“This is just the start…machines will take over our jobs, lives and world.”
That was one man’s reaction to news that a deadly accident during the installation of an assembly line robot at a Volkswagen plant in Germany led to the robot coming to life, grabbing a man and slamming him against a metal plate. The man, reportedly a 22-year old contractor, died from the injuries in the hospital.
The Hindustan Times reported:
A scene out of the movie Terminator just happened for real. A robot killed a contractor at one of Volkswagen’s production plants in Germany, the automaker said.
[…]
The 22-year-old was part of a team that was setting up the stationary robot when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate, Hillwig said.
He said initial conclusions indicate that human error was to blame, rather than a problem with the robot, which can be programmed to perform various tasks in the assembly process. He said it normally operates within a confined area at the plant, grabbing auto parts and manipulating them.
The incident occurred inside a safety cage meant to prevent these types of tragedies from occurring. In reality, it is perhaps inevitable that some mistakes will occur.
But those will pale in comparison to the destruction of the planned replacement of humans in the workforce.
Perhaps it was human error to blame, but nevertheless, the factory death underscores several factors as robots are increasingly poised to take over human work, and play an enormous role in running our lives.
The impact that robotics will have on manufacturing, labor, delivery (truck drivers, airport personnel and pilots, logistics and shipping companies), services jobs and office jobs will be enormous. (Just last week, the world was introduced to “Hadrian,” the robotic automated bricklayer, designed to speed up housing construction, a direct threat to masonry and various types of skilled and unskilled labor.)
It could have crippling effects on the ability of working class people to make a living, and kill the remaining spirit of independence and self-reliance in trade for ’emergency’ security from an already bankrupt federal government.
SHTF was among the first to report on a troubling announcement in The Week that most people will soon be forced to live off of government support as a result of a robotic workforce and advances in A.I.
In the future, virtually everyone you know may be on the dole.
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.
Artificial intelligence will make these life and death encounters between automated machines child’s play, with complex “thinking” decision making powers put in the hands of A.I. systems that will identify and execute military targets, weigh “ethical” decisions about who it should kill while driving autonomous cars or trains, and which will know more details about us than any other system in known history.
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I guess when it is your time to die, it is your time.
And he was young, had a whole life in front of him…
Yes, Eppe,
It’s sad someone so young died.
I feel like we’ll be living in the Terminator area before long.
Stephen Hawking has been warning us about our future with robot’s and AI.
Stephen Hawking the alien machine-organism AKA Davros… The King of the Daleks.
“””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. “””
With no workers, the government has no method of providing income. Instead, the rest will be “depopulated”.
Unless, of course, Man can depopulate the depopulaters first. We will be finding that out over the nest 10 years or so.
I thought “robots” were all the “Yes we can/Yes we have no bananas’ chanters who have been programmed in every way how to think, speak and act.
Just as lethal though… at least to our freedom and Constitutional republic
reporters in the Western world. Be certain to read his report on the “Sixth Great Mass Extinction” here: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31612-sixth-great-mass-extinction-event-begins-2015-on-pace-to-become-hottest-year-on-record
Laughing out loud very hard at this article. (Sorry Mac)
My great uncle once fell off the corn harvester and the horses did not stop. He died. Who killed him? The machine or the horses?
Who killed the referenced man above? The machine or the programmer?
BigB
My grandmothers brother got caught in the belt of farm harvester and was beat to death. He was only 19. An accident.
Don’t think we’re at the terminator stage quite yet.
I am for non-violence. That includes by machines!
“… will take over our lives”
“… have taken over our lives”, there fixed the title
Can’t think of a better reason to hope for an EMP.
wow skynet all over again? As much as this is probably just an accident this is more likely going ot happen a lot more.
Wondering if this is how the beast is braught to life as in Revelations? But the thing is it’s going to come no meatter what so guess strap in, and enjoy the ride.
Forget the robots it’s the A.I that is going to get us killed and Google leads the pack when it comes to that.
Ants being watched by a human thinks all the information they record is useless and some people think that about the masses of data google collects on us but man knows from watching ants just when they will eat, invade and Die and just what animails will eat them for breakfast regardless of numbers.
A.I is already smarter than us in many ways, don’t keep feeding it data because it will get us all killed
Google should change their motto to “First, let’s ONLY do evil.” And their disgusting leader leftist Eric Schmidt – who ran Novell into the ground – leads the pack.
I remember this kid:
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/the-kid-in-the-bathtub-twenty-years-later/article_84f9bf0c-54d8-11e1-9123-0019bb2963f4.html
Not a good example of A.I. coming to life and being dangerous.
100% Human Error – this guy did not de-energize the equipment. Failed to follow Locke Out/Tag Out procedures.
This kind of stuff happens often, because people find themselves in a hurry to get the machine back up and running so production levels continue.
Rule #1 in a Industrial Zone = Safety First
Fail to follow Rule #1, you risk your Health and or in this case – your Life.
Took the words right off of my fingertips. I worked for 15 years around this kind of equipment. If there’s an “accident” like this it is ALWAYS human error.
They’re not robots like R2D2 or the Terminator. They’re programmable machines that don’t have consciousness.
Other machines that are called robots are merely made to look like people but they’re not really robots either.
I don’t know if they’ll ever build machines that really are robots in the classic sense.
The big thing would be 1,000 robot doctors that share information so that after a year you’d have 1,000 robot doctors that each have 1,000 years medical experience.
Every journey begins with one step… I think therefor I am… It’s pretty obvious by simply observing recent developments in our technology what way my corporate creators are engineering your future… Comply or die human.
The robots need to learn the first step, though.
https://youtu.be/g0TaYhjpOfo
I’ll be back.
Beulahman, that’s only one reason why the plan with robots will fail.
No f#$%ing robot will ever run my life or do any damn thing else to me. I’ll find some way to destroy that mofo before it can harm anyone. Their plan to replace people with robots will never work. Those robots can never go into a store and buy anything, nor ever pay taxes, nor ever do most things that humans already do. This article really got me blood boiling. I had to miss out on all of yesterday’s articles. Got some catching up to do.
Barn Cat, I think you might get something less than 1,000 years per robot, but certainly more than 1 year of experience 1,000 times. Much of the shared experience will be identical to each other.
By the way, people do this too. It’s called learning.
I think this article is a bit over the top. Accidents happen, you can’t extrapolate a global takeover by T1000 Terminators from this.
Sounds like a unfortunate industrial accident and not murder by a robot.
SR, it is murder by robot in my book. We already have mindless robots in human form known as sheeple.
BH, we need a new set of laws to deal with this murderous set of robots. If found guilty, they are repurposed as manure spreaders.
SR, don’t need any laws. Just need something to ‘terminate’ the robots. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I won’t have any problem destroying those machines.
I thought robots were programmed not to kill people, isn’t that their prime directive?
We can not violate the 3 Laws.
1. Can not hurt Human Being
2. Follow first law
3. Protect Human Being
Have a peachy day,
Sonny
I robot, whose fantasy world are you from?
Only in fiction.
Let the robots do all the work who the hell wants to put down bricks that sucks bull work. That will free a guy up to persue better paying careers not getting dirty. Unless they want to lay brick then it’s a sad day. Most people that do these types of jobs complain daily and are alcoholics because it sucks that much. Just look at them it’s not fun doing that work. People deserve better work than that.
“AI” doesn’t bother me near as much as the “robots” walking, driving, working beside us everyday. The programmed “drones” that can’t think for themselves or figure out how to change a tire unless it involves calling Triple A. The “don’t distract me with facts” crowd that wants to feel good about their effort and could give a crap if what they did was right, accurate, or effective. Don’t care about results or quality of their product as long as people praise them for trying “so hard”…
It used to be the teenagers, then the twenty something’s… Now I’m seeing 40 and 50 y/o grown men that have been neutered by “education” can’t do any “man” thing like change a tire, unclog a sink, or such menial task because they believe it is “beneath them”. Argue about what their time is worth, like it is actually worth something.
Scary thing is they vote!
Sorry for the rant, need a hug I guess… Maybe I will “feel” better after some coffee. Hope ya’lls week is a good one!
ASMS
You understand the real problems that will be faced in the future
BG, I understand where you’re coming from, but I still won’t tolerate some machine trying to rule me or even replace me.
If only we could invent a liberal/libertarian-crushing robot we’d be getting somewhere.
They are called Moslems.
well, it could all come to that — machines taking over– or it could come down to living sustainably, going back to Nature. Without fossil fuels will those little suckers be able to work? Just a thought.
One good machine comes to mind: the one invented that lets us download guns!
Holy shit Mac! These “robots” have been around and killing people for DECADES!
I program these “robots”, they do not move on their own. The ONLY reason this guy is dead is from his own actions.
Fear porn much?
Billy Hill – I don’t believe Mac was out to spread “fear porn” on purpose, maybe he does not know much about Robotics/Automation in a Manufacturing environment.
You are absolutely correct about the guy being dead because of his actions. Without knowing exactly what took place, one thing here is very clear. This guy did not properly shut the machine down. He did not flip the process over to Manual Operation, and instead left it in Automatic Operation while working on it.
This is why the guy died. The Robot as pictured at the very top probably runs on a 10-15 second program. Once the program runs one cycle, it automatically repeats the process continuously until a human interferes with the controls to stop it or if the Robot runs out of material to work with. Then it should have a proxy switch to stop the process until it receives material from a previous operation to continue outflow of product.
This Robot is technically no different than a CNC (computer numeric controlled) Machine. CNC Machines are typically an enclosed structure and the door has to be closed prior to it being cycled to operate in a safe manner.
Robot/CNC – both operate and function with a Program, with the input provided by Man. In this theory – Man is god, Machine is slave- slave unable to think outside of program given. God changes alters program when it is needed.
JOSHUA: “want to play a game?”
Billy Hill – I don’t believe Mac was out to spread “fear porn” on purpose,
Hehe, yes he is. He makes money from it. The thing is, there’s more than enough real fear he should be spreading but he chose this to fit an agenda.
As you said, these robots (CNCs) are not AI. They don’t think they just do as they’re told by people like me. They don’t “grab” people and kill them like a Terminator, which is exactly how it was described here and at the original source that Mac cited.
Mac, I get it… even bad press is good press but seriously, you’re slowly turning committed readers away by trying to push these kinds of agendas.
Stick to reporting about things we have control over and do it so that you’re not injecting more into it than there really is.
Yes, robots are being utilized more and more and that results in less low-tech jobs for humans. What you should be telling us is to get our selves (if we’re young enough) and our kids educated on how to build, program, install, setup and/or maintain these robots. It has served me very well over the decades and kept me from having my “job” taken by a robot.
Billy Hill, since you know so much about robots, how do you feel about any plan for robots to replace humans? I don’t see any fear porn from Mac, just a thought-provoking article we all need to think about. What I’m saying is I don’t want to see any humans get replaced by machines, period. I realize there’s people everywhere that are NOT worth having, but any plan to replace us with machines is doomed to failure. robots cannot and will never be able to do most of the things that humans already do.
Braveheart, I’m confused about your question. When you say “robot” do you mean the current breed of dumb CNC that’s been “takin’ ar jobs” for decades? Or do you mean self-aware robots with AI?
For the former, I think it’s great. It has made me thousands of times more productive and increased my level of achievable complexity exponentially. It has allowed me to make very good money in a virtual world, working remotely. And I love doing it so it just doesn’t get any better.
I used to make parts one at a time by turning handles and pulling quills, cutting angles with sine bars and radii with rotary tables. If I wanted to get the spindle to the other side of the table I cranked the handle like a mad man, counting revolutions to retain my positioning.
Now with CNC robots, I can program tool changes, part changes, shapes never before achievable and tolerances inconceivable in a production environment only 10 years ago.
All at blinding speeds.
For the latter type, robots that use AI, I think we’re doomed. If they truly do get to the point that they are self-aware and can reason we are screwed because there is logical ZERO reason we should be allowed to be here right now, the way we act.
But there’s a breed of semi-AI robot out there that’s programmed to do a certain thing yet it interacts with objects around it. Think self-driving cars. This is still not AI because it’s reactions are still programmed by people like me.
These are dangerous because people like me can’t foresee every scenario that car is going to encounter so we can’t tell it how to react. It will need programming to tell it how to figure that out for itself. And that’s how we will get true AI. IMO computers that can learn on their own should not be considered.
Here’s where’ I’m conflicted… the robot is based on destruction of the natural environment, and in order for them to truly be self-aware and reproductive they will need to double down on infrastructure which will further destroy nature.
So which way will this AI go? Tree hugger or corporate thug? Can this difference in awareness be influenced? To what extent? Will AI view humans as master, servant or pest?
I hope I’m not around to find out.
I wanted to address this separately because it’s very intriguing what limits we’ve already overcome.
robots cannot and will never be able to do most of the things that humans already do.
Please list a few things you believe robots cannot or will never be able to do that humans can and I’ll research them to see if you’re right. My money’s on me. 🙂
Haven’t tried to embed a video here, hope it works. 🙂
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU&w=560&h=315%5D
https://www.youtube.com/embed?v=7Pq-S557XQU
The video is called Humans Need Not Apply. It shows how robots are CURRENTLY doing things that will amaze you. Medical, retail sales, transportation, most service based occupations, manufacturing, writing, painting, music etc etc etc is already being done by computers. They’re teaching themselves to do things and it’s expanding exponentially.
If you truly believe a robot takeover is a scary future this will put it into perspective.
It’s not in the future, it’s in the present.
I was thinking along the lines of safety that were crossed….someone didnt follow the manual that came with the automaton…..
AI has been and will be a problem, you can’t digitize wisdom or common sense. With no emotion you only have good and bad, eventually man will be viewed as bad.
This story has ZERO to do with AI!!!!
Sheesh.
Robotics is my expertise. Factory robots (at this point) do not use AI. They only do what they are programmed to do. This robot did not “decide” to grab a human being and kill him. It did not think, but simply did what it was supposed to do. The guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I remember an incident at a Cat plant in N MS several years ago, when the engineer went in the work cell after disabling the safety circuitry. He wanted to reposition a part in the fixture and when he added the part to the fixture, the sensor was made and the robot moved to do its work.
It crushed him, but didn’t kill him. To this day the guy admits it was his fault.
Robots in industry are quite dumb, actually. But they can be dangerous if you get in the cell with them. If a person doesn’t know what they are doing (maybe they could use some AI) and they disable the safety circuitry, they are doing something very foolish.
In manufacturing, which inanimate object, of irregular shape, would normally be grabbed, from an unspecified point on the floor, and crushed against a wall.
As long as I can unplug them I don’t worry about it.
The robot grabbed the poor guy by the nuts….and bolts.
Human error… Human error… Human error… Affirmative.
Machines are a threat, but not as much threat as the vile rulings of SOTU last week.
And now this gem out of Cambridge Univ. THIS is where our corrupt culture is going. And exactly HOW long do you think corruption like this – which permeates EVERYTHING, from Jon Corzine “losing” $1.6 billion dollars of other people’s money to Bernie Madoff to the banksters – can continue? Basically, morally, we are like Wile E. Coyote who has run off a cliff in the cartoons – his feet are still moving, and he is looking at the camera, waiting for that inevitable gravity thing…
“Hebephilia” (the sexual preference for children in early puberty, typically 11 to 14-year-olds) – have the leftist media say it enough times (or have a TV show called with likable characters written in called “Will & and Grace… and Johnny,” and you’ll get used to it. I give it 2 years before the vile Judge Ginsberg finds this “in the Constitution” somewhere… along with bestiality “marriage.”
From the UK’s Telegraph:
“Paedophilic interest is natural and normal for human males,” said the presentation. “At least a sizeable minority of normal males would like to have sex with children … Normal males are aroused by children.” Some yellowing tract from the Seventies or early Eighties, era of abusive celebrities and the infamous PIE, the Paedophile Information Exchange? No. Anonymous commenters on some underground website? No again. The statement that pedophilia is natural and normal was made not three decades ago but last July. It was made not in private but as one of the central claims of an academic presentation delivered, at the invitation of the organizers, to many of the key experts in the field at a conference held by the University of Cambridge. Other presentations included “Liberating the paedophile: a discursive analysis,” and “Danger and difference: the stakes of hebephilia” (the sexual preference for children in early puberty, typically 11 to 14-year-olds) . . .
Another attendee, and enthusiastic participant from the floor, was one Tom O’Carroll, a multiple child sex offender, long-time campaigner for the legalization of sex with children and former head of the Paedophile Information Exchange. “Wonderful!” he wrote on his blog afterwards. “It was a rare few days when I could feel relatively popular!”
Full, sickening story at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/10948796/Paedophilia-is-natural-and-normal-for-males.html
And speaking of creepy machines, what’s with these totally creepy humanoid “women” – who presumably someone thinks is “sexy” (see the left side of this article, that bikini-clad android “woman”).
If you think this is “sexy,” I submit you may want to explore getting help… or getting off those X-rated sites.
Sexuality was meant to be expressed in a long term, committed relationship with an individual who has complementarity to you (ie., a man with a woman, and vice-versa). Another word for this is called “committed marriage” (not the ersatz gay horsemanure substitute for marriage – which BTW, the average gay “marriage” per Dr. Maria Xiridou, which you can google for corroboration, has EIGHT outside relationships per YEAR. It is, as lesbian advocate Paula Ettelbrick proclaimed, they dont want marriage, but rather to “transform(ing) the very fabric of society… [and] radically reordering society’s view of reality” is the goal of the homosexual movement.
No not AI but someday . . . for now we should make sure the robot’s rights are fully protected and that they can marry, vote and get food stamps
DOL
Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of those self-congratulatory, self-appointed world leaders, wrote in his book, “Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technotronic Era,”
“The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.
“Apparently, Herr Brzezinski and his self-appointed elite have never considered the words of the Roman satirist Juvenal, who asked Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will watch the guards (who controls the controllers)?
As CS Lewis wrote in his fictional dystopic book, That Hideous Strength, dealing precisely with this issue 60 years ago, what these ignoramuses don’t know is that there are indeed spiritual powers they are engaging with – aware or unaware – and this will blow back on them. Pick up Lewis’ book for a review (the whole trilogy is good)
Awe,yes Zbigniew Brzezinski, great article at Rappaports nomorefakenews dot com:
Titled Obama: Rockefellers Man in the White House Close to Total Victory
“Tutored and mentored by David Rockefellers intellectual flunky Brzezinski, Barack Obama is close to winning his two gold stars for victory–and make no mistake about it, these were his assignments from the Globalist Family of Rockefeller: Obamacare and Obamatrade:
Obamacare was and is a Rockefeller strategy for enforcing the pharmaceutical brand of medicine his ancestors pioneered early in the 20th century. The Supreme Court has just papered over an obvious loophole and contradiction in the law to keep Obamacare intact.
Obama has also won vaunted, slam-dunk “fast track” authority on the 3 Globalist trade bills that will shortly arrive for Congressional approval, including the horrific TPP, which will grant Big Pharma more profits as well as a greater exemption in the matter of poisoning populations with their drugs.
“Hope and Change?” “Yes we Can?” Faded slogans for the kiddies who, with deplorable, gullible, glazed over grins, helped put this Globalist front man in the White House. Will they ever learn? Not a chance.”
__________________
Read the rest of the article at Rappaports website.
Like what Rappaport writes….like his hard hitting truth? His articles are free to your e-mail. No advertisers there to dampen down his subject matter.
nomorefakenews dot com
The upside potential here is robots are immune to any social or psychological manipulation regarding their prime directive, being devoid of any concepts such as anti-Semite, racist, hater, etc..
Intelligent machines and unemotional psychopaths actually share the same, prime directives:
— existentialism
— utilitarianism
— self promotion
Agreed. Point extremely well made!
JW, if you mean that robots can’t become politically correct, that is one piece of good news.
OFF TOPIC – “What Americans Don’t Know About Eastern Ukraine”
A short read and to the point from a Ukrainian.
A different perspective from what MSM reports about.
So, if you are a person who follows the narrative of what the MSM says about the conflict in Ukraine. I urge you to take a gander at what this person writes about.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/what-americans-dont-know-about-eastern-ukraine/ri8451
it’s the person’s controlling the machine’s technology that is the real threat!
eventually the 1% will use the machines to control the 99%.
hopefully 3% of the 99% will learn how to, know how to and have the ability to use handheld emp weapons and create their own 99% machines to take down the 1% machines.
or future generations are truly doomed to be enslaved by the 1% controlled machines!
Hey Agent Pinkerton… FUCK OFF.
Wow! Seems Pinky is really hitting some nerves.
GO PINKY! Keep up the good work!
A massive reprogramming of the machines with a globally pervasive virus that specifically wipes out the entire name, facial recognition data based social class and support staff of the 1%, beginning as they sleep one evening and continuing relentlessly, unstoppable, to its fruition. A sort of ‘HAL’ on mega steroids.
Now there’s a 1%’r Hollywood horror(?)movie idea that will never get made.
mr. pink, there’s always some way to destroy a robot.
My electric razor attacked me yesterday. It tried to strangle me with the cord.
LMFHO… Nice one… Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Rules for working with heavy machinery:
1) Pull the breakers.
2) Lock the breaker box with your own lock.
3) Take the breakers and lock keys with you.
If your employer won’t allow this, take a walk. Getting fired is better than getting killed.
Asked about ethics, one AI system recently told a programmer that it was immoral for him to breed.
That AI is making utilitarian judgment calls, and, yes, it meant to do that, is the last century’s joke about the chicken who crossed the road.
Over several generations of sci-fi, this line of speculation has been explored, ad nauseum, and well into the realm of the cliche.
Binary is my souldataform.
EMP will kill them all off!
And then there is nobody left to buy their products. Cutting their own throat.
Not cutting theirs but yours since it is you who has no money
This economy’s of the world are gonna crash so robots meh,
Least of the worry’s…..I can see mr hawking being helpless would be afraid of robots……
And then the batteries discharged and the crickets chirping resumed.
Most humans don’t know that they are enslaved and have been since they started working for someone else. And they are doing mostly mind numbing work that is often harmful to the body and health. Let the employer have his robots maybe then he will then leave the rest of us alone. Maybe each one of us can have some robots ourselves to do our shit work. Damn, some people seem to love their enslavement.