Robotics... Human Workers Doomed? Or Living a Better Life?

[SYZ]

This YouTube performance of a Lady Gaga song makes me ask this question.



The dancer is Yufei Wu, a 26-year-old robotics engineer from Suchan, China. He
and his cohort of humanoid robots left the judges on America's Got Talent stunned
with a synchronised routine to Lady Gaga's "Abracadabra".

Who funded them: The robots are developed and funded by Unitree Robotics, a
well-known Chinese tech startup and manufacturer of humanoid and quadruped
robots.  

Cost: The specific humanoid robots seen in his performance (from Unitree's latest
bipedal G1 series) start at roughly US$16,000 to US$19,000 per unit.  How Wu
got corporate support: He actually works as a full-time engineer at Unitree. He got
the company to back his this run by pulling double-duty: designing and programming
the robots' synchronised dance routines during late-night and early-morning hours
before presenting them to the company leadership as a massive marketing opportunity.

The backflip is especially amazing considering the fine motor skills needed for balance.

[Dānu]

Down with the machines!

[GenesisNemesis]

People said they'll be replacing me very soon but I'm still waiting. 

[Szuchow]

I don't think that there is something to be worried about. As a carpenter I operate on tenth of millimeter tolerances so I don't see the robots replacing me in my lifetime (or ever to be honest).

[Gawdzilla Sama]

People said they'll be replacing me very soon but I'm still waiting. 

With Folded Hands

?

[brewerb]

Any sexbot needs to have an emergency kill switch. Mr. winky has enough hangups as it is.

[airportkid]

... I operate on tenth of millimeter tolerances so I don't see the robots replacing me in my lifetime ...

But that's exactly where machines replace human labor; machines can operate on millionth of a millimeter tolerances at billionth of a second intervals (and even finer degrees of time and distance).

The entire history of humanity involves development of technologies more capable than ourselves.  Every hour (or every minute) every one of us employs some implement of technology to accomplish something impossible by our own hands or minds, and that's been true for decades, if not centuries.  Even the cave artists used brushes instead of their fingers.

We're still here.  Not replaced, but eternally finding (or pushed into) new pursuits, ever enriching the experience of being alive.

[Szuchow]

... I operate on tenth of millimeter tolerances so I don't see the robots replacing me in my lifetime ...

But that's exactly where machines replace human labor; machines can operate on millionth of a millimeter tolerances at billionth of a second intervals (and even finer degrees of time and distance).

The entire history of humanity involves development of technologies more capable than ourselves.  Every hour (or every minute) every one of us employs some implement of technology to accomplish something impossible by our own hands or minds, and that's been true for decades, if not centuries.  Even the cave artists used brushes instead of their fingers.

We're still here.  Not replaced, but eternally finding (or pushed into) new pursuits, ever enriching the experience of being alive.

Yet somehow I still work and there is no robot in sight that can replace me. Perhaps in far future someone will built (affordable) robot that can do all I do but it is something that I see to be as threatening as heat death of universe.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Any sexbot needs to have an emergency kill switch. Mr. winky has enough hangups as it is.

Modelled after H. H. Holmes? "America's First Serial Killer."

[GenesisNemesis]

But that's exactly where machines replace human labor; machines can operate on millionth of a millimeter tolerances at billionth of a second intervals (and even finer degrees of time and distance).

The entire history of humanity involves development of technologies more capable than ourselves.  Every hour (or every minute) every one of us employs some implement of technology to accomplish something impossible by our own hands or minds, and that's been true for decades, if not centuries.  Even the cave artists used brushes instead of their fingers.

We're still here.  Not replaced, but eternally finding (or pushed into) new pursuits, ever enriching the experience of being alive.

Yet somehow I still work and there is no robot in sight that can replace me. Perhaps in far future someone will built (affordable) robot that can do all I do but it is something that I see to be as threatening as heat death of universe.

The robots seem to be far too slow and clumsy to replace me at the moment. Maybe there'll be some breakthrough, but yeah I'm not seeing it happen yet.