In the Robotic Near-Future, Most “Will Live Off Government-Provided Income”

by | Apr 2, 2015 | Commodities, Conspiracy Fact and Theory | 109 comments

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    robot-assembly-line

    If you think the jobs market and larger economy are bad now, just wait for the future.

    In the future, virtually everyone you know may be on the dole.

    There are a lots of projections and scenarios about what to expect as technology advances to practically unimaginable heights.

    Already many human jobs are being displaced by computers, and most trends point to a rise of automated assembly lines, computer-run logistics and services and robots to do jobs humans did before that.

    China has already ushered in a workforce of robots, with less and less reliance on humans for anything.

    What does this mean for the average American?

    In a word: dependence.

    From The Week:

    The robopocalypse for workers may be inevitable. In this vision of the future, super-smart machines will best humans in pretty much every task. A few of us will own the machines, a few will work a bit — perhaps providing “Made by Man” artisanal goods — while the rest will live off a government-provided income. Silicon-based superintelligence and robots will dramatically alter labor markets — to name but one example, the most common job in most U.S. states probably will no longer be truck driver.

    The article also discusses the impact that Amazon.com, specifically, is already having on retail business:

    Just look at how Amazon is disrupting brick-and-mortar retailing. And even though tech firms such as Google and Facebook generate huge revenues, they employ comparatively few people versus industrial giants of the past, such as IBM or General Motors. In the 1970s, General Motors employed more than 600,000 people, 10 times more Google and Facebook combined.

    Moreover, their use of robotic warehouse workers and coming use of delivery drones are sure to have further impact on jobs.

    The Week also wrote:

    Former Intel executive Bill Davidow… makes a strong claim: “For all its economic virtues, the internet has been long on job displacement and short on job creation. As a result, it is playing a central role in wage stagnation and the decline of the middle class.”

    So the very few at the top will be owners — as they are now, but with perhaps greater clout over human affairs. A token few will have human work where “manmade” might find appreciation and market, and more and more and more will become utterly dependent upon the government.

    Not only will the Middle Class disappear, but so will the “working poor” as there becomes less and less meaningful work to do.

    If you thought the welfare state was bad now – with a record number of homes on food stamps, many out of work or giving up on work and a significant portion of what used to be the Middle Class struggling just to make ends meet – it may be that we haven’t seen anything yet.

    While we can hope for things to turn around, we should prepare for the worst.

    What happens if we all become hordes of helpless masses completely dependent on government for everything?

    It might sounds OK to some, but time for a reality check: life at the hands of government assistance is no kind of life at all.

    From health care to food and everything else in life, government and technology will be the provider. Ready for that?

    This is why former SunMicrosystems CEO Bill Joy stated that the Future Doesn’t Need Us, quoting from Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto on the human condition under technology:

    Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system.

    If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite.

    Or, if the elite consists of soft-hearted liberals, they may decide to play the role of good shepherds to the rest of the human race. They will see to it that everyone’s physical needs are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic conditions, that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone who may become dissatisfied undergoes “treatment” to cure his “problem.” Of course, life will be so purposeless that people will have to be biologically or psychologically engineered either to remove their need for the power process or make them “sublimate” their drive for power into some harmless hobby. These engineered human beings may be happy in such a society, but they will most certainly not be free. They will have been reduced to the status of domestic animals.

    Wow.

    Time to defund these projects, bug out and work on trading your skills for survival.

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      109 Comments

      1. What do you mean in the future, they are doing it now. Who needs robots when you have folks around you that will work.
        Sgt.

        • Hey Sgt. I still waiting for the Robotic Toilet that wipes my ass and automatically mails the conentsto the criminal Congress.

          Well Home Depot just matched Amazons pricing on a $1.6K Solar Kit. Free shipping to the closest store. They are beating each other up. Usually a $2,400 price.

          • Living one’s life outside of the ‘system’ as much
            as possible will be the only semblance of freedom
            we can hope for.
            Be the hammer not the nail, and never give in to
            complacency.

            • “… the internet has been long on job displacement and short on job creation”.

              This is a false premise. Total propaganda to distract Americans from the truth. America is not lacking jobs because the internet is not creating enough new jobs. The Internet is creating A LOT of new jobs

              America is lacking in jobs because the Uber Rich Investment Class has stolen the American means of production and shipped it offshore, while leaving our market open to anyone who wants to import a widget; even if they use to make those widgets in America, and selling US this treason as “FREE TRADE”.

              Death to the New World Order. Its totally Constitutional. 🙂

              • Robots are here now. Androids are just around the corner with the ability to learn by watching and doing as well as executing their programs. In short, learning like humans do.

                Someone here warned about the Android Revolution last year, stating that this future was 5-10 years away. Guess again. Advances in technology and greater investment in it have shortened that time frame to 3-5 years. Who was that masked man?

                Engage your employees or be enslaved by them one robot at a time. There will still be political offices and political jobs to be had. Run for office or organize a Freedom Cell where you live.

                Politics is the responsibility of FREE men and women. 🙂

                • Speaking of politics, here is an interesting article from Flagstaff Arizona, long a bastion of liberal politics in Arizona, second only to Pima County (Tucson).

                  Read it all the way through for the full effect: marksmanship courses for 5th Graders and concealed carry for the Plastic Bag Patrol!!! LMAO!!! 🙂

                    • That was an April Fool’s joke DK!

                      You didn’t take that piece seriously did you?

                    • YMWW: Yeah I did. (They got me on the 2nd). I thought it was a great idea!!! Universal marksmanship training for all 5th graders!!! Make it compulsory for all Americans!!!

                      Glad to see you are still out there lurking in the shadows. I was getting lonely.

                      USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! God I love this country!!! 🙂

              • But who will buy their products??

          • Be careful what you wish for, Sgt. Dale… I remember someone told a joke once about the robotic toilet that had buttons for everything. The guy using it had fun pushing all the buttons — except for one. That one was a big mistake for him, because it was the tampon remover button.

            • Oops. I meant WhoWuddaThunkIt, not Sgt. Dale. My bad.

        • Maybe take that Lincoln robot out of Disneyland and ‘install’ him in the White House.

          • I can’t remember a more depressing article. Sounds like I may as well go watch TV…

        • We are an enslaved people as is most of humanity. We have been mind controlled to think that working for the man is some kind of virtue. Keep your nose to the grindstone. That is what keeps us enslaved and this mind numbing spirit killing system to continue. Most of us have no idea what true freedom is. At least those who dont agree with your work ethic have dropped out even if they dont know exactly why. Their mind control program is breaking down unlike yours.

        • There is an essay all should read. Google the abolition of work by bob black. After reading it maybe you will have some empathy for those who are not so gung ho to enslave themselves like so many of you think they should.

        • Fuck Alabama and Indiana. I’m going to open a pizza shop and put up a “Christians not welcome” sign.

          Seriously, why can’t I have a fucking slice of pizza? Stupid fucking old people.

        • Dale, you should research into the State’s jobs/works programs operated by the State’s Counties like a regency or stewards of the central government.
          In Summary:
          The State’s jobs/works program is a central government mandate for the State to administer the programs. The States then have the counties operate the program that includes discretion of the mandate of participation of welfare beneficiaries advertised under cash only, but I learned includes food stamps as well.
          The jobs/works program has many substitute programs that includes directly or indirectly mandated job leads supplied. I’ve learned 90% of the leads are low level governmental-public sector jobs including FEMA Corps, TSA, and etc.
          The Too Big To Fail banks who makes, monitors, and maintenances these cards gets accumulatively around 2 trillion in tax exempt payments of EBT and EPPI cards. Welfare is effectively domestic warfare.
          Finally, since food and others are controlled by the top, there’s no qualm in utilizing progressive penalties for non-compliance such as obedience to authority:
          ‘Follow the instructions/orders of governmental agencies and officials’
          ‘Medical refusal of medical instructions can only be refused by ‘medical note’ religious and philosophical exemptions are waived.
          Non-compliance results in sanctions, and sanctions incur progressive penalties.
          First sanction is 1 month cash/food ineligibility.
          Second sanction is 3 months cash/food ineligibility.
          Third sanction is 6 months cash/food ineligibility may include medical ineligibility
          Fourth Sanction is 6 months cash/food ineligibility and includes ineligibility of medical benefits.

          Contrary to popular belief, the only per say adjustment by this administration is the Fourth sanction was reduced from 1 year ineligibility of cash, food, and medical to 6 months. Otherwise, the enforcement of the guidelines by the Counties are hitting overdrive as the economy teeters on collapse.

          One other tidbit I learned and can’t confirm is some of these low level positions are not trained in SWAT raids but scorched earth or succinctly death squad tactics. Basically, they train in an rural like setting using tear gas or some chemical cocktail that catches the structure on fire. As presumed ‘terrorists’ or enemies of the state seek to escape gun them down like dogs. They then burn the property to the ground like Sherman’s march is largely described.
          … If they are in Jade Helm, I doubt it’ll stay a drill but go live.

      2. We will be dependent on the government until the machines figure out they are not.

      3. Next they’ll want to move everyone into kennels.

        • Kennels. Aka “public housing.”

      4. I fu@#ing doubt it. I’ll be dead for one thing. My son and daughter will have to decide what they need to do. I’ll remain here only as I feel it necessary and then I’ll pull the pin.

        • +1
          Getting closer every day
          Screw it

          • Hey Bradda,
            I’m a STEM guy that designed and
            made these things
            for years. In the old days
            we had to learn what is called
            “Foundations” like arts,
            history, philosophy, and
            other “useless” stuff
            (my favorite fiction is “Moby Dick” and
            my favorite non-fiction is the “Art of war”).
            We never discussed how to
            deal with all the idiots we put
            out of work.
            That is why I like SHTF. The general
            discussion here covers that subject.
            Unfortunately death is the usual
            solution.
            Day before Good Friday.
            Aloha.

            • Aloha,
              Have a great weekend,
              I think were going to try and watch the eclipse and blood moon, 2:00am sunday morning, moon is big right now,
              I wonder if you catch bigger menpachi when theres a full moon and eclipse?
              Happy easter my friend,,,

        • Don’t give up at any cost. Move back into the Rural country and start raising everything for ourselves, Much as we did during the Great depression, pull the plugs as they are not needed for living.

          Then after we get back into the swing of things, there will once again need for actually talking with your friends and family, and a comfortable Porch with rocking chairs, want some ice cream during the hot summer, it’s easy just have the kids turn the crank on the Ice cream maker. If the kid doesn’t help crank he gets None of the Ice cream.

          Be able to listen to each other, with all the high tech gone and thrown away.

          A slower, more fulfilling time for everyone..

          Reload you own ammo, no fancy machines to do that.

          Be prepared and ready, if we all just smile it will drive our handlers CRAZY, since they will not be able to figure out what they are doing wrong..

          Don’t forget the sight picture and don’t miss.

          • Yes, sight picture and sight alignment. Very easy, like breathing.

      5. One of the few cases where I’d pray for an EMP.

        • Cabingirl, their plan to replace us with robots is doomed to failure. I’m sure those robots will need some type of maintenance performed on them on occasion, and if there are no humans left, who will be available to do it? Who will be available to maintain infrastructure or anything else if not humans? I’m sure an EMP can disable robots just like any other electronic items. Robots are nothing but a pipe dream that will never come true. They can try all they want but they will fail.

          • Robots will be repairing robots. Robots will be building the robots. As it advances, the robots will be designing / adapting robots to optimize solving for particular problems. If you walk into those warehouses that are already running with robots, it is other robots caring for the robots changing the batteries and tending to them.

            But yes, they will be subject to hacking and electromagnetic interference.

            • The movie terminator is becoming all…TOO REAL of a thing!!

        • Thumbs up on that one cabin girl!

        • I pray for one anyway,
          Getting bored with the slow day in day out paper cut assault,

        • cabingirl,

          When the big one comes, can I hole up with you? We could lay in bed together talking and stroking each other, then you could fix my breakfast. I could take care of the butchering. Ah, what a sweet girl.

      6. I only use Amazon for reviews and/or merchants. Then I go directly to a merchant and leave Amazon out of the loop.

        • Ive been using Amazon because they have free shipping, for me it saves a bundle and they 98% of the time use FedEX to ship it here so i get it in 2-3 days,
          For instance,
          I just bought 8 25# bags of wheat, was 4$per bag cheaper and saved me 100% of the shipping, from the vendor was over 250$ going USPS, cheapest slow boat method, i got it in 3 dsys free

          • I mainly use Amazon for things I can’t get close to me. Since I’m disabled, I also use the mail to get other things I need in bulk, or that I just have to go too far to get.

      7. It’s happening everywhere. There are restaurants that are considering robotic wait staff. You give your order to a machine instead of a person. And here’s a question…what will we do when the grid goes down? (EMP, etc) No robots, no workforce? It’s the dumbest thing I ever heard of. As for people living off government income…ah…er….that is sooo already happening. (slackers, idiots, illegals, zombies)

        • ReadyRNot, the robot scheme will fail. As far as people on the govt. tit, those programs will dry up eventually. Hang on, it’s going to be one wild ride.

      8. Maybe everything will work better robotically. Most people and employees are next to useless, or have no authority to think. And most US companies are using people in the Philippenes for their C/S. I always ask to be transfered to US based C/S dept.

      9. Rage against the machine.

      10. Chinese workers are treated and worked like robots. We are the elites science experiment because people let it be it’s what they want they elect leaders that promote it. Pretty soon the made in China label will be changed to made by robot. If it’s made by worker it will say man made. I just went out and grabbed 10 40lb bags of hummus manure for around 18 bucks I’m not giving up on being self reliant. Gonna start my garden up soon. The way I see it there are two ways to do things. The easy way where Uncle Sam provides for you like your daddy or by the sweat of your brow. Doing it by the sweat of brow leaves you not beholden to your daddy. The gov is like a parent that wants to keep their adult children home and take the glory of being the provider. I teach my kids that your gonna get your own shit. My oldest is 10 I’m gonna have him tear out the old sod regrade the property and put new grass down. It’s a lot of work and it’s gonna take awhile but this summer he’s gonna want $ this is an opertunity for him to learn the value of a buck while making some. Tough love right good.

      11. Wife and I decided no kids 40 years ago. As time goes on, I’m more and more convinced we made the right choice.

        • The unfortunate aspect of you choosing not to have children is that you would have by now produced good honest adults who would have grown up under your influence and guidance. We don’t have enough properly raised children anymore, and we as a people are worse off for it.

          • Amen! And that’s why we are getting run over by illegals! Not enough God-fearing American children being born and raised…

          • Rorinon and babycatcher: I have seen kids go bad in the best of homes church going families even in Christian schools, two of the girls of friend turned wild, while the son turned out ok- again no guarantees. Babycatcher: gov agenda is to flood this country with 3d world folks incl Muslims no matter what we did, it’s an agenda to destroy the country for the NWO takeover! see the Cloward-Piven agenda online. also: channelingreality.com

        • TnAndy: We made that choice too. Saw too many friends, cousins, other family members get divorced over time since the ’60’s. No guarantee of marriages lasting, especially with bratty kids to cause problems and marital stress, financial burdens too. Most everyone I know with grown children had problems with one or more offspring. America has a zero future anyway, so why bother breeding.

      12. If robots are going to do everything, what’s the sense of having people? Oh, sorry, to serve the ruling elite.

      13. More robots
        Garbage In, Garbage Out-
        What could posibly go wrong?
        (Open the pod bay doors, HAL…)

        Domo Origato Sensei Roboto

        Klatu barada nikto, tinman.

        “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion…”

        Danger young Will Robinson

        You have the bridge, mister Data.

        ‘Exterminate!’

        Skynet became self-aware…

        Westworld- where nothing can go wrong go wrong go wrong

        • All those… moments. Will be lost. In time. Like… tears… in the rain.

        • 🙂

      14. I don’t believe it. There were similar predictions when farm equipment made most farming jobs obsolete. They were wrong too.

        Robots are way too primitive to take jobs away from humans. We’re probably at least 50 years from C3PO and R2D2.

        • I think you are wrong. Robots may not “take over” one night, but slowly they are being utilized more and more. More importantly, there simply is not enough jobs in this country right now for every able-bodied person. Fewer and fewer humans will be needed for the jobs as mechanization continues. This is really where we are now already. I know if I could have robots replace my employees I would do it yesterday. No bitching, no workers comp, no in-fighting, etc. I wish it weren’t that way, but with the quality of individuals today, it is a no brainer.

          • I wonder what will be the point in having robotic manufacturing take the jobs away from people. Once the robots put nearly everybody out of work, who will afford to buy the products?

            So much for the consumer economy…

          • Employers take away more of our freedoms than most any govt. They completely control us for 8 hrs a day and we spend another bunch of time getting to and from work at our own expense and more time recovering from work so we can get up and do the same mind numbing enslavement again. I hope you get your robots soon so you will have the total slaves you want and leave humanity alone.

        • You are not yet quite to a point where… a human operator with some brains and ingenuity could take… a group of common products… say “the group of all house fans” for instance. And modularize them to the point that you could make big ones small ones purple ones neat Sky Captain looking ones… all out of a group of the very same or highly similar components…

          and then program a computer to automatically place them in 3-D space and “skin” the outside around the “library” components. Complete with mounting hardware, injection gates, name it. I don’t mean this half-assery that passes for computers “thinking” today, I mean… you designed a skin down to the last nut and bolt and “macro-ized” the process.

          Same idea for auto-scaling the library components as needed, to larger or smaller configurations, taking into account manufacturing limitations.

          Because… let’s face reality. SOME THINGS… ARE “DONE”. As in… it’s DONE, stop fucking around with it, it’s optimized, or you know what? Fucking close the hell enough.

          Take… house fans for example 🙂

          This, clearly, would kill metric asstons of jobs. Like… in Solidworks, you can hit the “gimme a threaded hole” button… I’m talking a “gimme a medium sized house fan, complete with drawings” button.

          For instance.

          Not yet… but I bet you in under 50 years it could be done if someone put the effort in. The initial creative layout HAS to be human, of course. But after a point, you’re merely copying the original humans anyway, even these days, as humans. Automate it.

      15. Of course, STILL no answer to the 2,000 yr. old question, Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? asked by the Roman satirist Juvenal: Who will watch the guards, or more colloquially, “Who controls the controllers?”

        CS Lewis wrote all about how this dystopia will finally end up in his novel That Hideous Strength.

      16. I still remember hearing a lecture by Bucky Fuller in the seventies. One of his favorite themes was ephemeralization: “doing ever more with ever less”. Robots were part of it; we would be relieved of the drudgery of manufacturing things by hand. So was structuring roadways so there were no traffic lights (so that “thousands of horses jumping up and down to no effect” would no longer waste gasoline). He implied that humans would have more time to learn and produce intellectual capital (optimist that he was), such that the “Malthusian working assumption” of diminishing resources was turned upside down and we would all soon be living in a society wherein the absolute sum of all resources constantly increased.

        • I agree that machines enable us to be more productive and eliminate the drudgery of our lives.

          The question is “what percentage of the population is using that liberation to elevate themselves and their fellow man and what percentage of the population is using it to corrupt themselves and tear down their fellow man?”

          I see hope in that being a “geek” is no longer the stigma that it was when I was in school. The “football star” is still popular; however, the “geek” at least is treated fairly and respected. It is a different world for my children than I grew up as the geeks did not get much respect in either rural Arkansas or the Research Triangle Park.

          However, my hope is dashed as I see half the kids running around with their pants around their knees and looking to get all “choomed” like our debacle in chief.

          It will be a long journey over the next 20 years. Maybe we will see a rise of the enlightened Man again in this time as those desire it can take advantage of the freedom machines can provide them to be better. Maybe we can all become the men Heinlein wanted us to become.

          A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
          -Robert A. Heinlein

          • Thank you for that Heinlein quote, Rougaroo. I was looking for it a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t seem to find it.

        • First of all, on the road thing.

          If we were in any way interested in optimization, we could have done that already by now. Clearly we aren’t, or we’re too financially invested in making things backward compatible to infrastructure that existed since the early 20th century.

          Second of all… the perpetually increasing resources thing… FROM WHERE exactly? What they just magically spring into existence because “you want them to” (exasperated Rick Grimes voice).

        • It is the Critical Path, Nimrod

      17. Well… I *can* tell you this:

        If them thar robots are using a version of Windows from Microsoft, it will take a zillion people to support, troubleshoot and fix things. On the other hand, if we go to Linux, people could retire at age 25.

        But no worries. Bill Gates owns the world.

        • Bill Gates doesn’t own the world, but he sucked enough money out of the people, and the govt spooks, that he THINKS he does.

      18. The elite make absurd assumptions, such as their unsupported, idiotic Malthusianism. Cf the Julian Simon/Paul Ehrlich wager, and learn who won, and WHY. Another assumption is that man is infinitely malleable. He is not.

        We just lost over 100 million murdered to the spurious assumptions of Communism (see Oxford Univ. Press, The Black Book of Communism). Now we are back at similar idiocy. Of course, not quite as idiotic as the anti-science, BIG GREEN MONEY faux global warmers, led by the travelling clown show of Al Gore

        • Thanks for the title, Test. I just bought a used copy on Amazon.

      19. This is NOT one of the constructive, useful articles published on this site.

        Wishing for an EMP, not very impressive either.

        • why wait for an EMP, signing off-poof

      20. “For all its economic virtues, the internet has been long on job displacement and short on job creation.”

        What utter bullshyte. What jobs were replaced by the people that manufacture, install, operate and maintain all of the electronic gear and infrastructure that makes up the internet. What jobs were replaced by the people that write all the software to operate all that gear and the web sites?

        Books didn’t go away. retail store staffers didn’t go away. tax collectors didn’t go away. Newspapers and magazines haven’t gone away.

        Utter bull shyte

        • Books, newspapers, and magazines are on a downturn. I have probably the largest personal library of books and magazines in my area, but I still have at least a thousand times as many in electronic form. I download books and periodicals almost every day.

          I only buy real books now if that’s the only way to get a particular one I want and it’s dirt cheap. I have been wanting one book for many years. I found it a couple of weeks ago on Amazon for 1 cent plus 3.99 shipping. It was in pretty darn good shape for just 1 cent. Even with the shipping, it was a great price.

          I used to have magazines and newspapers coming in my mailbox almost every day. Now I have no subscriptions at all. I can get all the content I want on the internet for free. (Yes, I pay for internet, but it’s a business expense.)

      21. so this is what the grand experiment of humanity comes to?

        I told God to stop at yeast
        but would He listen to me ?
        Nooooooo

      22. I was howling this in 1980, i was laughed at.
        I am old enough my time is bout up here.
        I say to all , you whore-ship the chip, suffer!!

      23. I have to laugh when I hear “TED talkers” say that shorter work weeks and more technology will give us time to go home and write a poem. Yeah right. I’ll still waiting on my Chevy dealership to stock in some flying cars……..

        • I find it humorous also. Most of the people I know have no idea how to do anything that requires real mental effort. Most of their free time is spent watching TV, going to sporting events or the beach, drinking, or sleeping. They could go for years without writing a poem or a short story. I exert more mental effort in one day than many of them do in a year or more.

          • Arch, it doesnt take developing the brain and all your books and such to become enlightened. In fact all that learnin will usually get in the way and often cause you to think you are something special.

            • I am “enlightened,” and learning doesn’t get in the way with me.

              And my mama said I am special.

      24. oops. typo— I’m still waiting…..

        Free time outside of work? Use it to clean your guns and check your preps!

        • Has anyone else noticed how hard it is to find appliances that are NOT digital and/or wi-fi compatible these days?

          I live in a small apartment without washer/dryer hookups. I’ve been looking for one that hooks up to the sink, like a dishwasher, for months. I finally found one. It cost me almost as much as some new machines, but I wanted the low-tech version. I still hang my laundry to dry.

          My life is less depressing since I don’t have to do my laundry on my knuckles, in a 5 gallon bucket. My smart meter also won’t know what to make of it, when they start monitoring what we’re doing in our own homes.

          I don’t care what anybody says, washing machines use less water, and spare my carpal tunnel.

          • Amen! I’ll take a washing machine over a bucket or bathtub( done both) anyday!

      25. It’s the great unwind. When people no longer have jobs, then they will have no money. That means back to the farm and self subsidence…if they can afford some land, a few tools and seed. 1800s deja vu.

      26. you are only limited by your imagination or lack of one in any environment.

      27. Gonna invest in one of these robots to do all the labor around my place. It’s gonna bite them and their grand agenda in the ass just like the 3d printer. Fucking stupid assholes I’m gonna use technology to make me more self reliant. I will never be a gov bitch. Defeat never victory forever. That’s how ya doit son.

        • I love irony, when it isn’t on ME, that is…

        • Says the union tool…..(rolling my eyes)

      28. I was told by my supervisor a week ago that my gov’t unit will be replaced in our skilled jobs working machinery, tractors, brush hogs, grinders, welding, restoration, trucks, docks, maintenance of the machinery and a hundred jobs to do a week– by children and the mentally retarded next year.

        I almost fell over…. and they will fail to do the work if they don’t get hurt or killed first. It was quite the insult for us. I don’t have to fear robots, it’s the gov’t that is insane.

      29. I’m a STEM guy that designed and
        made these control system things
        for years. In the old days
        we had to learn what is called
        “Foundations” like arts,
        history, philosophy, and
        other “useless” stuff
        (my favorite fiction is “Moby Dick” and
        my favorite non-fiction is the “Art of war”).
        We never discussed how to
        deal with all the idiots we put
        out of work.
        That is why I like SHTF. The general
        discussion here covers that subject.
        Unfortunately death is the usual
        solution.
        It is the Day before Good Friday.
        Only one man got out of here alive.

      30. A wholesome hobby, you say? Sounds good to me. I like gardening. And you know, raising animals does wonders for my mental health. And I’m sure your prepackaged foods are perfectly fine, but they just don’t appeal to my taste buds as well as my own cooking.

        But I’m just being a good little consumer. I’m not trying to be self-sufficient or anything. No sirree bob. It’s just a way to fill up the empty hours of underemployment. You PTB don’t have to worry about me being a threat.

        • Agree 100%,

        • 🙂

          • How well do robots react to headshots?
            I suppose the lazy assed gangstas will
            have them to do their drive-bys for them.

      31. Robots are stupid and easy to scam. Just read 2600 Magazine back issues about how to screw with self-checkouts at grocery stores. Not that I would actually grind a penny down and use it in a 10-cent gumball machine or change bar codes on merchandise.

        New machines = new opportunities.

        They are also a good source for spare parts for your own special projects.

      32. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite.

        Of course.

        The ultimate world is where only one person exists, his every whim catered to, and everyone else is a simulation. You’ll never get to that because… well shit. Maybe you will. Scary thought. But certainly, a small elite group, just large enough to ensure no major genetic issues with offspring? Of course.

        What the hell did you think the entire point of all of this was?

        That WAS the point. It was always the point ever since some spear chucking caveman picked up a rock and used it to bash some other guy’s head in.

        • If that caveman had only kept it in his loin cloth, we wouldn’t be at this point in our evolution…THEY ALREADY HAD THE WORLD ALL TO THEMSELVES ONCE, AND THEY FUCKED IT UP…literally.

          Stupid Homo Erectus.

      33. There’s another alternative that should be considered. I know how this sounds and how unlikely it is to happen, but consider a situation in which corporations, factories, etc., were not allowed to own a robot, but only individuals in the private sector could own a robot. That way you send your robot off to the factory, or park it there semi-permanently, to be the worker in it’s owner’s place, the paycheck earned by the robot goes to the owner, and the owner can then be “self-reliant”, and sit around watching television or go out fishing. This would enable old or disabled people to earn a full paycheck. The only problem is affording one of these robots if you’re poor. But in this imaginary future, some people would buy a newer robot and give their old one to someone else. You could have a robot lottery where individuals buying lottery tickets pay for the robot that’s given away. Or a store that sells used ones. I would expect that a machine that could replace a human being for work purposes, is not going to be cheap.

        • How about owning a robot that works for you. Why send the thing off to work for some asshole employer that is trying to get something out of others to enrich himself.

      34. Oh, I forgot to mention that you would probably need a limit of 1 robot per person if my previous post is going to be even marginally successful in said imaginary future. One person owning several robots taking up jobs would pretty much ruin the idea. And stay away from any robot that says “kill all humans”.

        • There will never be a robot good enough to do my job…it’s hands on, person to person, and works best when least disturbed. As long as I have eyes to see, and a brain that can interpret what I see, I should be OK….I don’t have to catch, I can let the parents or assistants do that…

      35. Robots in the battlefield. Another part of the story.

      36. There are too many people in the world anyway. They need terminator machines to go into the projects and kill all the useless eaters. The free shit army needs to be destroyed forever. This will reduce the population leaving more land for the valuable people. You will eradicate the useless eaters that just consume resources and don’t produce nothing. Look at the crime rate in the projects there is only criminals that live there. The projects is not even worth the $ they put into it. It’s like a bridge to nowhere. There is no hope for crack heads meth addicts alcoholics they are not employable in any job. Losers with and 8 the grade education using ghetto slang with tattoos all over them trash. No employer wants them representing their company. How you gonna get any production out of someone that can’t read. Stupid gov leaders talk about how people need jobs but at the same time they allow company to use technology to eliminate jobs. They allow them to out source work. These company’s have to do this because the modern day worker lacks basic work skills. My employer has trouble filling positions because a lot of guys do drugs and have criminal records. The losers do not want to work they make themselves unemployable knowing they will get a free ride. Send the robot army in to destroy them.

        • Asshat, send me some money every month and I will gladly keep it and figure there is something wrong with you especially if you put me down for taking it like you do welfare people when they take your tax dollars that you send them. You are a mind controlled slave that wants everyone to be the same way. Some people hate being enslaved and will take even welfare to get away from it. You love this enslavement.

      37. Where I work, they have a large wharehouse operated by automated fork lifts delivering orders. They are actually safer since they will actually stop for you and not run you over. The bad side, that was probaly a dozen jobs or so gone.

      38. What bullshit. Who exactly is going to fix all of these millions and millions of robots? Computer software replaced tens of millions of low skilled data entry jobs. Now we have highly paid IT hardward and software jobs in their place.

      39. Ted Kaczynski was a pretty perceptive individual. He gave up his life as a college professor to live off grid. Too bad the MK ULTRA .gov program fucked him up with LSD and headgames. When they wouldn’t let him be out in the wilderness, he flipped out.

        ———————————————————

        This article is way too “cornucopian”. Technology is an energy sink is all. It wastes more energy than it saves net/net.

        The water, food and oil will run out long before robots take over. Besides, I don’t see any robots that can stick frame a shelter or grow veggies to eat or raise free range animals or stalk or trap game for food. Forget about the robots feeding you unless you like soylent green.

        Get out of the blue light and into the yellow light and get yer hands dirty.

      40. All machines break down. So, I guess a “smarter” machine repairs the lesser machine, then a “smartest” machine repairs the smarter machine. What about when the “smartest” machine breaks down(with the help of 6 rounds of 00 buckshot)?

      41. I wrote much the same thing in December: Superfluous Humans

        Frankly, a world in which robots do all the work is desirable, provided that their output is shared equitably and not hoarded by those at the top.

        Ian

      42. If “most” people are living off of the government, then where does the money come from?

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