Robots & Economic Independence

[timewerx]

A fully unamanned, self-sustaining, self-repairing, and self-managing automated system can work at full capacity to fulfill its designated purpose even without money.

THat's all there is to it... Such level of automation is already completely possible with present technology. As early as two decades ago. One reason why nobody cared for such system is that it's going to be more expensive than equivalent, non fully automated system.

How economic independence??? Full automation permits full production capacity even if for some reason, money completely loses value overnight or if all your trading partners decide to boycott your products or a very scary looking virus locks down the entire world....

And in times of warfare, you can maintain full production capacity independent of the economic situation!

In otherwords with full automation, you may lose all your money, we could be in World War III but you can still maintain full production capacity. Nobody goes hungry and you still have enough esources to run the whole country.

We can even push this agenda further to smaller units like families.. What if a machine can be made that can repair itself, even replicate itself, secure its own energy source and raw materials, manufacture food and basic necessities. Some kind of a 3D printer on a whole different level of craziness

What if every family has this? Then we don't need to work for anyone anymore? We won't even be fearing losing all our money. In fact, these technologies would destroy the value of money. Even tissue paper would have more value than a 1000 dollar bill.

So, what now? Scary huh?

Should we ban / outlaw these technologies so we can continue playing with money? Ignoring the fact, these machines can very likely eliminate poverty.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

A fully unamanned, self-sustaining, self-repairing, and self-managing automated system can work at full capacity to fulfill its designated purpose even without money.

THat's all there is to it... Such level of automation is already completely possible with present technology. As early as two decades ago. One reason why nobody cared for such system is that it's going to be more expensive than equivalent, non fully automated system.

How economic independence??? Full automation permits full production capacity even if for some reason, money completely loses value overnight or if all your trading partners decide to boycott your products or a very scary looking virus locks down the entire world....

And in times of warfare, you can maintain full production capacity independent of the economic situation!

In otherwords with full automation, you may lose all your money, we could be in World War III but you can still maintain full production capacity. Nobody goes hungry and you still have enough esources to run the whole country.

We can even push this agenda further to smaller units like families.. What if a machine can be made that can repair itself, even replicate itself, secure its own energy source and raw materials, manufacture food and basic necessities. Some kind of a 3D printer on a whole different level of craziness

What if every family has this? Then we don't need to work for anyone anymore? We won't even be fearing losing all our money. In fact, these technologies would destroy the value of money. Even tissue paper would have more value than a 1000 dollar bill.

So, what now? Scary huh?

Should we ban / outlaw these technologies so we can continue playing with money? Ignoring the fact, these machines can very likely eliminate poverty.

That's no fun. I would rather build a dresser than watch a machine build a dresser.

 

[GospelS]

Ok. I found it. Robots and Economics.

 

[Sabertooth]

What if a machine can be made that can
repair itself,
even replicate itself,
secure its own energy source and raw materials,
manufacture food and basic necessities.

That's a mighty big IF...

 

[solid_core]

For any kind of production you need materials, designs, marketing, etc., not just workers.

And raw materials are not endless.

Also, what about the planet pollution if the production will go in its full capacity without pauses?

 

[GospelS]

Also, what about the planet pollution if the production will go in its full capacity without pauses?

We'll make specific robots designed to prevent planet pollution.

 

[quaternion]

A fully unamanned, self-sustaining, self-repairing, and self-managing automated system can work at full capacity to fulfill its designated purpose even without money.

My, my. Someone's been watching too much Star Trek.

 

[quaternion]

That's no fun. I would rather build a dresser than watch a machine build a dresser.

Very nice.

 

[solid_core]

We'll make specific robots designed to prevent planet pollution.

And then men will loose any reasons to get up in the morning and after some time of useless pleasures they will start wars, be on drugs or commit suicides.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

For any kind of production you need materials, designs, marketing, etc., not just workers.

And raw materials are not endless.

Also, what about the planet pollution if the production will go in its full capacity without pauses?

When the machinery gets to that point we can already mine the asteroid belt so available raw materials should not be a short term problem.

Also it would actually make a lot of sense to put most of the production in space or on some suitable moons.

Low gravity and easier ways to get rid of excess heat would be great.

Also if we want to terraform Mars for example pumping ton of greenhouse gases there would actually be positive contributing thing.

 

[GospelS]

And then men will loose any reasons to get up in the morning and after some time of useless pleasures they will start wars, be on drugs or commit suicides.

Ok. Good point. We'll also make robots that can prevent men from doing all such negative stuff.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

And then men will loose any reasons to get up in the morning and after some time of useless pleasures they will start wars, be on drugs or commit suicides.

Way to be pessimistic. By then our VR technology will be good enough that we can just get stuck in some life support capsule with internet connection and go anywhere to do anything.

Now that will be a challenge. How is the harsh reality going to do compared to that ?

 

[solid_core]

Way to be pessimistic. By then our VR technology will be good enough that we can just get stuck in some life support capsule with internet connection and go anywhere to do anything.

Now that will be a challenge. How is the harsh reality going to do compared to that ?

Adult persons do not like games so much. Even watching movies or other free time activities are not something an adult wants to do the whole life. Adults need meaning and be contributing members of society.

 

[Petros2015]

A fully unamanned, self-sustaining, self-repairing, and self-managing automated system can work at full capacity to fulfill its designated purpose even without money.

Von Neumann Probes --

Pretty cool, until they show up and start strip-mining your city to make more of themselves to explore more galaxies...

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

Adult persons do not like games so much. Even watching movies or other free time activities are not something an adult wants to do the whole life. Adults need meaning and be contributing members of society.

You are thinking what “games” are now and plenty of people are addicted to their mobile phones already.

Imagine few decades of technological prowess on entertainment.

Virtual reality you can see , touch, smell and hear.

All of this while most jobs where you felt you could contribute are gone, done by machines far better than you ever could.

 

[Petros2015]

We'll also make robots that can prevent men from doing all such negative stuff.

We can call them 'women'

 

[Petros2015]

All of this while most jobs where you felt you could contribute are gone, done by machines far better than you ever could.

Y'know, I can't watch most TV shows or even youtube videos or even newscasts without being interupted every 7 minutes with 10 minutes of commercials... (so I rarely do anymore)

Combine that with medical technology to extend your lifespan while you are spending most of your life in a sedentary state plugged into reality that doesn't exist and I think you might have a recipe for what I would consider hell, or at least the destruction of a human soul.

I say this as someone who used to spend so much time at a computer playing PC games and working in IT that between the two I not only developed damage to an elbow from over mouse usage (leaning on my mouse arm), I also had pressure sores on my butt which itched constantly. They went away when I got off up it and started living.

Just sayin'.

 

[Petros2015]

What if a machine can be made that can repair itself, even replicate itself, secure its own energy source and raw materials

"secure its own energy source and raw materials"

Sounds like a competitor.

Is it vegetarian or carnivorous?

Carnivorous Train-Like Robot Is 'Born'

“The ideal fuel in terms of energy gain is meat. Vegetation is not nearly as nutritious,” Wilkinson said. “Changing food into electricity isn’t unique. What I’ve done is to make it small enough to fit in a robot.

That was 20 years ago, so I imagine technology has improved considerably. I for one, have no desire whatsoever to encounter a swarm of self-replicating meat eating locust-drones...

 

[Strathos]

And how can you ensure that you can control these robots? I'm reminded of the story about a robot programmed to make paperclips, which copied itself all over the world to use all the resources it could find to make more paperclips, then when humans tried to shut it down, it killed them all because they were in the way of its task to make paperclips, and it eventually converted all of the mass of the entire solar system into paperclips.

 

[Jonathan Walkerin]

Combine that with medical technology to extend your lifespan while you are spending most of your life in a sedentary state plugged into reality that doesn't exist and I think you might have a recipe for what I would consider hell, or at least the destruction of a human soul.

Sure, it is a dystopian society in a sense. Probably something like being drunk or high all the time.