Vatican Pharmacy Employs Robot

[seekingfreedom]

Vatican pharmacy employs robot to improve service, manage stock

I would like to hear opinions on this. I like to hear opinions pro and con to be able to solidify my opinion. I haven't been able to find any on the web. Forgive me because I know I rarely post anymore.

Personally, I find this disconcerting and possibly hypocritical. I don't understand why the Vatican wouldn't hire humans to do this work. I am sure there are plenty of unemployed in Rome. I have a problem with robots putting humans out of work.

 

[anna ~ grace]

I'm not a huge fan of robots doing jobs. I work retail, do a job that a robot could easily be programmed to do, and long rant short, don't like this stuff.

It would be great for the Vatican to employ a human.

 

[seekingfreedom]

If they are that busy, they could probably hire several people to do that work. People who need to have a job to support their families. What about the dignity of work. What is going to happen when robots take jobs and the Vatican is at the forefront. What will happen to those put out of work because of robots? My opinion, unless someone provides a good argument, is that robots, particularly in this instance, are being used to save money. It's alway about the buck. They can say it has to do with efficiency, but there are plenty of able-bodied people to do this work. I think it's a shame.

 

[bèlla]

I think its unfortunate this was implemented by the church. If anyone should champion the value of human employment and the necessity of industry I’d think they would. Diligence is a Christian virtue and work is an important aspect of its development.

 

[Michie]

I read about this the other day. I have nothing charitable to say about it. It certainly does not seem to jive with what the pope keeps going on about when he speaks. I could say more but won't right now.

 

[pdudgeon]

This is a nod to worldly influence/pro-choice/ liberal thinking that is creeping into the Vatican of all places.

In the world you will see more and more of these robots creep into business and industry, in an effort to replace/economize the labor force.
It's just one more result of the dwindling world population as the baby boomers retire, and the downward spiral of available human workers begins it's slide.

The curious thing about all of this is why of all places, robots (artificial life forms) are appearing in a city where intelligent human life is celebrated.

 

[Michie]

It does not line up with what the pope preaches imo.

 

[Basil the Great]

God help us, is about all I can say regarding robots doing the work of humans.

 

[pdudgeon]

God help us, is about all I can say regarding robots doing the work of humans.

This brings to mind all the Science Fiction movies about what happens when Artificial Intelligence runs amok, and decides that they are better than their masters....and it also reminds me of what happened way back in Genesis, with the Tower of Babel.

Human beings have an intelligence given to them by God.
Sometimes they use it for the good of others, and other times they don't.

 

[Bob Crowley]

Without knowing the full details, it doesn't seem to me that anybody is being laid off. The impression I get is that previously the pharmacists themselves had to go and get the medications, which reduced the time they had with customers. Two thousand customers a day is a lot for a pharmacy, and I'm pretty sure the management would have considered the ethics of the situation before they decided to use a robotic system.

Because the pharmacy robot takes in the order, scans for it in storage, picks it up with a mechanical arm and quickly delivers it via a series of conveyor belts, it will allow the pharmacists to remain with the customer at the counter longer to give needed instructions and advice, he told the Vatican newspaper,

But then I have the peculiar belief that God is going to drive us off the planet, and if He does, robots will be absolutely essential in a very hostile environment.

In other words, I think the development of robots was part of God's plan for the human race.

 

[Bob Crowley]

It's just one more result of the dwindling world population as the baby boomers retire, and the downward spiral of available human workers begins it's slide.

I query this. That might be the case in some Western nations, but overall the human population is increasing, well and truly. The population increase rate is currently about 1.08% per year. Yet up to the time of Christ, it was about .05% a year, a twentieth of the rate, if the following article is correct. How fast a rate do you want?

World Population Clock: 7.7 Billion People (2019) - Worldometers

There's a "wizard" in the above article which calculates the approximate world population when you were born. My birth date gave a population of 2.654 billion people. Now it's 7.7 billion. That's an increase of 5 billion people in my lifetime alone, one of the reasons I'm somewhat cynical about the church's ban on the contraceptive pill. Every week even at this slowing rate, there are 1.6 million more people to be fed, housed, clothed, educated, fueled, heated, employed, and all entitled to the same standard of living as we enjoy.

I remember an economist saying that in the West it takes a calorie of fossil fuel energy to put a calorie of food on the table.

I can easily remember the news when we passed the 6 billion and then 7 billion stage, which was only 8 years ago. It's now around 7.7 billion and will soon be 8 billion.

 

[Basil the Great]

I query this. That might be the case in some Western nations, but overall the human population is increasing, well and truly. The population increase rate is currently about 1.08% per year. Yet up to the time of Christ, it was about .05% a year, a twentieth of the rate, if the following article is correct. How fast a rate do you want?

World Population Clock: 7.7 Billion People (2019) - Worldometers

There's a "wizard" in the above article which calculates the approximate world population when you were born. My birth date gave a population of 2.654 billion people. Now it's 7.7 billion. That's an increase of 5 billion people in my lifetime alone, one of the reasons I'm somewhat cynical about the church's ban on the contraceptive pill. Every week even at this slowing rate, there are 1.6 million more people to be fed, housed, clothed, educated, fueled, heated, employed, and all entitled to the same standard of living as we enjoy.

I remember an economist saying that in the West it takes a calorie of fossil fuel energy to put a calorie of food on the table.

I can easily remember the news when we passed the 6 billion and then 7 billion stage, which was only 8 years ago. It's now around 7.7 billion and will soon be 8 billion.

The Earth has a finite amount of resources to sustain human life and animal life. I do not know how many people that the Earth can sustain, but there must be a limit. It would appear that without artificial birth control that began in a major way in the 1960's, the Earth would now have somewhere between 1-2 billion more population.

 

[Gnarwhal]

Does it also maintain an underground archive of every protestant person around the world? Asking for a friend...

 

[Bob Crowley]

Does it also maintain an underground archive of every protestant person around the world? Asking for a friend...

I don't know if this is a serious question or a joke, but the Catholic Church wouldn't have a single name of any Protestant in any archive, unless they had done something to warrant some form of communication eg. written a letter, featured in a Vatican newspaper, threatened the Pope or some other church figure etc.

Luther, Calvin and Henry VIII might be mentioned in some very old correspondence stuck away somewhere in some Vatican archive, but that would be due to the violent polemic of the time on both sides.

 

[Gnarwhal]

I don't know if this is a serious question or a joke, but the Catholic Church wouldn't have a single name of any Protestant in any archive, unless they had done something to warrant some form of communication eg. written a letter, featured in a Vatican newspaper, threatened the Pope or some other church figure etc.

It's a joke.

There's a protestant conspiracy theory that there's a supercomputer at the Vatican with records on every protestant on Earth, and somehow they're going to be used for the apocalypse or something stupid.

I think Jack T. Chick came up with it first.

 

[Bob Crowley]

I found it hard to believe it was serious.

That is the sort of drivel that Jack T. Chick would have come up with.

Now the Mormons with their genealogical database .....?