robot « Limits to Growth

Ford Robot Takes On Delivery Duties in Spain

Here’s a new robot from the Ford company designed to work in its factories. It’s basically a filing cabinet on wheels that delivers replacement parts on the floor.

Below, Ford’s Survival robot consists of cubby holes for parts — each with its own identifying number on the door.

Users in the Valencia, Spain, plant […]

Truck Unloader Robots Attempt to Speed Package Delivery

Here’s a new robot the tech-whizzes have built that will further automate the Amazon-fueled mail-order economy — and eliminate jobs for humans. Apparently Fed-Ex and UPS are cranking up their services to keep up with the delivery business, and they think a truck unloader will be just the ticket to speed the process along.

The […]

Tucker Carlson Sees Coming Automation Disruption Worsened by “Lunatic” Immigration

It’s a rare thing to hear anyone in politics discuss the threat of automation to the economy — certainly no candidates did in the 2016 presidential campaign, and I watched closely. You would think that a genuine leader would have a plan to lessen the shock of massive job loss when it becomes cheaper to […]

BBC: Third World Progress Is Endangered by Artificial Intelligence and Robots

There are two great social changes occurring on the planet now that are not getting the public debate they deserve — one is automation with its associated massive job loss, and the other is population growth in the Third World.

Regarding the latter, it is routinely overlooked in the current media coverage of the thousands […]

The Automated Farm Is Getting Closer

The recent New Yorker Magazine has a thorough story about automated agriculture, with strawberry picking getting particular attention. The magazine does like its articles long and rambling, so the reader learns about assorted agro-facts like grower complaints about the H-2A visa, the manual skills required to pick delicate strawberries (“a wristy twist that prevents bruising […]

The Automated Life of the Future Is Considered

Below is an excerpt from a new book, The Culture of AI, Everyday Life and the Digital Revolution. Unlike most books now available about the coming technological transformation, it is written by a sociologist rather than a Silicon Valley type. So it may address the cultural effects that arise from automation and smart machines taking […]

Port of Los Angeles: Drivers Resist Automated Trucks

It’s rare to see workers fight back against automation taking their jobs, but it’s useful for them to have a union that actually helps its clients. That’s what has been going on in the LA docks, where automation has been a source of contention for several years.

Unfortunately for the workers, the containerized shipping industry […]

Pew Poll: Public Sees a More Troubled America in 2050

The Pew pollsters recently released a new survey about Americans’ dismal view of the nation in three decades: Looking to the Future, Public Sees America in Decline on Many Fronts (full paper in pdf).

Of particular interest here is the public’s increased awareness of the automation revolution while Washington remains on snooze mode about the […]

Walmart Gives Robots a Bigger Role in Stores

In November of 2017 it was reported that Walmart was trying out floor-scrubber robots in a few of its stores. That testing must have gone well because now the machines are part of a company decision to use technology “to help keep costs in check.”

Walmart’s robot floor cleaner scrubs and polishes all by itself […]

Fed-Ex Introduces Delivery Robot

We’ve seen small autonomous shipping vehicles for a couple years now, like the Starship company’s model which has been tested in cities like Austin and Washington DC.

So the new model from Fed-Ex is interesting in that it represents a tech advance by surmounting one modest step in the video below, but nothing more […]

Las Vegas: MGM Mulls Replacing Humans with Robots

In 2018, Las Vegas casino workers organized a strike, and the threatened machine takeover of jobs was a major issue: a Guardian headline from June 2 declared, ‘Robots can’t beat us’: Las Vegas casino workers prep for strike over automation. A deal was struck with MGM, but now the casino sounds like it will renege.

[…]

Tucker Carlson Interviews Andrew Yang, Technology and Automation Critic

Andrew Yang is a technology expert who is running for president in 2020 on what might be called a Tech-Caution platform. Unlike the clueless characters currently running our national government, Yang understands the danger of automation and artificial intelligence — that when smart machines take over major employment categories in America, the economy will fail […]

Fair Use: This site contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues related to culture and mass immigration. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information, see: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000107----000-.html. In order to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Limits to Growth