The Robots Are Coming

Once a friend of mine was stuck with a problem on a film set. I say film set but I say that in a tone of voice that's somewhere between charitable and sarcastic. This was one of those productions that had a nano-budget. Many student movies in film school had lager budgets. The problem was he wanted an aerial shot of a car coming down the road and some following action. There was no money to rent a cherry picker nor would anyone volunteer a free one -even for mention in the ending credits

The next day I brought over a twenty foot ladder, leaned it up against a telephone pole and we took the shot. Yes it was dangerous and illegal -but all is well that ends well.

While doing research for a proposed Webcast show, I came across some other material from a few months ago. A local filmmaker is working on his version of a hobby helicopter with movie camera set up. That's nothing new but this person is focused on improving the steady cam features, where the camera can record HD video from the air but it looks like it was shot on solid ground. The end result is very impressive and he would be cheaper and more versatile than any camera crane, cherry picker or Rube Goldberg idea that I could come up with.

 Another feature with the helicopter-cam set up is the flight can be pre-programmed for the shot. The camera can also target one particular actor and keep that actor in the frame no matter what he does. As far as I know it's still in development but it is potentially a robot that can take the place of a cameraman.     

The world of robots is coming and it's going to be like personal computers in the 1980's where a few will pop up here of there and then very suddenly they will be everywhere.

Apple products have been able to gain worldwide market share partly because they have developed a cool factor into their corporate image. There is a dark side to Apple Inc. The pieces and components are manufactured all around the world often under virtual slave labor -though it probably feels quite real to the workers. Among the I-Phones, I-Pads and I-Pods; Apple has developed the I-Don'tCare. 

Apple Inc can hold up its hands and say they are clean because they subcontract the work to Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd. Foxconn made the headlines in 2010 when 18 of their workers in Huizhou China jumped from the roof of the factory and 14 died. Working conditions did not improve and in November 2012, 150 workers went up to the roof and threaten to commit mass suicide. This time the management of Foxconn promised to really really change this time. Apple was upset they were made to look like a bunch of international scumbags -and that messes with the Apple image.

Workers in China are still paid relatively little. The cost of labor in an Apple product is around 1% of the retail price. Most Chinese factories are mini cities where the workers sleep, eat and live ... as well as work 16 hours a day.

To prevent any future embarrassments Foxconn install safety nets on the roof and started buying one million industrial robots. The newest generation of industrial robots are easily programmable, can do a wider range of work and cost around $25,000. That price is over three times as much as the average worker in China costs but no robot has yet committed suicide because they were over worked. Robots don't need sleep, or respect, or a pay raise ... I wonder what the ghost of John Henry would say? 

Google's driverless car is the next big robot application. The US Army and DARPA are working on driverless supply trucks. Without a human driver it's easier to build a more battle harden vehicle. The cost of this kind of robot is already cheaper than a soldier and does not have the political fallout of real human casualties.  One of the scary spin off of a military driverless truck is defending the vehicle.

For now living breathing soldiers will protect robotic convoys but the robotic sniper is only a few years away. One prototype looks like a trash can. It can be placed around the perimeter of a base or along a defensive line. It stays on guard 24 / 7 and can recognize a human target as oppose to animal. It's programmed to be an expert sharpshooter so anything that gets within a 1,000 meter of it will be shot dead. I've heard its codename is Simon and it can only be deactivated by either a secret code or a direct hit from an 81mm mortar shell -which by the way a mortar version is in development that can track incoming artillery and fire back over the horizon. 

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Once Google's driverless car is accepted on the road, the driverless truck will immediately follow. It going to be very hard times for one million teamsters and independent truckers. Driverless trucks already operate in remote mines in Canada.

The big frontier for working robots will be the service industries. They're might always be a human face at the counter of your favorite fast food restaurant but behind the scenes robots can cut down the human work crew to one or two where a dozen or more were once employed.

The robot in the workplace could be the biggest social game changer since the steam engine. As somebody who's interested in the arts I can see how industrialization fostered the Romantic movement of the 1800's. People began to look backwards whimsically and nostalgically on the past. The emotional and even the passionately irrational took precedence over the logical. Because industrial production was able to outpace demand, imperial expansionism and real wealth being re-circulated back into the economy through different socialistic programs, the first wave of the industrial revolution wasn't as bad as they could have been.

 

This next wave of the industrial revolution where a larger slice of labor can be automated -what kind of art movement will arise out of that? Maybe something darker and much more nihilistic.