Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Friday October 06 2017, @03:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-robot-you-slave dept.

Silicon Valley celebrates artificial intelligence and robotics as fields that have the power to improve people's lives, through inventions like driverless cars and robot carers for the elderly.

That message isn't getting through to the rest of the country, where more than 70% of Americans express wariness or concern about a world where machines perform many of the tasks done by humans, according to Pew Research.

The findings have wide-reaching implications for technology companies working in these fields and indicates the need for greater public hand-holding.

"Ordinary Americans are very wary and concerned about the growing trend in automation and place a lot of value in human decision-making," said Aaron Smith, the author of the research, which surveyed more than 4,000 US adults. "They are not incredibly excited about machines taking over those responsibilities."

Once robots are perfected the 99% can be eliminated so they stop bumming the 1% out.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by mhajicek on Friday October 06 2017, @05:35AM (13 children)

    by mhajicek (51) on Friday October 06 2017, @05:35AM (#577827)

    My job is to manage a manufacturing robot (5 axis CNC mill). I'm also saving up to buy my own.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday October 06 2017, @11:37AM (2 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday October 06 2017, @11:37AM (#577947) Journal

    What happens when the get a robot to manage your robot. And a robot to manage IT. And a robot to manage IT. And a robot to.......

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 1) by nekomata on Friday October 06 2017, @03:14PM

      by nekomata (5432) on Friday October 06 2017, @03:14PM (#578047)

      Having a lot of robots managing IT seems about right ... Not so much different from now!

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Friday October 06 2017, @07:54PM

      by mhajicek (51) on Friday October 06 2017, @07:54PM (#578289)

      This will happen when there is strong general AI. At that point we all have the same problems. Or when 3D printers can quickly and reliably hold a ten-thousandth of an inch tolerance in steel and titanuum.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
  • (Score: 2) by martyb on Friday October 06 2017, @12:23PM (2 children)

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 06 2017, @12:23PM (#577968) Journal

    My job is to manage a manufacturing robot (5 axis CNC mill). I'm also saving up to buy my own.

    THAT brings back memories! Way back when, I used to work at Computervision in their 'specials' dept which would develop optimizations to the industry-standard parts programs it would otherwise generate from their CAD/CAM system to take advantage of machine-specific extensions provided by the manufacturer. Am curious what model of 5-axis mill you are using... Fanuc? Cincinnati? Bridgeport? Other?

    For the curious, Wikipedia has an excellent article on different models of milling machines and their history [wikipedia.org].

    --
    Wit is intellect, dancing.
    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday October 06 2017, @06:08PM

      by mhajicek (51) on Friday October 06 2017, @06:08PM (#578190)

      Two year old Has VF-3SS with a TR160Y trunnion and all the bells and whistles. Came to around $150k. Plus about $30k in software and $30k in tooling.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by richtopia on Friday October 06 2017, @08:08PM

      by richtopia (3160) on Friday October 06 2017, @08:08PM (#578300) Homepage Journal

      We could use more machining related stories here on SN! I'll try to keep an eye out myself.

      I'm not the OP, but I am a hobby machinist. My father's one-man shop recently purchased a Southwest Industries 2OP, which works really well in the confined space of the basement. Having a tool changer and full enclosure for coolant is so nice compared to the CNC knee mill we were running before (and still do on big stuff).

      Since I've moved out of my parent's house I no longer have easy access to those tools, but I make due with Fusion 360 for CAD/CAM, and cut on the Tormach at TechShop.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday October 06 2017, @04:50PM (6 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 06 2017, @04:50PM (#578118) Journal

    Is that a reference to the story about the village idiot saving to buy his own cannon?

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Friday October 06 2017, @08:00PM (5 children)

      by mhajicek (51) on Friday October 06 2017, @08:00PM (#578295)

      Not familiar with that one.

      For me it's about wanting to own and control the means of production, and not being reliant on an employer but being able to have customers instead. Consider it like a programmer wanting his own computer, except that a decent "computer" in this case costs at least $50k, and a really good one $200k or more. I might be able to get something really entry level around $10k and put some upgrades on it.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday October 06 2017, @10:29PM (4 children)

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 06 2017, @10:29PM (#578367) Journal

        OK, it goes this way:

        There was this village in which there lived an idiot who was incapable of supporting himself. The town council wanted to support him, but objected to the idea of welfare, so they hired him to polish the cannon in front of the town hall. Years went by, when suddenly the idiot gave notice. They asked him why, and he said "All these years I've been saving up, and now I've bought my own cannon".

        I understand your point, but I don't think you understand how the process of machining fits into the larger system. In fact, I thought you were joking. If you were talking about getting it for your own use, I'd see a reasonable point. Many people get 3-D printers for just that reason. But you seem to be thinking that a company would hire you, or contract with you. And for that I think you're missing a whole large piece of the picture. For that to work you'd need to contract with several companies, and you'd need to be able to reliably produce results even when your machine was down. Even then you'd need to be available when they wanted, and need to be willing to put other customers on hold while you did one customer's priority work.

        Now printers used to work that way, and made it work. But you'd be in competition with ... well, everybody else, including Google and Amazon. Printers were usually the only local source of printing when they made a decent living by being printers. I suppose you could set yourself up the way copier shops did before printers essentially made them obsolete...but continued advances will be likely to make your model obsolete within the decade, if not sooner.

        So it's not really the village idiot and his cannon, but it's not something *I* would advise anybody to do.

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by mhajicek on Saturday October 07 2017, @07:03AM

          by mhajicek (51) on Saturday October 07 2017, @07:03AM (#578499)

          I appreciate your concern, but I personally know several machinists who have started shops this way. The main trick is to not quit your day job until you have a solid flow of business going.

          --
          The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday October 07 2017, @07:11AM (2 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 07 2017, @07:11AM (#578501) Journal
          The obvious rebuttal to this story is what can you make with a cannon?

          Meanwhile, we have someone who works in a productive industry. And isn't employed merely because someone gave him a token job to stay out of trouble. So he knows how to use these machines, has some idea of what producible goods are profitable, and probably knows a few potential customers. That's a hell of a lot better business plan right there than most such.

          It's also worth remembering that he probably knows several machine shops that started this way. It's not an idea that sprung out of vacuum.

          I wonder what the source of the story is? It sounds like it probably was spectacularly bad advice for the original recipient(s). I found this 1968 news article [newspapers.com]:

          Rep. Bob Wilson (R., Calif.) has a story he sometimes uses when he’s talking about people and-or bureaucrats who get carried away by success. It concerns a village idiot who, in a philanthropic move by the town fathers, was hired to polish the cannon in front of the courthouse. For years he polished the town cannon industriously, for the sum of $25 a week. Everyone praised him for his efforts and it was a fine arrangement all around. One day someone noticed that he hadn’t been seen polishing the cannon for some time and an official went by the man’s house to find out why. “Well,” he said, ‘‘I was such a success at polishing the town cannon that I saved my money and bought my own cannon. Now I’m in business for myself.”

          Leave it to a politician to downplay individual ambition and success. Leave it to a newspaper hack to spread that story around.

          • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday October 07 2017, @01:48PM (1 child)

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 07 2017, @01:48PM (#578574) Journal

            I don't believe that was the origin of the story, as the version I encountered was slightly different, and I believe I encountered it earlier (though I'm not sure of that).

            And you can take it as denigrating ambition, or as recommending the careful and wise use of resources. I took it the second way.

            --
            Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
            • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:00AM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:00AM (#578697) Journal

              And you can take it as denigrating ambition, or as recommending the careful and wise use of resources.

              What careful use of resources? The village idiot carefully and wisely saved his resources for years... then bought a cannon. There are several aspects that make this story highly condescending. First, as I noted earlier, cannon polishing is a pretty useless activity. It's insulting to compare a normal person's ambition whether as business owner or bureaucrat to that. Second, the village idiot foolishly rejects a boon of the state for his own ambitious folly. That's a very patronizing view of anyone who doesn't accept government largess (or some similar authority figure, like an existing business). Third, the moral as applied by either your initial post or by the congresscritter I linked to, is that it is better to not "polish the cannon". There is no sense in which your posts can be said to encourage "careful and wise use" of resources except not to do it in the first place. Bear in mind that you wrote afterward:

              I understand your point, but I don't think you understand how the process of machining fits into the larger system. In fact, I thought you were joking. If you were talking about getting it for your own use, I'd see a reasonable point. Many people get 3-D printers for just that reason. But you seem to be thinking that a company would hire you, or contract with you. And for that I think you're missing a whole large piece of the picture. For that to work you'd need to contract with several companies, and you'd need to be able to reliably produce results even when your machine was down. Even then you'd need to be available when they wanted, and need to be willing to put other customers on hold while you did one customer's priority work.

              Why assume that mhajicek had never thought about the consequences of starting his own business? What's "careful and wise" about this advice?