Robots to help stock shelves at 50 Walmart stores

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http://www.ajc.com/news/national/robots-help-stock-shelves-walmart-stores/b6rr3q3P6t9crhDzpb5RSI/



So, is it more important to teach your children to socialize, or to teach them to code Python? Is it better to teach them to talk, or is it better to teach them to draw and build objects with building block toys?

Do you choose to talk to your children, or do you choose to draw pictures and write for your children? Is going through a divorce more painful, or drawing pictures for your children more painful?

Are your children going to survive in tomorrow's world? Or are they just gonna go out to the street to fight for "Universal Basic Income" and vegetate permanently?

And I wonder why people still want to have neurotypical kids.

Bit snarky here: I can't find any other way to express it that is both clear and succinct.

I'd say it's more important to teach the robot masters that when their entire target demographic is unemployed, illiterate, food insecure, and dying for lack of basic healthcare, there won't be anyone left to buy their products, at any discount.

Even Henry Ford understood that. He had sufficient insight to grasp that if he did not pay his workers enough money for them to save some of it, they could not buy his cars.

(I do put my money where my mouth is on this one. When I shop, I go to the human clerk to ring up and pay. I have told a few that I'm glad to wait in line and keep them employed.)

Not a Luddite, just a life-ite. Machines are dandy, but they don't shiver and starve.

"The two-foot tall robots are fitted with cameras to scan aisles and check stock, identifying missing, misplaced, mislabeled and mispriced items. The robots will give that information to employees who will fix the issues."

Robots are great for doing boring repetitive jobs that NTs are terrible at. So are a lot of Aspies. I suppose there are a few Aspies who would prefer doing boring repetitive jobs, but they often have other issues that prevent employment.

They still need people to fix the issues. And to realize that people in Hawaii don't need winter clothing like people in New England. And, who knows, maybe Walmart will figure out how to use automation to provide inexpensive clothes to those of us who don't fit the current sizes.

A long time ago in a place far away I recall buying a shirt and getting a free while you wait alterations. Even if you buy an expensive suit you typically have to come back in a few weeks around here.

The AI Revolution Is Coming—And It Will Take Your Job Sooner Than You Think
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/you-will-lose-your-job-to-a-robot-and-sooner-than-you-think/



The truth is always somewhere between the two extremes (pessimistic vs. optimistic). AI in conjunction with AR actually enables low-skill workers to perform tasks that they never dreamed of performing. See, in the past, you need to get training before you can operate or troubleshoot a piece of equipment. With AR+AI, operation starts immediately in conjunction with training. In other words, there is no longer a delay between training and operation. (Well, in practice there is still a delay, but it's becoming infinitesimal.) There will be new jobs created. For instance, all the educational AR content for humans will still need to be created by humans, and that will stay so easily for the next 100 years. The same applies to equipment servicing and recycling. All that being said, it is also true that there will be a significant segment in the population that simply will not be able to catch up. But no worries, that's what Universal Basic Income is for, as depicted in the picture above.