One would expect there will be a few entrepreneurs who will start a small manufacturing company and grow to be large like Apple. The future remains difficult to forecast...
