Meet The Robots

We’re going to start paying a lot closer attention to this because the impact these new technologies are going to have on our lives hasn’t been factored into our expectations about the near future. No one else in our corner of the internet is paying attention to the elephant in the room.

What’s going to happen when advances in robotics, automation and deep learning AI abolish cheap labor and the factories return to the United States but are full of nothing but robots? What’s going to happen when most of the jobs in developing countries are wiped out by automation? More than anything else, what is the impact of this going to be in Middle America which has already been devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs?

Agricultural robots to see massive uptake in next six years

“A new report from market research and consulting firm Tractica projects that agricultural robot shipments will reach 727,000 units per year by 2025, globally.

Agricultural robots, from driverless tractors to livestock robots to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), promise to unlock added productivity and efficiency from farmland as the sector faces labor shortages and changing weather conditions.

Automated tractors and robots have the ability to plant, prune, weed, and harvest, while specialized bots can shear sheep and automatically milk livestock. They’ve even developed robots for castrating livestock – truly a brave new world.

UAVs, meanwhile, can vastly enhance the productivity of agricultural land by accurately sensing irrigation problems, weed or pest infestations, or soil variation, allowing farmers to better assess and rectify their fields. Drones can also be used for spraying and cloud seeding. …”

Silicon Valley Robot Farm Begins Sellings Its First Produce

“Iron Ox, a start-up based in Silicon Valley that focuses on robotic farming, have started selling lettuce and fresh greens in a California grocery.

In October 2018, Iron Ox opened its fully automated farm in San Carlos, California. With the entire farm process redesigned around robotics, the company said its hydroponic system can produce up to 30 times more yield per acre of land compared to traditional farms.

Fresh From The Robot Farm

Iron Ox now sells three types of greens — Genovese basil, red-veined sorrel, and baby head lettuce — at the family-owned grocery Bianchini’s Market in San Carlos. It supplies the store with five to 10 cases of produce from its robot farm each week, and the greens are consistently sold out. …”

Watch This Police Robot Pull Over a Car

“American nonprofit research institute SRI International has developed a prototype of what it’s calling a “police robot,” as IEEE Spectrum reports. The robot is meant to prevent accidents that occur when the police pull over drivers.

The brain behind the bot is Rueben Brewer, a senior robotics research engineer at SRI. Brewer started building the prototype in his garage.

“With such dangerous interactions between people, maybe it’s time to send a robot in between them, one that can’t hurt or be hurt,” reads the caption of the video. “Our robot goes between people to keep everyone safe.” …”

Robots edge closer to unloading trucks in Amazon-era milestone

“As FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. beef up automation to keep pace with surging e-commerce and a potential threat from Amazon.com Inc., they’ve been stumped at a crucial stage: loading and unloading trucks.

Robot makers are getting close to solving part of that puzzle.

Siemens AG and Honeywell International Inc. have built machines that pull packages from the back of a tractor-trailer and place them on conveyor belts, whizzing the parcels off for sorting. Making robots that can load trucks is more complicated, although clearing that hurdle isn’t far off.

“The biggest challenge in our world is: Every single package is different in size, shape, weight, color, material,” said Ted Dengel, managing director of operations technology at FedEx’s ground-delivery unit. “It makes it a very tricky problem.”

The devices, unveiled at a recent automation conference in Chicago, hold out the promise of increasing productivity while reducing the need for one of the most grueling jobs in logistics. Couriers are relying on automation to grapple with the rise of online shopping, which is fueling record demand but pressuring profit margins. Amazon’s plan to handle more of its own shipping and offer more one-day deliveries is only upping the ante. …”

Aside from the Yang campaign, mainstream politics in America is currently focused on “capitalism vs. socialism” instead of looking forward to the challenges of the future like what are we going to do with millions of displaced workers, how will we reimagine work in the 21st century, how will we adjust to a world of abundance and will free-market capitalism even make sense in a world when a workforce of robotic slaves are generating wealth.