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Boston Dynamics introduces a fully electric humanoid robot that “exceeds human performance”
(spectrum.ieee.org)
this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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Technology
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of all the things scientists do, making robots that can do dangerous or even tedious labor isn't that bad.
Is it going to be used to do dangerous labor, or just expensive labor? I have a feeling the places like the cobalt mines in Africa will be among the last to get robot workers while McDonalds in countries with first world wages will probably be among the first.
the scientists build the robots. Society and its corruption will determine how they get used. I don't think it's a reason to not build robots or to say they're not worth making. At some point in the future, society may collectively improve and the robots will be there to use.
Not all technology is inherently neutral, and scientists know this. Scientists also typically know whos funding them. You think anyone at BD was surprised to see their work on a robot dog end up by the sides of police to be deployed at protests?
The hour's growing late there. We needed to solve that problem before this technology became available. Just need useful life-extension technology and then it'll just be a bunch of rich psychopaths running around the planet, and everyone else will be disposed of.
It's probably one of the biggest potential saviors tbh, having robots efficiently construct wind turbines and solar arrays in inhospitable locations will help us transition from oil far faster and more efficiently.
I know a lot of people want to go back to having half the world impoverished so we can exploit their cheap labour like in the good old days but technology already helped them access education and stuff so that game is over.
These bots aren't designed for that. They're designed to replace humans in human-form-factor job infrastructure. Think less "installing wind turbines" and more "replacing all the human pickers in an Amazon warehouse."
You don't think humans install wind turbines or build solar farms? How do you imagine they come into existence?
They're multitasking robots able to do a range of complex tasks, sure they'll stock shelves oneday but the most cost effective and therefore first uses will be in hostile environments where it's very expensive to have humans work. Undersea welding for example is a brutal job which requires all sorts of safety and habitability stuff that makes it hugely expensive even before the high wages those people earn - cutting this from the cost of infrastructure projects will make it much tcheaper for offshore wind projects. Especially as working conditions and human considerations make it impossible for continuous work where as robots can just work until its done.
My dad was the first of our male line to live over 35 in five generations, he was also the first never to work down a mine - people just used to accept poor people dying as the cost of living comfortably lives, the work needed to be done so someone had to do it... just as how I can't imagine being in the situation of my grandfather so too will humanity move beyond the destruction of our lives that forced drudgery brings upon us.
Rich people don't choose to stand stacking shelves all day, there's a reason for that. Do not fight to keep such awful things, fight to make a world where we can live well without needing them