Will computers replace "cheap labor"?
 

One of the things I took away from the GM/Saturn article was that the Japanese plants could produce multiple models from the same plants. It got me to thinking of a scene from the movie "Minority Report". In the scene, Tom Cruse is chased through an automobile plant that is totally automated. Cars are made with nary a human in sight. I have thought of this many times since.

I mean now it is still not economically feasible to even sew clothing together with ONLY computers, which I never understood, because it appeared to be such a simple task (at least on the surface).

When will computers/robots be able to produce entire products with minimal human interaction?

What economic impact will it have?

I would like to hear your thoughts before I give mine.

A couple/weeks ago +1 and I toured a volvo truck manufacturing facility that uses a lot of robots in their manufacturing process. Yes, robots will be doing a lot more in the way of "cheap" labor, ie, repetitive processes. It was amazing to watch those big guys in action. They would automatically move around and get new tools for different jobs, etc. One human managed the work of five or six of the machines from a computer terminal.

That's cool. Better jobs all around. Business processes development, computer hardware, software jobs, higher paying jobs supervising many robots.

I personally think this will be an incredible advancement. Jobs will be imported to the U.S. Why pay to ship goods when you can manufacture them locally? I am not sure how the economy would survive, I would guess it would have to evolve.

I agree. Why not let the machines do the dirty, dangerous, tedius and boring work. Let people think and do a higher level of work and we'll all be better off.

Anyone who is interested in this topic must read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman....published in earlier 2005.

I just started it last evening.....hope to read the remaining 400 pages in the next 10 days :banghead: So far, it's an excellent read :)

I know that as time marches on with computers and robots, we all need to continue to refine our ideas of what makes for valuable human work now and in the future.

I got into computers myself because they are the ultimate tool man has ever developed. They do exactly what you tell them to do, and ,they're getting better and faster at doing it. Also, with clever programming, computers can even be "creative" in some senses.

If you haven't seen or read "I, Robot" I recommend it as a fun time and also as food for thought.

Two interesting asides:

For as long as I can remember people have been talking about how computers were going to create a "paperless" society. I think there is more paper now than ever, and I think it's because of computers.

For as long as I can remember people have been talking about how computers and later robotics were going to eliminate jobs, yet I think computers and robotics have created many more jobs than they eliminated.

^ computers were also supposed to free up our time - what they actually did was allow one person to have the productive of many...and I seem to have longer work hours...

I think they have created a need for a different, more highly skilled worker - or at least with a different set of skills. And with the Internet becoming so pervasive in our lives, security issues have become paramount, creating another set of skilled workers. Remember, the computer only does what a programmer tells it to. And when it has a bug, that programmer has to fix it. Lots of work out there!!