Are the Machines About to Take Over?

A humanoid robot recently completed a half-marathon for robots in Beijing, and did so in record time. The robot ran the race about seven minutes quicker than any human being has ever done in competition, accomplished last March in Lisbon, at about 57 minutes.

The robot winner was an entrant from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward from last year’s inaugural race, during which the winning robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes.

The competition was held alongside humans, and like humans, not every robot made the distance. At least one robot fell and at least one more bumped into barriers. About 40% of the robots ran autonomously while others were remotely controlled.

Du Xiaodi, Honor’s test development engineer, said his team was happy with the results. The robot was designed based on traits of outstanding human athletes, including long legs at 37”/95 cm. It was also equipped with a powerful liquid-cooling system.

While it will still take time to achieve widespread commercialization of humanoid robots, spectators were impressed by the robots. Sun Zhigang, who had been in the audience last year, watched Sunday’s race with his son. “I feel enormous changes this year. It’s the first time robots have surpassed humans, and that’s something I never imagined,” he said.

Well, people better start imagining it. The industrial age, now a century old, slowly changed how humans worked, or more accurately, didn’t work. Production lines, with humans doing all of the work, slowly transformed into a process run by automation via endless rows of machinery doing most of the work. Many workers were let go, to be replaced by far fewer workers simply maintaining the machinery.

Now we need to wonder, is humanity creating it’s own demise? Cashiers have already been replaced by self-checkout and self-bagging in many places, though easier theft and some human backlash has caused some companies to reconsider. Kiosks have replaced order takers at many fast-food restaurants, although again, people like me, refuse to use them. I leave the house for human interaction, not a mingling with machines.

What’s next? Robot nurses and doctors? Robot carpenters? Robot plumbers? On the other hand, robot garbage collectors wouldn’t be so bad. Who wants to do that kind of work. Ask yourself, “What’s more likely to happen? A robot breakdown in the middle of a colonoscopy or a human having a heart attack mid-procedure?” It’s something to consider.

Tech is great when it works, but it’s a disaster when it doesn’t. Think of airport computer breakdowns - everyone is temporarily stranded. Think about when your cell service breaks down. Many depend on their phones for everything, from online meetings and banking, to kitty videos for entertainment.

Don’t get me wrong. I love technology, What I don’t love is our dependence on it. Most of us who aren’t Amish don’t have a clue as to how to exist when modern day tools break down. That will only get worse if robots take over every job that doesn’t require FIXING the robots.

Source used: Associated Press