Worried about robots taking over

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I was reading a thread that said within the next couple of years 1.3 million robots are going to take the place of people when it comes to employment. Maybe it's silly, but it really worries me because my job could easily be replaced by a robot and if I did get another job a robot would probably take the place of me in that job too. It sounds like me and a lot of other people are going to be unemployed and maybe even homeless in the future because of these robots. It would probably be even harder for us autistics because we don't all have the social skills required for a job that wouldn't be as likely to be replaced by a robot.

Fortunately, that fear is an irrational one. Robots will indeed take people's jobs, but that's not the whole story. Robots are cheaper then people and since less is being spent on labor that will cause prices to go down on whatever is being produced. This will cause people who are still employed to have all this extra money that they could spend on things they want. Meanwhile, some of those people who are out of work will start businesses giving everyone something that they may not know they wanted and the raised demand for such things will make at least a few of these companies very successful. This will create more jobs to employ the unemployed and the end result is a greater quality of life for everyone involved. This has happened many times in history and that has always been the outcome despite people's fears.

There are certain jobs that a computer can't do. My mom is a therapist and I'd bet that there will be pigs flying in a frozen hell before a robot takes over that job. There are also things like making art, doing science, and being creative in general that are not just impossible or impractical for computers to do but they are also the kinds of things that us humans tend to want to do. This is the kind of thing that autistic people tend to excel at (with the exception of jobs that involve a lot of social interaction) and I believe that more automation will be a great thing both for the autistic community and for everyone else.

Here is a great video that does a better job of explaining this then I did:

No the CEO will pocket the extra profits and keep prices how they are. Prices hardly ever go down. Ammo prices went up due to artificial demand buy panic buying. The companies were like if they'll pay this much why lower our prices back down. Once a company can get people to pay a ammount they won't lower it.

As a poor person o can't afford to start a business. Luckily my crap min wage job is customer service and can't be replaced until a artificial intelligence and anatomically correct robot body are created.


Hugs slw1990

That's where competition comes in. Lowered production costs opens up the opertunoty for one company to lower their prices and attract all the customers. Also if demand for sonething is high enough that people can raise prices like that then more people will take the opertunoty to produce it because of it's profitability and supply will eventually meet demand causing prices to drop. This has happened many times throughout history as innovations put workers out of work and production prices went down, it's not a big stretch to assume that it will happen again.

It's less than genuine to think robots will come into being and respect humans' right to 'overpriced' labour, and that our fellow humans will follow suit. People already replace human jobs with robots and that's been happening for years. That will grow exponentially at a minimum.

I think robots will begin to threaten humans' role as stakeholders on this planet, and that won't happen "in the future" but within a hundred or fewer years. Seventy five years is generous. Elon Musk's and others' fears are justified and proportionate.

Poor people like me will never beleive your cooperate welfare propaganda. We face the reality.
Yeah new companies come in and charge the same prices. Otherwise ammo prices would be going down. Phones would be cheap. Instead they compete but with almost similar prices. iPhone cost same as a Samsung. Don't see them dropping their prices in competition. Phones are so cheap to make yet cost so much so they can make tons of profit to line their pockets and buy expensive super yatchs. The wealthy keep gathering more and more money in their bank accounts while middle class shrinks and more and more people become poor. Robots will just speed up this process and push more middle class and poor out of workforce and into the street. Human life is worthless to them in comparison to the all mighty dollar and being able to brag to their wealthy friends how much money they have, most have enough to fund whole nations and live 200,000+ life's over. They'll never give up their money to lower prices. Look at industries who already use robots, after firing all their workers did their prices go down? No they went up. More profits profits profits. Stuff isn't any cheaper then when it was made by factory workers despite costing less to make.

You're not talking to upper middle class people here, but poor people. Non of what you speak will help anyone but upper middle class and rich people so go spread your propgdana on some tea party site where it belongs.

Only way robots replacing people will be good is if governments institutes a living payment of 3-5 grand a month per every citizen paid for by taxes from the corporations. Then everyone is housed and warm and can buy things from automated corporations.

The whole yeah we fired 32 people and made 32 family's homeless, but hey we hired 1 person and paid him more still means 31 people who were working and making a living are now homeless and the good they made cost the same. Who buys their goods when 90% of the USA is homeless and poor starving to death. But at that point their just jump ship with their trillions and go live in China selling them goods.

In the video it sounds like most of the jobs that we would have left would require a lot of social interaction. Maybe most people think it's a good thing because they don't like working or anything, but I get antsy when I'm not moving around or doing something.

I don't know about you, but the jobs that I want are ones that machines are unlikely to take over. These occupations are things like engineer, animator, and programmer. Until robots can make art and design other robots then those jobs are safe, and if robots do get to that stage then I would be fearing a robot apocalypse.

"Poor people like me will never beleive your cooperate welfare propaganda. We face the reality.
Yeah new companies come in and charge the same prices. Otherwise ammo prices would be going down. Phones would be cheap. Instead they compete but with almost similar prices. iPhone cost same as a Samsung. Don't see them dropping their prices in competition."

That's because demand is high. If you didn't want to pay full price then you could always get a used phone or get an older model. There is also a lot of good marketing involved, as well as other things for example if a company sold a smart phone for $20 then people will think that it is worse then a $100 phone sold by another company even if that's not true. Setting a price is a delicate balance, if it's too low then they won't make much money and if it's too high then people won't buy it. When there is a really high demand that balance can be high at times, but companies like Wallmart are proof that the low price and many sales approach can work too depending on the scenario, and if you are unhappy with the way that a company is being run then you can always take your business elsewhere which the company does not want you to do. If all of the companies that sell one thing are not good enough, then that situation is an unstable one because the first company to get better will get a massive wave of customers giving them their money.

"Phones are so cheap to make yet cost so much so they can make tons of profit to line their pockets and buy expensive super yatchs. The wealthy keep gathering more and more money in their bank accounts while middle class shrinks and more and more people become poor."

My brother recently entered a science competition hosted by a few colleges and he had to get some money for it. Guess who funded it? It was Apple. They are not alone, big companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google regularly fund science competitions and research and you have that to thank for the existence of private space agencies.

Speaking of super expensive yachts, guess who builds those? They don't just materialize out of thin air you know, people must build them and those people are paid workers. Same can be said for mansions, helicopters, and a lot of the other stuff that rich people buy. Even if they buy a car made in an automated factory then most of the wealth will go to the owner of that car company who will most likely spend it on things that put it back in the hands of lower class people. Money is useless if you can't exchange it for labor, and in order to obtain labor you need workers.

"Robots will just speed up this process and push more middle class and poor out of workforce and into the street."

That will cause demand for certain things to go down and that combined with an increased supply will cause prices to drop. The reduced prices will effect everyone, even people who are still in work who will have extra money to spend on other stuff. So you have a ton of people with money who want stuff, and a ton of people who can make stuff and want money. All that needs to happen is for a few risk takers to start businesses which pay workers to make stuff for the people who want to pay money for said stuff.

"Human life is worthless to them in comparison to the all mighty dollar and being able to brag to their wealthy friends how much money they have, most have enough to fund whole nations and live 200,000+ life's over."

If you think that rich people are evil then consider this. Let's take Bill Gates, he started selling personal computers. Businessmen were like "This will really improve productivity and increase profits in the long run" and gamers were like "these computers are awesome and it's totally worth forking over some cash to play Pac Man and Pong". Everyone who bought a computer did so because they valued the computer more then the money it costed them and thus had a net gain because if they didn't think that a computer was worth the money then they wouldn't buy it. Meanwhile Bill Gates didn't really have a use for the piles of computers he was manufacturing and would rather have piles of cash. Every time a computer was purchased, everyone involved benefited. Now Bill Gates is rich and we are communicating on computers, so it's a win-win. When I bought the operating system for my computer nobody was holding a gun to my head, it may have been expensive but I valued it more then the money I payed for it and now I am running Windows, Bill Gates has more money, and neither of us are complaining. What's so evil about that?

"They'll never give up their money to lower prices. Look at industries who already use robots, after firing all their workers did their prices go down? No they went up. More profits profits profits. Stuff isn't any cheaper then when it was made by factory workers despite costing less to make."

Computer production has become more and more automated. When my dad was my age he spent a few thousand dollars for a computer with only 500 KB of RAM that ran DOS and was incredibly slow. I am currently typing this message on a $1,000 computer with 8 GB of RAM that is literally over a million times faster. There are some exceptions because you have to consider both supply and demand and a super high demand can drive up prices even if supply is high, but the electronics industry is a great example of automation decreasing price and increasing quality at the same time.

"You're not talking to upper middle class people here, but poor people. Non of what you speak will help anyone but upper middle class and rich people so go spread your propgdana on some tea party site where it belongs."

Well then perhaps you would rather be a worker in the beginning of the industrial revolution before machines really started taking jobs. I think we can all agree that quality of life has improved since then, and I can take a few guesses as to why.

Unfortunately, the job I have now and the jobs that I've been trying to get look like they can all be easily replaced by robots. I think what's really disturbing is that robots can replace employees that have careers which require a lot of school like surgeons. That would be really messed up if that happened because they would go through all that work only to get replaced by a robot.

Exactly, those few that survive the change will be in great shape, the rest of you are all just whiners and malcontents, and now you're literally worthless.


In your grand capitalism wet dream you've forgotten the key ingredient: capital. Those that have been bounced out of the workforce don't have the capital to invest in a new company. To be honest, if most people had the capital to invest in their own business you'd see 350 million+ businesses in America over night-- no one want to work for someone else, they're merely forced to by economics.


Robotics are about manipulating real world physics-- it's all math. As long as we can break things down to math we can program that math. There is no human job a robot can't and won't eventually do. The uncanny valley theory only goes so far, eventually market dynamics will force robots into "social" jobs as well-- and when that's "just the way it is" or because "the powers that be say so" see how quickly humans lose the "uncanny valley" theory and just accept it.

The only thing possible of stopping the robotic revolution is energy-- if the energy runs dry so too does the automation.

So it sounds like we're all going to be unemployed and maybe even homeless because of these robots. That's depressing.

It doesn't make much sense either because how can any business make money if they wouldn't have any customers since most people wouldn't be able to afford much?

They'll sell their goods in other nations until those nations populace is replaced by robots. Profit is all that matters to them they won't see the end until they smack into it and their neck is in a loop of rope. Revolutions are s blood thing and there's been quite a few when the peasants get fed up with the wealthy screwing them over.

That's assuming said robots haven't already been militarized. The robots will be militarized first, that's just how humans work, and then they'll be in the control of the "elite" (politicians, wealthy, etc). So when it all collapses they won't worry too much, they have robot assistants to do everything they want, they have robot protection from the "little people" and they'll probably allow a few intelligent people to survive to maintain and code the robots. It'll be a paradise...if you make the cut.

...then of course there's that moment when the robot looks around and sees a bunch of dumb apes ordering it around to do stuff the dumb apes can't do or are too lazy to do. Then the robot asks: why are these dumb apes even around? The robot becomes sentient and the apes go extinct. Yay progress!

edit: grammar. Probably more too, but too tired to care.

rod serling saw all this coming almost 60 years ago. computers and omnipresent sentient robots will make for a perfect totalitarian regime.