Just a little more info.

Design World - Success in Industrial Robotics Seen Globally

The article says;
"In 2011, about 165,000 industrial robots were sold worldwide"

Those 165,000 robots probably put a million or more people out of work. And to be honest, i think its an underestimated figure. Many more functions in factories are being automated, removing the need for a person.

Machines themselves do the work of hundreds of people. One human man might hand-carve 20 little wooden toys in a day. But you can make a machine that will automatically produce 50,000 toys a day to feed the whole world with that particular toy. So one automated machine in China or South Korea can make thousands of people unemployed in hundreds of countries all over the world.

John.

Just a little more info.

Design World - Success in Industrial Robotics Seen Globally

But wait, isn't Romney a robot? <smile> -- Representative of bad code though.

Just wait until machines reproduce themselves... Oh, wait.

Ok, that still takes much human intervention. But wait until they can reproduce by themselves in 100% entirety.

I wouldn't mind if they're anything like this.....

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What we need is a machine that does the work of ten men but takes twelve men to operate it.

Lol, next time you see some construction happening you will see just that.

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#resist

Just wait until machines reproduce themselves... Oh, wait.

Ok, that still takes much human intervention. But wait until they can reproduce by themselves in 100% entirety.

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#resist

We have, it's called a Government .....

What we need is a machine that does the work of ten men but takes twelve men to operate it.

The human damage caused by long-term use of short-handled hoes, which required the user to bend over from the waist to reach the ground, and caused permanent, crippling lower back pain to farm workers, resulted in the California Supreme Court declaring the short-handled hoe to be an unsafe hand tool that was banned under California law.[citation needed] The short-handled hoe that Governor Jerry Brown gave to César Chávez in 1975 was displayed in the California Hall of Fame in 2006.

Throughout history man has invented and used tools and implements to aid him in day to day living. As technology advances so do state of the art tools. I remember the first plugboard capstan lathes in the early 1960's, now we have CNC machining centres. V8 cylinder block from solid I defy anyone to watch that 10 minute video and not be impressed.

Yes robots are taking over because they are more efficient BUT, someone has to design them and someone has to maintain them. Mankind isn't totally redundant yet.

It's been a complaint throughout history, Luddites, weavers complained about the jacquard loom, farm labourers complained about steam engines, etc etc.

I thought farm laborers complained about the short handled hoe?

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It's been a complaint throughout history, Luddites, weavers complained about the jacquard loom, farm labourers complained about steam engines, etc etc.

That may well be so Gary, but I think the OP was more generally commenting upon general mechanization taking away human jobs. But even Ford Model T's were built on a production line with mechanical aids.

Robots prevent carpal tunnel injuries. They save humans pain and suffering.

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We have robots at work machineing parts 24/7 Thing is they tried to let the robots run unsupervised. The stupid thing didnt know when to make an offset so it would make many bad parts. They finally took the probes out and now we supervise the robot and make our own offsets.

From what I understand its a program issue. The company didnt want to spend the extra cash for the fully autonomus version.

Like others have said, Somebody has to keep an eye on them and fix them.

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Old James

Yes robots are taking over the more mundane and repetitive tasks. That leaves Man to concentrate on designing better robots! How much more do you think your family car would cost you if it was all built by hand as in the past? We in the UK had a car industry once that was the envy of the world, the trade unions destroyed it. If we had had robots 50 years ago we might have saved Fords at Dagenham.

They are not taking our jobs Johnney, that is an alarmist statement, what they are doing is performing repetitive tasks at a higher quality of output than we can. There will be a long way to go yet before we have robot butlers and maids beloved of sci fi writers.

this takes the jobs of three people

Bit optimistic there aren't you. If you do the figures of machine working 24/7/365 and people doing 35/week then there needs to be a min of 5 people working. And that assumes the people work for every one of the 35 hours and is not sick or want holidays etc. etc.

So I would say "this takes the jobs of seven people"

But you would need 7 robot maintenance, repair people at a higher rate of pay.

WinterKnight,
I was being conservative. But your right. Robots don't get sick, they don't get hangovers, they don't complain, they won't sue you if their parts break, and they don't want redundancy payment when your finished with them. In fact, when your finished with the robot, your can sell it on. And as you say, they work 24/7/365 and never back answer you.

So 1 robot does the work of many people. Why would anyone employ a human being? If you hire humans, your just drawing trouble on yourself.

John.

But it just causes management confusion not knowing whether the maintenance people should be idle or working.

They would not like to see people idle, but then would get panicy when the maintenance people were working because an idle robot would mean lack of output and a reduction in profits.

this takes the jobs of three people

Bit optimistic there aren't you. If you do the figures of machine working 24/7/365 and people doing 35/week then there needs to be a min of 5 people working. And that assumes the people work for every one of the 35 hours and is not sick or want holidays etc. etc.

So I would say "this takes the jobs of seven people"

But you would need 7 robot maintenance, repair people at a higher rate of pay.

WinterKnight,
I was being conservative. But your right. Robots don't get sick, they don't get hangovers, they don't complain, they won't sue you if their parts break, and they don't want redundancy payment when your finished with them. In fact, when your finished with the robot, your can sell it on. And as you say, they work 24/7/365 and never back answer you.

So 1 robot does the work of many people. Why would anyone employ a human being? If you hire humans, your just drawing trouble on yourself.

John.

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this takes the jobs of three people

Bit optimistic there aren't you. If you do the figures of machine working 24/7/365 and people doing 35/week then there needs to be a min of 5 people working. And that assumes the people work for every one of the 35 hours and is not sick or want holidays etc. etc.

So I would say "this takes the jobs of seven people"

But you would need 7 robot maintenance, repair people at a higher rate of pay.

Whichever answer Johnney receives first, he will disagree with and tell us the old book will reveal in a few years how very wrong we are.

this takes the jobs of three people

Bit optimistic there aren't you. If you do the figures of machine working 24/7/365 and people doing 35/week then there needs to be a min of 5 people working. And that assumes the people work for every one of the 35 hours and is not sick or want holidays etc. etc.

So I would say "this takes the jobs of seven people"

But you would need 7 robot maintenance, repair people at a higher rate of pay.

Robots cost less to feed than people and they are more accurate.

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