Jose Canseco Issues Stern Warning Over the Rise of Robots
“All humans we need to wake the f*ck up”
Former Major League baseball player Jose Canseco won’t be welcoming our new robotic overlords anytime soon.
Monday, Canseco published a flurry of tweets warning about the mechanization of jobs once held by humans. Don’t worry, robots “won’t attack and kill us like in the movies,” they’ll just steal all of our jerbs.
The robot threat is being taken to lightly
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 20, 2017
Robots will not attack and kill us physically like in the movies
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 20, 2017
For 60 years Robots have been systematically destroying us in clandestine economy based war started when eniac was turned on
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 20, 2017
Listen to ME all humans we need to wake the fuck up
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 20, 2017
Already today a fully robotized factory reduces human jobs 90% and increases production 250% and reduces defects 80% while doubling profit
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 20, 2017
Robots control every industry our food supply our transportation systems our health care and education systems EVERYTHING
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 20, 2017
robots are stealing our jobs bringing economic ruin to us human by human starving us to death one by one
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 20, 2017
All that will be left is uber technical humans trained to service robots.
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 20, 2017
This is not the first time Canseco has publicly warned about the robot revolution.
Bigger threat to jobs is robots not foreign countries or immigrants. In 20 yrs all mfg jobs robotized in 50 yrs all svc jobs #muststoprobots
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) February 5, 2017
Mega gazillionaire Bill Gates is far more accepting of the robotic revolution but has suggested robots be taxed like human workers.
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Comments
I wonder how much time he has spent at batting practice with a robot pitching machine in order to improve his human capability.
Jose Canseco may be the wrong messenger but the problem is real. I predict that in the next 20 years we will see “anti-robotics” laws passed that will limit the use of robots to replace human workers.
…like the “anti-computer” statutes of the last 20 years?
Naw.
naught times naught is naught
Wasn’t there a movement called the luddites who were against machinery? They failed.
You are correct, sort of. I work for BMW at the Plant Spartanburg facility, the only manufacturing facility they have in the US and the sole producer of the X3, X4, X5 and X6 sports activity vehicles. I am an Equipment Service Technician and part of my job responsibility is the maintenance and repair of six and seven axis robotic manipulators. One area of the paint shop is referred to as “cavity wax” and it is where liquid wax is injected into the spaces of the body between the exterior and the interior of the vehicle. This serves a twofold purpose, it prevents the body from rusting from the inside out and lubricates any possible sources of “squeaks” within the body. There are approximately thirty people per shift in the cavity wax area that inject wax into the body. These people are being replaced by robots……why you ask? Initially, BMW agreed to provide “X” number of jobs for the first 20 years and the manual application of wax was a good way to increase the number of jobs. That has expired so we are now automating these application jobs. Not to worry, the displaced workers are being reassigned, so no one loses a job. In fact, the workforce has grown from 350 to almost 10,000 jobs here in the past 23 years. Many of these jobs, such as mine, are for highly skilled workers and pay six figures. Humans need to learn to adapt or become obsolete. There is only one person that can help you adapt……yourself!
Just like word processors on personal computers were heavily taxed to prevent typists from being put out of work? Bill?
Perhaps the poster was referring to the issue, “the future of work?” If yes, he is correct; it is indeed an issue being discussed. Here’s a link to a brief article:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/28/welcome-to-the-future-of-work/
Don’t worry, robots “won’t attack and kill us like in the movies,” they’ll just steal all of our jerbs.
Hey, they’re welcome all my jerbs… Much as they can carry.
as the saying goes, if your job is boring and repetitive, and lacks any need for creativity or independent judgment, then you’re about to be replaced by a robot.
Absolutely! Robots don’t need breaks, they don’t complain about the temperature, they don’t beg you to “not fix things so we can be lazy and get paid” nor do they require expensive healthcare. They don’t try and vote a union in, they don’t fuss about working conditions, they don’t gossip, they don’t steal company property and most importantly, they do exactly what they are told to and repeat it with precision far faster than a human. By the way, Tom Servo…..how are Crow and Cambot?
heh – Crow is still doing fine, but Cambot decided she wanted time to pursue Gender Reassignment Surgery. We’ll see how that goes.
Jose is getting older and very soon he won’t be able to beat his wife properly. A robot might help him in that regard.
That’s all we need. A way for government to collect revenue without worrying about the ratbag human being a drain on its resources.
“Guaranteed income” schemes kind of make sense if you think about a future in which 70% – 80% of the population is unemployed, but society has a huge surplus of food and manufactured goods because it’s all made by robots. We’re not that far from that now.
Late period Rome got into the same kind of problem with slavery, which is why they came up with the bread and circuses policy. Didn’t work out so well in the long run.
That’s essentially the same logic used to justify communism.
Take it to its logical conclusion, no one need work. All work performed by robotic machinery.
That will happen, and sooner than you think.
What will society look like then?
Okay, okay! I’ll go unload the dishwasher. Why she got loaded, I’ll never know.
Step 1: 3D print 7.4 billion Mercedes S-class cars
Step 2: extract & refine 100 trillion gallons of gasoline
Step 3: relax and enjoy our sweet rides
We can defeat the robot menace if we take enough roids.
Good luck fighting robotization. Businesses need to minimize their costs like it or not. But the robots do not instinctively know how to do their job, they must be programmed. And robot improvements will not happen by themselves. many service industry tasks such as home repairs, etc., are not immediately satisfied by robots. Guide to youngsters: STEM jobs are okay, manufacturing trades are suspect, service trades are going to be okay, at least for now. FInd a way to use your mind, not your hands.
And what happens on the day after the robots gain the ability to program themselves?
They can do that now… check out the AI programming languages…
No, they can’t do anything REMOTELY close to programming themselves.
There are certain “self learning” algorithms, but these are massively limited in scope as to what they can “learn” and they aren’t anywhere within a kazillion miles of “programming themselves.”
AI can do some fantastic things, but it is a long, long way from replacing creative human thought.
If you put KILL_ALL_HUMANS = NO in the startup file you should be fine. I mean, assuming it reads the startup file.
“Programming themselves” and “replacing human thought” are two different things. Programs can and do write other programs but they do not pretend to replicate human thought.
What programs are you thinking of that are written by other programs? Obviously higher level languages and compilers are programs which generate machine code or byte code for execution, but these could do nothing without the source code written by humans.. they’re really translating, not writing.
There are examples in the AI realm (like I mentioned before) but those are really discerning the most predictive data as opposed to writing programs. There are some genetic algorithms that generate and test vast quantities of solutions to find the best one(s), but again that’s really data not code.
I can’t think of a single example where a program is doing anything that involves creating any new logic that isn’t based off of something written by a human. The key is creativity… humans have it and machines don’t.
Humans push the E-stop button…….which is required by OSHA to be hard-wired into the power and control circuit.
FInd a way to use your mind, not your hands.
Better yet, learn plumbing and use both and make a lot more than some adjunct professor.
“FInd (sic) a way to use your mind, not your hands.”
No, no, no!
Hand made things – knitting, quilts, furniture, musical instruments, even cars, will command a premium in price. The elites will treasure a painting over a machine generated picture of a fruit bowl.
Most STEM people I know of are advising young people not to go into STEM. Reason: H1B.
It is a self fulfilling prophecy. Bill Gates, Cook, Zuckerburg. All get in front of Congress and tell them there is a shortage of STEM workers, so they need H1Bs. They then use the H1Bs to drive down wages, layoff experienced people. and generally make STEM an unattractive option reducing the number of STEM applicants.
LOL.
Not only am I a STEM worker, I am an Electrical Engineer specializing in controls and automation. Otherwise known as one of the guys that design these things.
Robots do not displace jobs that require thought. They only do well at repetitive tasks. Even vision systems able to identify part orientation is in its infancy and unreliable at best. Robots presently do best at picking part “A” up and putting it down at place “B” Over and over and over again.
And yes RodFC in the stem fields the H1B and L1 visas have been a big issue and have stagnated wages for the last 10 years. I looked at my Social security report earlier this year and realized that my AGI has been within a few % + or – the same since 2007.
Perhaps it is time for some class action against these big H1B abusers….What they are doing flies in the face of the letter of the law.
Don’t worry, Jose. Robots have to obey the Three Laws. Anyway, Daneel Olivaw is on our side, so all is well.
If human beings can’t be trusted not to use cars and bats and fists and feet and guns and bombs and nuclear weapons to destroy one another, why would we think they can be trusted to build robots that obey The Three Laws?
The Three Laws are embedded in the robots’ positronic circuits. In a few thousand years, there’ll even be a Fourth (Zeroth) Law.
Skynet laughs at your Three Laws.
While the reference is wasted on most here, I would point out that we are almost there.
Replace Earther with urban and Spacer with rural and you see most of the dynamics in the novel ( only read the first ).
When the left runs out of useful idiots, they will make robot useful idiots – which are not much different than what they’ve got now, but the robots will be more useful.
How can you tax something that isn’t receiving a wage? It is more likely that robots would be treated as capital equipment in the tax code. Which, of course, they are. Thank the government for all the added costs of employment they’ve burdened the employer with for the rise in robots.
I say we raise an army of clones to battle the robot menace.
Your thought is brilliant: finally, jobs for all those college graduates with “_____-studies” degrees.
That’ll also provide jobs for Jedi. After all, the clones will need leaders. And once the war is over we won’t need the Jedi anymore, so…
I, baseball player.
Bill Gates is proof you can be a genius at one thing, and an idiot at everything else.
First we’ll tax them. Then they’ll want to vote. After that they’ll run for office on the platform of keeping out foreign robots. The Democrats will sneak these foreign robots over the border and issue them new manufacturing identification plates like the domestic robots. They’ll even allow whole cities to harbor foreign robots. The American made robots will get resentful because the foreign robots refuse to speak native machine language. They elect a game show star who promises to put American robots first. President Watson.
Uh, yeah. Look, if robotic factories were cheap to build and operate, everybody would have one. My daughter would have one churning out barbie dolls by the truck load. But they’re not cheap at all.
Toyota’s Tahara plant is a good example, and you could certainly consider it fully automated. Yes, it builds a Lexus every 87 seconds, but don’t for one second think those cars are free, they’re the result of tens of billions of dollars in investment and billions more in operating costs. And if tomorrow, people decide they prefer Acura or Infiniti, guess what all that was worth? Nothing.
Actually I like the idea of robots handling my food. People are pigs and are not hygienic when it comes to food.
They are also less likely to put special sauce in your food when they see your MAGA hat.
Human patients are challenging enough. Robot patients? The repetition will drive me nuts.
I won’t let my daughter marry one!
OH MY GOSH…RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What robots need isn’t so much the ability to reprogram themselves as the ability to reproduce themselves. Now, imagine an army of robotic infantry (OK, perhaps they’re 15 cm long and can fly) programmed to scavenge whatever is necessary to build more and more of themselves.
Jose Canseco could probably could have been a lot more imaginative in conjuring the potential menace of robots, but, I’ll bet he’d still know better than to program them “to serve humanity” (let he wind up on a serving platter).