Hmm, Not Sure What to Think About This One

[Recusant]

If I were a young warehouse worker, I'd wonder how much longer I'd have my job.

[joeactor]

HOLY CRAP! ROBOT APOCALYPSE!!!
(damn cool. where are we getting all the electricity?)

[Icarus]

Jesus is going to be really pissed about this.

[Dave]

Yeah, and we ain't see nuthin yet!

But, impressed as I am by the ability to ballance, overcome obstacles etc these devices are still lacking autonomy. There ain't no intelligence . . . Yet.

I think robot pickers have been done - fairly easy to send a bot to aisle 100, bay 99, shelf 12, location 1, seek and recognise a bar code, call up the dimension and weight, check the actual position . . . . .

But with the advent of things like face recognition and other "subtle skills" there are possibilities that might be a tad scary. Enough miniaturisation, enough "subtle skills" and a kind of pseudo-intelligence might be evident.

Then you have to get enough energy in the picture- a whole other story.

[Recusant]

HOLY CRAP! ROBOT APOCALYPSE!!!
(damn cool. where are we getting all the electricity?)

From the video description:

Handle is a research robot that stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4​ ​feet vertically. ​It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge.

I expect it uses lithium ion batteries. In one of the shots (the "endpoint control" exercise) you can see the thing connected to cords--I imagine that's to allow a direct computer interface.

[Dave]

Thinking (at 0530! ) I could see a scenario where a bot stands in an airport arrivals lounge scanning the arrivees for a face. Then approaching the arrivee it "wants", confirming, vocally, it is the correct person, leading them to a car then "driving" them to wherever.

I think that much technology possibly exists now.

Bit like the robot collecting the captain in Forbidden Planet!

[Arturo]

Thinking (at 0530! ) I could see a scenario where a bot stands in an airport arrivals lounge scanning the arrivees for a face. Then approaching the arrivee it "wants", confirming, vocally, it is the correct person, leading them to a car then "driving" them to wherever.

I think that much technology possibly exists now.

Bit like the robot collecting the captain in Forbidden Planet!

There goes the limo drivers; and uber could get in on that.

[Dave]

Thinking (at 0530! ) I could see a scenario where a bot stands in an airport arrivals lounge scanning the arrivees for a face. Then approaching the arrivee it "wants", confirming, vocally, it is the correct person, leading them to a car then "driving" them to wherever.

I think that much technology possibly exists now.

Bit like the robot collecting the captain in Forbidden Planet!

There goes the link drivers, and uber could get in on that.

Yeah. Could even be programmed to ask inane questions about the flight with as much sincerity as a real taxi driver!

[Arturo]

Thinking (at 0530! ) I could see a scenario where a bot stands in an airport arrivals lounge scanning the arrivees for a face. Then approaching the arrivee it "wants", confirming, vocally, it is the correct person, leading them to a car then "driving" them to wherever.

I think that much technology possibly exists now.

Bit like the robot collecting the captain in Forbidden Planet!

There goes the link drivers, and uber could get in on that.

Yeah. Could even be programmed to ask inane questions about the flight with as much sincerity as a real taxi driver!

[Velma]

Automation is happening is all sorts of businesses you'd never think of. I work for a Fortune 500 company that happens to also be a pharmacy benefits manager. I work in the pharmacy proper. There are entire orders that are never touched by human hands once the drug is loaded into the automated labelers and fillers. We ship out around 70,000 orders a day - not individual vials, but orders from one vial up to 100 or more. We do it with about 300 people, quite a few who are various support personnel not directly related to the actual filling of the prescriptions.

[Dave]

Thinking further (now 0730 so slow with it ): giving a robot instructions to go from GPS location A to GPS location B via a hazard strewn, but possihle, forest path could well be achievable.

At first sight this seems no different to instructing a human, carrying a satnav, to do the same task.

Until a rampant bull moose, or other unprogrammed factor, gets into the game.

[Arturo]

Thinking further (now 0730 so slow with it ): giving a robot instructions to go from GPS location A to GPS location B via a hazard strewn, but possihle, forest path could well be achievable.

At first sight this seems no different to instructing a human, carrying a satnav, to do the same task.

Until a rampant bull moose, or other unprogrammed factor, gets into the game.

I think it is still much easier to tell a human to go to point A then a robot right now.

[Dave]

Thinking further (now 0730 so slow with it ): giving a robot instructions to go from GPS location A to GPS location B via a hazard strewn, but possihle, forest path could well be achievable.

At first sight this seems no different to instructing a human, carrying a satnav, to do the same task.

Until a rampant bull moose, or other unprogrammed factor, gets into the game.

I think it is still much easier to tell a human to go to point A then a robot right now.

Yup, but there might be conditions that a robot could survive and a human could not. Flockbots with infra red sight might be useful for searching.

Horses for courses, but don't bet on a robot nag yet.

[Damn! Everytime I think I have found a neologism some one got there first. "Flockbots" is too obvious I suppise.]

[Biggus Dickus]

The robot's capabilities in the video are awesome, especially the way it can navigate through multiple terrains, quite impressive.

Rod Sterling had a fairly decent take on the issue of automation and the replacement of human workers with machines. The following episode came out in 1964 (Year I was born) and clearly raises some valid points.
Worth watching.

Description of episode here.

[Dragonia]

That robot is pretty amazing, and I think..... yep, .... I think i see a tiny glimmer of a soul in there.