Industrial Automation

I can't say anything about the retail side of things, but you have to keep in mind, that people also are employed to design, build and test all this automated machinery (like myself). Many other companies will emerge to support the manufacture of this stuff, such as washer manufacturers, wiring, electric motors... etc etc etc...

On the other side, I cannont stand all the automated telephone systems, drive me crazy, press one for bla bla bla.

I do however enjoy the self checkout at my local supermarket.

So I guess I'm split.

A robot will take away 10 jobs and create one (repair). The robots will be imported so the manufacture side will have no jobs here. On the repair side, more and more machines are disposable ( it is more expensive to repair than to replace for example:the window ac units, refregerators, washers dryers, other appliances and even automobiles are headed that way and even the government is encouraging this ref. Cash for Clunkers). For some time now we have been surviving on artificialy created economic bubbles. What is the next 'Bubble'?

time to start training in robotics. All machines break down. Who will repair them? Who will design the next gen? Who will teach the next gen?

If you lose a job in one market, it just means more markets are opening up. this is lifecycle of any product or market. that is reality.

Chris

Its part of my job to automate inspection systems. There is a true reason.

A machine will not miss work or goof off on the job. With proper programming and sensor feedback a machine can even be subjective or objective and alert when a potential problem is occurring.

As a quality action i have found that the more people that you take out of the loop the less mistakes that occur.

Machines are not the total answer at this time as sometimes you need a truly subjective action.

Ron

Perhaps sooner or later.... humans will be like this

And the only mobile workers is somewhat like this

This is the worst side of technological advancement. Well, it's a nice movie anyway

Machines replace humans in jobs which don´t require analysis and the work is very repetitive. I know that AI is working on alot of things and pretty soon machines will analyse also. The big question here is that people must understand that learning is an everyday job. What you knew yesterday could be obsolete today. Going to college or grad school isn´t always the answer so maybe most of us should be learning a new programming language each year or something similar. But if people become stones and believe that they can pick up a paper, look at the want ads and place themselves in a minimum wage job for the rest of their lives, they have something else coming up in there alley. It is each individual´s responsibility to better themselves everyday for the rest of their lives. Information is all around so you must pick what you like and are good at, take info, analyse it, apply it and get paid for it.

Robots do not buy anything. You can see whats happened over the last 20 years in this country with the Robotic revolution. Our manufacturing has been sent over to other counties where they can have people that work for peanuts and no Benny's. Run the profits up and make huge amounts of money that they spend on everything but making more jobs. Thus allowing for the upper class to acquire more wealth and power. Increasing the number of lower class workers that must rely on the upper classes generosity for work in service sector.

From the point of view of those of us who are producers, the logic of automation is inescapable. As ronclark points out 'A machine will not miss work or goof off on the job...the more people that you take out of the loop the less mistakes that occur.' In a production environment automation reduces costs and improves quality. I find that as technology advances I am constantly evaluating my products to see where automation can improve their utility, either in terms of speeding up a process or increasing the accuracy. These changes are good for my bottom line, and good for my customers in industry. They may also be good for my customers' customers as well, when they lead to lower prices and better quality.

But I do have a nagging concern that they cost good jobs, since automation (done properly) can reduce the number of workers required. It is all well and good to say that these displaced workers should retrain for new and exciting high tech jobs, and in many cases that is what happens. Then I think back on the people I went to school with, and my gut tells me that many of those folks got the short end of the stick when brains and imagination were being handed out. What is to become of them? There are only so many jobs in fast food and retail, and as the OP suggests retail is now being automated.

I have a dim recollection of a scifi story I read years ago about lone maintenance man working on a giant automated farm fixing the robots who tended the crops, isolated in a sea of green with no human contact. While the details of this story escape me, the distopian vision still haunts me. As more and more of the things that need to be done (growing food, making clothes, building shelter) are automated, more and more of us will become, in the words of Ebinezer Scrooge, members of a 'surplus population'. In a democracy the political implications of this are dangerous.

I suppose I could hire some literate members of this group to read poetry to me while I work (I don't much like poetry), or hire a personal tattoo artist (don't much like that either), but there is a limit to this: my personal tastes are pretty simple, and I suspect this is true for many others who are more interested in building automated gizmos than in putting up with the inherent foibles of their fellow humans. So this is a real problem. Under Bush Jr. we had years of 'jobless recovery', and under Obama we are getting more of the same. Obviously a big part of this is due to outsourcing, but clearly automation is also a big factor. And even in outsourcing, automation plays a big part: skilled workers are not really mobile in a global sense, but automated equipment is. I don't see a good solution to this problem, and don't see how this is going to work out well for most of us. But for now it's great fun and it keeps my personal creative juices going. Maybe this is just a profitable form of self indulgence. What the heck...

Note to kajibaba: my nominations for the next bubble is in 'security experts', and 'green technology'. The results of the security boom will probably be dismally Orwellian, with a lot of wasted spending and loss of basic freedoms. With the green technology we'll also have wasteful spending, but at least we'll end up with more efficient infrastructure.

So, if security is the area of the next bubble, that means Al- Quaida like animals become part of the equation because those are the ones against whom security related jobs will be created. But the security operations and needs are increasingly being met by machines too. The only need that will remain is profiling and studying the population for any clue(like when you see 10 airport security agents standing at check in lines and watching the passengers--which I must say is needed under current conditions)

As for as Green Technology is concerned, how many jobs will be needed for inventing and discovering the new 'things'? Once the product is discovered, it will be manufactured in foreign countries and the benefit of the new jobs of manufacturing will not be for the US worker (I am talking from selfish point of view).

The 'Bubble' I refered to is the illusion of prosperity like the recent housing bubble, the net result of which was no material gain and every one is in debt. During this bubble an artificial sense of prosperity was promoted and people borrowed against their houses and spent like there was no tomorrow. The borrowed money was spent on things which were not made here. The only jobs that were created were service sector here and a lot of manufacturing jobs abroad. If we could flip burgers for the Chinese and shine there shoes, then some of that money could return here to create more service related jobs!!! Unfortunately that is not possible.

Some one has to come up with a solution soon because things are getting worse and worse. The politicians(our leaders) are only 'talk' and are busy blaming each other.

Sorry for being pessimistic but some one has to explain in simple terms to me(without using big words that were used in the banking debacle) how the jobs will be created here in the US?

What kinds of jobs will be created? I hope I am wrong and am blind to the obvious solution. I invite every one to give it a serious shot and come up with something as a solution. I am glad you picked up on my point.

Here, Here, well said

I recall reading books back in the '80s about automation and robotics, and the vision was that the increase in automation was inevitable, but that as robots produced more, that humans would shift their labours to other things, and the brutal labour of life support (food, shelter, clothing, transportation, etc) would be taken care of. We could move on to more creative and intellectual activities.

There are 2 factors that have come into play that have shifted how this didn't happen as much.

1.) Private ownership of robotics has ensured that all the gains in productivity and cash have gone into private hands, and that there are just fewer jobs, and not an increase in leisure time for all.

2.) who could have predicted all the 'dumbing down' shyte that goes on, and that people would get sucked into the reality tv black hole? (real housewives, etc.)

I actually think that there is a large surge from a portion of the population(s) that are more productive and more creative, stimulated by the abundance of knowledge, and the increase in communications due to the internet.

but really... who in this day and age thinks... I need a job.. I'm goin' to work on a farm somewhere for room and shelter? not very many.

I think there are disadvantaged, and that is not how I would like things to be..

so if you all vote for me to run the world.. I'll fix everything.

oh wait... that is another unexpected issue.. people don't care enough about who they put into office, and what they demand those people do.

Chris

I used to say that I have spent the last forty years automating people out of jobs (in the UK and Europe). A few years ago I designed and built an automated packing line for a client that reduced the number of packers from 96 to 12. About twelve months later I met the clients' CEO at a social occasion and mentioned that I felt guilty about the 84 lost jobs. His response was "you didn't cause the loss of 84 packing jobs you saved 620 production jobs because without that automated packing line the whole factory would have closed." So now I claim that I have spent the last forty years automating to retain peoples jobs. The US and the UK are high wage economies and the only way we have any manufacturing at all is by using automation. It was inevitable that what has been happening in manufacturing for the last forty years would spill over into the service sector.

To create jobs we need to move the balance of imports and exports back into the centre of political thinking. To educate our young (and old) and most of all our politicians that if we continue to buy cheap goods from abroad, the jobs to make those goods will go abroad as well. If we buy home made goods the jobs to make those goods must come back. But to do that we need to embrace automation, not whine about it.

the jobs to make those goods will go abroad as well.

So Sorry, too late.

Ron

"To create jobs we need to move the balance of imports and exports back into the centre of political thinking. To educate our young (and old) and most of all our politicians that if we continue to buy cheap goods from abroad, the jobs to make those goods will go abroad as well. If we buy home made goods the jobs to make those goods must come back. But to do that we need to embrace automation, not whine about it."

I agree hundred per cent. The next question: 'Who will bell the cat!!".

Who will take steps to educate the young, the old, and most of all the politicians? Do we think that we elect ignorant politicians? If so what can be done. Could there be a movement that says "Throw the bums out"? But who will take there place?? Is there a 'Ghonim' out there who will start a movement like the Egyptians did????

I have been trying to buy American for quite some time but it has become almost impossible. Try to go and find anything for every day use that is made in USA. The only place I have some success is at 'Thrift Stores'. Unfortunately that does not translate into new jobs for US worker.

The challenge in my previous post still stays.

As for your invention, You should be proud and satisfied that you contributed to making life better for human beings. That is expected of a good human. You have contributed and I take my hat off to you.