Will Robots invade our daily lives in the next 25 years in the same way that computers have been invading our daily lives for the past 25 years?
This already started to happen. smart cars (autonomous vehicles) tested already and scheduled to be released to industry (commercial) by 2025 (bit optimistic in my opinion). Also Cheetah, "The robotic helping dog" tested that can run with a speed of 65 miles per hour. see 7. https://www.fastcompany.com/3023509/google-buys-bigdog-robot-makers-boston-dynamics.
Michel,
The replacement of human labour, kindled in the Industrial Revolution, is simply going to increase in pace. What *has* been notable, in the last few decades is the onset of the Revolution in smart systems ("AI") which will not only erode physical labour but all but the most esoteric and physiologically-grounded jobs that one might imagine.
From the automated voice-driven telephone menus to the ever-present Google (and related data engines), the role of human effort in the workplace is eroding gradually and irrevocably.
The invasion of computers over the last 25 years has improved the quality of life of man and other living beings? In my opinion, yes. Therefore, the invasion of robots will further improve the quality of life of humans and the other living beings. Robots are and will remain machines; science fiction movies are one thing, everyday reality is quite another thing. Men will have much more time to devote themselves to intellectual work. Perhaps, you could apply a taxes to each robot so that the robot owner saved the labor cost of the robots but pays health and pension contributions and taxes on this job as is the case today for human workers.
The robotic revolution seems to be interesting and cost-effective yet, the humanistic element will remain forever- The truth is that the 'human' element is irreplaceable.
Dickson Adom
There is definitely a large scope for robotics in coming years and surely they are going to play a bigger role in our life.
but I dont think that it will be like robotics revolution.
what all said and done still we prefer man power to do lot of things than robotics as some specified fields still require human supervision/ intervention in delivering the perfect results rather than depending simply on robotics.
And in a country like India, where there is more population and labor is cheap....they prefer men over machine.
I totally recommend and agree with dear Dr.Dickson Adom post.
Regards, Emad
Dear Michael,
Yes, definitely, robotics technologies will swallow our lives. At the moment, either biomedical technologies, workplace employees chips in Sweden, chips glued to fingernails of elderly people with dementia in Japan are only minor examples. We are dominated now, but should we allow it without deeper humanistic reflection for future years? That would be dangerous.
In my biased opinion, nothing has fundamentally changed that merits the term of revolution.
If you take a look at the current state of robotics nothing has fundamentally changed, Boston Dynamics to my knowledge has not been able to become profitable(and it is by far the most advanced in my view), and most of robotics applications with few exceptions are military. Automation is advancing but only in an incremental fashion and not in a fundamentally revolutionary fashion in the robotics space (just as way of example, Zero Moment Point has over 40 years since its conception).
In terms of AI, the hype is so much that it is an understatement that we are in the peak of inflated expectations. While the media is heralding a new era due to deep neural networks, there is no fundamental change in the algorithms(it is still a feedforward NN, but with contrastive divergence which is what gives it better accuracy, convolutional NNs have been around at least since 95) used and it is just a pattern recognition algorithm and not the panacea everyone is expecting. This is just another cycle of euphoria within AI.
Within the AI and robotics community, we have a lot of ground to cover and we must be careful in the expectations that we put forward.
Notwithstanding I am positive on the evolution of robotics and AI, but my expectations remain conservative with respect to these subjects.
It is not a bad thing if the robots do jobs especially a dangerous ones such as in nuclear power stations and some complicated job. But the problem in the future concerning robotics technology could be cyber attack, cyber crime and cyber terrorism. Your personal robot for instance could be hacked and reprogrammed remotely to do other jobs than it is originally supposed to perform. How much can we protect such threat? Even these days nations are through such threats.
Industrial revolutions:
1 "Industrialization" or mechanization
2 Mass production, conveyors, etc.
3 Partial cybernetization
4 Full cybernetization, Smart factory (production), Industry 4.0, Internet of things, smart grid ...
5 Skynet?! (".. Hi, I'm Terminator...I'll be back").
P.s. In fact, to fantasize what will happen after the "Internet of things" is interesting. Nice question!
Dear @Michel, thanks for sharing your question. May I recommend to visit discussion room, very related questions that I have posted in July, 2015. Be my guest. There are more than 570 answers and many good resources.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_we_consider_automation_as_the_enemy_of_employment
Here are some fine articles about the issue of "robotic revolution".
We are still waiting for the robot revolution!
It is in the nature of exponential growth that the near future can easily outweigh the recent past. But we are still waiting. For now, the machine has stalled and the error message reads: “Sorry: this robot takeover could not be completed at present.”
https://www.ft.com/content/4423a404-5c0f-11e7-9bc8-8055f264aa8b
https://www.forbes.com/sites/abb/2017/04/25/should-we-ignore-the-robotics-revolution/#2eb19f61297b
Dear professor Ljubomir,
Thank you for remind me. I had a similar concern in 2015. Please see the attached screen shot or the link.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_you_think-what_we_call_it_Ghosts_in_the_machine_language_might_occur_in_the_future_development_of_robotic_technology_or_automation
I have one fundamental question: Why are you using the value laden word "invade" in the question? The word "invade" carries negative connotations and meanings. Would a different word be more appropriate to use in the question instead of "invade"?
Raul,
Totally agree that the word carries negative connotations, but it is a perception that pervades in the current debate of automation. While I cannot speak for Michel, I can tell you that even within the scientific community there is this sense of displacement that evokes the use of the word. People do feel strongly when they have been displaced due to technological advancement.
Is it true that the next revolution will be the robotics revolution?
With the prevalent progress / success in Internet of Things (IoT) which encompass both Information Technology (IT) & Operations Technology (OT) together with Big Data Analytics, think future robotics will be further improved / complemented by the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning & Deep Learning.
Dear Michel,
Dear Meichel, for this interesting question. Thinks so much for contributors. Yes I'am agree with all contributors. Because Our world is becoming more and more complicated for many reasons and in different areas and different directions with different potentials and arsenals. For example in the field of the environment, pollution has reached critical levels and each year more than 100,000 new molecules whose characteristics are not well identified and are not mastered. The sources of pollution are not yet well controlled.
In terms of resource management, there is a ruthless competition to dominate supermarkets and the maximum of customers with the main hand on all elements of commercial, economic, social and especially technological exchange. Therefore, in the next revolution, robots can play a very important role, well recognized but not decisive.
The question leads to multiple, varied and broad responses. I can say a lot about this, but I limit myself here.
Thank you very much.
With best regards.
Dr. Adel OUESLATI
China is installing more robots than any other nation, and that may affect every other nation...
Automation may drive productivity gains and export competitiveness, but the rising use of robots also threatens to exacerbate domestic income inequality, undermining consumption. And that could spill out beyond the country’s borders...
The “robot revolution” proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2014 will also raise fears of greater inequality as the benefits of productivity gains are skewed toward the owners of capital, at the expense of workers ...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-22/china-s-robot-revolution-may-weigh-on-global-rebalancing
Ljubomir's excellent post shows that things are more complicated than just automation. jobs are being moved around the world and it makes no sense staying in one place. That being said, jobs are not just being moved around but there is a move towards aggressive automation on the part of corporations. While I still hold that the displacement is temporary, there is an additional point that I think is important. Under normal circumstances, if a player is rational he will try to optimize his utility. Under this assumption it is only logical that corporations optimize by automation. Nonetheless, this is driven by an underlying maxim that cheaper product (through automation) is better, and this is the driver that the consumer gives the manufacturer. This also has a side effect that in order to drive costs down the manufacturer (term used very broadly) uses lower quality materials .
I personally prefer a costlier product that has higher quality and with better service(through human interaction which AI still does not give) than one that is cheaper and in the long run costs me more. This implies expending a greater amount of effort to determine quality/cost ratio. If I am to criticize this incentive on the manufacturers I also do something about it.
CAN YOU TRUST A ROBOT?
Picture yourself infirm and elderly, and in need of some reliable, hands-on help with the basics of daily life. Now picture yourself with a robot helper. Would you trust it?
An ERC-funded research project led by Sandra Hirche, professor of control engineering at the Technical University of Munich, could help build that trust. Hirche and her team are using artificial intelligence to develop advanced robotic systems that can work alongside humans in a safe and intuitive manner. If she is successful, robots could act as care givers to the incapacitated, support physical rehabilitation, provide mobility and manipulation aids for the elderly, and – in the workplace – collaborate with humans in manufacturing processes...
https://www.euroscientist.com/can-you-trust-a-robot/
Robots or other artificial révolution is interest only for megapolus.
not in mail nature!!!
Yes of course robotics play important role in any development in future.
Robots can take over a lot of dull monotonous work (that nobody wants to do, actually) and facilitate our lives in this way...
The coming wave of robots will need to hear more, see more and feel more. Each of those capabilities necessitates its own sensors, such as microphones, cameras and, to a lesser extent, touchscreen displays. And each of those requires its own processors.
Then there’s the software underlying robotic capabilities. We believe AI, computer vision, natural language processing and blockchain will be the key enabling forces here...
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/03/the-robot-revolution-is-just-beginning/
Is it true that the next revolution will be the robotics revolution?
I think Artificial Intelligence (AI) encompasses Big Data Analytics, Machine & Deep Learning etc. will be the next revolution. Reason being AI is everywhere or at the center when we talk about Robotic Process Automation, IoT, Smart City, Smart Health e.g. IBM Watson, Connected Car etc. that can replace some human jobs. Robotics / automation brings value when the right analytics are processed or right decision is made before any automation, else we automate error faster or automate faster to fix an error made.
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