Boston Dynamics is a company that develops robotics for commercial and military applications. The company is probably best known by the general public for the videos it produces to show off its products.
Recently, a parody of Boston Dynamics’ videos was released and, as of this writing, has over 6.4 million views on YouTube. It shows a robot being subjected to abuse by humans; the robot becomes aware; the robot gets sick of humanity’s shit; and the robot strikes back. Just like a thousand sci-fi stories published over the years.
While this is just a parody, and hopefully is not a foreshadowing of our dystopian future with benevolent (or not so benevolent) robot leaders, it does provide a warning. While we will not be forced to work by gun-toting robots sick of our shit, we will see wholesale job losses, and world economies flipped upside down. This will not happen overnight, but it could very well happen in my lifetime.
In the 2004 movie I, Robot, Will Smith’s character, Del Spooner, distrusts robots. He chases one down for purse-snatching, and learns that the robot was doing what was commanded by its owner. We learn that his distrust of robots goes back to his grandfather losing his job to an automaton. During the opening scenes of the movie we are treated to a look into the not-too-distant future, where bipedal machines will be making package deliveries and driving garbage trucks.
In 2004 it seemed like the events depicted in the movie were a long way off. But today, we are stepping ever closer to that reality. The most recent example is the U.S. Postal Service’s testing of self-driving trucks for over-the-road transport.
San Diego-based startup TuSimple said its self-driving trucks will begin hauling mail between USPS facilities in Phoenix and Dallas to see how the nascent technology might improve delivery times and costs.
Turns out it is easier to teach AI how to drive on the interstate than on city streets.
Price said self-driving trucks have advantages over passenger cars, including the relative ease of operating on interstates compared with city centers, which reduces mapping requirements and safety challenges involving pedestrians and bicyclists.
Not far behind self-driving trucks are robotic delivery systems.
The robot in question is called Digit, and it stands just over five feet tall. It has a pair of skeletal legs, two arms ending in shapeless nubs, and a sensor array where its head should be. It’s the creation of startup Agility Robotics, which has been developing bipedal robots since 2015 when the company was spun out of research from Oregon State University.
In Ford’s imagining, Digit would be bundled into the back of a self-driving car. When the car reaches its destination, the trunk pops open, and Digit unfolds itself in a manner unnervingly similar to the droid army in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
The robot can then complete the last crucial step of the delivery: actually picking up the parcel and dropping it on your doorstep. No humans required.
What the above video missed is that the guy putting the items in the box to ship would likely also be a robot.
When I was a child, my dad refused to use self-service gas pumps (they were still relatively new) because he feared it would put people out of work. Eventually, he gave in and started using them; now, for the most part, they are the only way of fueling a car. I have heard arguments against using self-service kiosks in grocery and department stores; they are the same arguments my dad made in the early ‘70s about self-service gas pumps. McDonald’s has started using self-service kiosks in its restaurants; it is only a matter of time before cooks are replaced by robotics.
The Caliburger chain can’t keep burger flippers employed. They quit too often, it says.
So the plan is to try something new: a robot that has been programmed to flip hamburgers all day long. Named Flippy, the $100,000 machine is capable of flipping as many as 2,000 burgers a day.
The CEO of the company that makes Flippy says that his robot will not replace human workers, but progress stops for no one. Flippy never calls in sick, never has a hangover, and does not need health insurance. Flippy will replace workers.
Today, our leaders are focused on trade polices with China and other developing nations. The current White House resident is focused on using 18th-century trade policy (tariffs) in the modern world. Those vying for the Democratic nomination are focused on job creation. What no one is talking about is the shockwaves automation and robotics will cause to the American economy. What happens when all of the low-skill, low-wage jobs are performed by robots? What happens when we start losing skilled jobs to robotics? We need to start looking for 21st-century solutions to our problems. Tariffs will not save us, nor will cutting taxes for the supposed job-creators.
The world economy is changing in fundamental ways unseen since the Industrial Revolution, and we are not prepared for it.