There will always be jobs the robots can't do. Maybe.
SteveI know the entire 'Robots and other automation technologies are displacing human labor' line of discussion can get a little tedious at times. After all, advances in technology that fundamentally change the labor markets and the need for certain types of labor is an old story. And when other contributors on Fistful of Talent take on the robot subject, we may have finally jumped the shark on this one. But against my better judgement and with the quasi-approval of my friend Chris Wilson, I am going back to the robot well one more time. So here goes.
How many family farmers are out there anymore, working a few dozen acres of crops? When was the last time you took a train across the country to attend a business event? Have you had to individually print, collate, staple, assemble, and mail company reports or binders in the last 10 years or so? (Right now, someone reading this is thinking, 'Hey I still collate').
Old story, I know. Technology advances unabated, makes our lives better, (hopefully), raises the standard of living, and provides ample ammunition for our incessant, 'I remember back when I was a kid...' admonitions to our kids and friends who simply would DIE without their iPhones or free Wifi at Starbucks.
Besides, the standard thinking goes, there will always be entire categories and classifications of labor that simple will not ever be usurped by robot or other automation technologies. Robots can be programmed to perform simple, repetitive tasks, and respond accordingly to relatively simple external cues and stimuli, but advanced, nuanced, and subtle kinds of jobs and tasks are still the (more or less), exclusive domain of human workers. Service jobs and construction jobs in particular seem immune to the forces of robotization.
Case in point - robots, on their own, could never build something like this, right:
This picture, sourced from an article on the NPR Krulwich Wonders blog, is of a brick tower designed by Swiss architects Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler. The entire 20-foot tall tower was assembled by a team of four flying robots that grabbed each brick individually, then flew to the correct place on the rising tower, and finally set the brick in place before returning to the dispenser to re-start the process. The battery powered robots periodically stopped their work to plug in for a recharge when their batteries were running down.
Sure, it took humans to design the tower, build and program the flying construction robots, and monitor the entire process, but eventually couldn't the building, programming, and monitoring tasks themselves be automated?
You can take a closer look and see the flying robots in action on the video below, (email and RSS subscribers will have to click though). While you watch the video I challenge you to think just for a moment about our generally held ideas about labor, automation, and the future of work.
Eventually, is there going to be anything the robots can't do?
Reader Comments (5)
I love the way the quadcopters hover over the audience with the bricks. I am so thinking - 'Drop it, drop it now!'
How long before they think 'To hell with this pretentious sculpture crap - let's have some fun with the humans.'
Rise of the Machines. Victory for things, defeat for us.
[Geek moment - anybody know how they did the guidance? 3D triangulation with ultasonics?]
And I note that to comment here I have to prove I'm NOT a robot. The irony, the irony. ;-)
Your closing line reminds me of Homer Simpson's similarly rhetorical query.
In addition to those of us who just plain enjoy your writing, I'm convinced that there is a large and growing sub-culture of robot enthusiasts/alarmists who will continue to be enthused/alarmed by these posts. May your robot well never run dry...
Andrew - Great point, I wonder when the hovering robot decides, 'Enough with this, I want to go exploring'. I do think there is a detailed research report somewhere that digs into the tech, I will have to try and find it.
Chris - I continue to be enthused/alarmed. I waver between the two.
There's more information on the project here, as well as details on other interesting projects at ETH: http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/Research_DAndrea/fmec
On a more serious note there is real debate among computer scientists about the possibility of network systems developing a degree of autonomy and self awareness (The Skynet scenario) when some critical threshold is reached. Nobody knows what that might be but the brains of some animals have substantially less neurones and axons than the Internet has connected systems... spooky.