smart machines « Limits to Growth

Warehouse Robotics See Advances in Technology

Warehouse robots are a big part of the revolution transforming a growing portion of consumer shopping from stores to online. Amazon led the way by purchasing the Kiva system and then keeping it for itself so other competitors could not spring up easily. (See my 2016 Social Contract article, “Amazon Robotics: A case study of […]

Self-Driving Shuttles Hit Public Streets in California Pilot Program

San Ramon, California is a suburban community of around 72,000 located 34 miles east of San Francisco. The city is the first place in the nation where self-driving vehicles are allowed to function without a backup human driver in the seat, albeit in a limited situation. The shuttles scoot along at a safe 12 miles […]

New York Times Reports Automation-Fueled Job Loss in the Oil Patch

The automation job wrecker got a rare front-page spot on Monday’s New York Times, where the oil industry was the subject:

Blue-collar worker Eustasio Velazquez, 44, succinctly described the situation of many when he observed, “I don’t see a future. Pretty soon every rig will have one worker and a robot.”

And that one worker will be a tech-trained […]

Automation: Bill Gates Says to Tax Robots

The restructuring of the economy from market to automation-based is now being considered by serious minds. The discussion faces that future when humans have become less needed as workers because half or more of them have been replaced by machines. That social reality will be shattering to the system that we have lived with for quite some […]

Hospitality Industry Welcomes Helpful Automation

Hotel management has reacted positively toward the improved capabilities of robots suitable for their industry. A recent confab of the hospitality industry highlighted the new automation becoming available to perform more challenging tasks.

Robot bellhops are already in use in some Marriott hotels and elsewhere.

One of the machines in the pipeline is a robot maid, which […]

Automation King Jeff Bezos Objects to President Trump’s Immigration Restriction

These billionaires can never get enough immigrants — they work cheap and shop enthusiastically. You might think the third richest man in the world might have better things to do than overwhelm America with overpopulation and unfriendly diversity. In particular, the man who arguably spearheaded the drive to automate jobs and put Americans out of […]

Robot Barista Debuts in San Francisco

The automation juggernaut continues to crush jobs throughout the economy. Today’s example is the robot barista which prepares upscale caffeinated beverages without human workers.

In San Francisco, Cafe X’s robot coffee machine produces cappuccinos and lattes for sleepy iPhone users and others.

Interestingly, barista is a storied occupation for young people, and not always in a good […]

Automation: How It’s Changing the Oil Patch

The report below from the Houston Chronicle about smart machines in the petroleum industry is helpful because it is fairly precise about how many jobs are being lost. As in many businesses, a complete wipeout of jobs is not what’s happening, but the increased efficiency of advanced machines does remove a significant chunk of human […]

The Social Contract Spotlights Automation and Immigration

A few months ago, I worked with The Social Contract quarterly to produce an issue with a section discussing the topic of how automation affects America’s need for immigration. The result was the Fall 2016 issue, subtitled “When Robots Replace Humans.”

After writing dozens of blogs for LimitsToGrowth.org about rapidly advancing automation, robots and computer software, my […]

Tucker Carlson Examines a Future with Self-Driving Cars

Last week Fox TV host Tucker Carlson interviewed robotics expert and Columbia professor Hod Lipson, author of Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead to discuss the future of transportation and jobs. The professor is obviously a well educated guy and an expert in his field, but he apparently doesn’t get how the entire basis […]

Automation Makes Youth Employment More Difficult

Young people are particularly hard hit by the increased automation of business, since they need a first job to learn the basic skills of showing up on time, taking directions and pleasing the boss. Increasingly those basic first jobs — like waiter or pizza delivery driver — are being done by machines.

One indicator is a […]

Robots Shrink Workforce in California Distribution Center

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for an excellent report of how automation displaces human workers in a warehouse environment, which unfortunately is a pattern followed by many industries: bring in the smart machines and employ fewer human workers.

Amazon has been the leader of warehouse robotics, with its proprietary Kiva machines, and has received enormous […]

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