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Thanks to semis and semi technologies, robots are rapidly coming down in price and increasing functionality not at an old industrial rate anymore, but with the ever increasing speed of the tech world. This is just the very beginning of robots everywhere. Robotic home vacuum cleaners and floor cleaners are also just one step in the direction of home robotics. Robotics is really just starting to get away from its heavy industrial roots and spread into other areas in many forms. ATMs for banking are getting more versatile every day at handling and reading different types of transactions and handling and generating a larger and larger share of transactions. Robotics and automation are just now in the very early stages. Robot war machines are the next area where robotics is going to be a massive game changer, especially with the ability to sit and wait patiently in almost any environment for even months/years at a time. Semis of all types are going to push the speed of development cycles in robotics dramatically, just like they have done in every area semis and semi technology have touched. With AI and machine learning in the mix, the rate of change, growth and penetration of robotics and automation must be taken into consideration of all projects, whether they use it or not. To not take robotics and automation into account in almost everything or underestimate how fast and deep the penetration can be disastrous to any project or business plan. This will touch or very soon touch every field and human endeavor and the disruptions must be planned and taken carefully into account for both positive and negative ramifications for they will quickly become a great power and game changer in almost everything we touch.
One obvious downside with automation and robotics in general is the loss of jobs, as human workers get replaced with smarter machines, so it's not clear to me that our economy will have a net positive impact with increased automation.
Dan, Robotics will just extend our reach in every field. The greatest job in the future will be figuring new ways to extend the reach and scope of applications robotics and automation will significantly touch. The greatest threat now is an educational system that has little interest in keeping up with the changes. In the future high school will prepare you for your first internship or apprenticeship and you will be plugged in to continuous updates on a subscription basis throughout your career. New careers and endeavors will be created at a rate limited only by imagination and creativity. If the educational system does not adapt, we will be in trouble. The problem is the government work force has become used to a very rigid work, rules and economic environment that increasing every pays for their inflexibility. The days of slow and deliberate change are gone, the future is here, embrace it. People like us have a special responsibility to help others that haven't been as blessed as us adapt. The SemiWiki community has to be leaders in this movement. EDA, your specialty, is a very sophisticated form of automation and look at the progress it has given us. It is up to each of us to lead our way into the future.
One obvious downside with automation and robotics in general is the loss of jobs, as human workers get replaced with smarter machines, so it's not clear to me that our economy will have a net positive impact with increased automation.
My utopia is a world where robots can generate enough wealth themselves to fulfill basic needs of the whole population and this wealth is distributed equally among all of them. Jobs would then only be needed for people who want to earn money for luxury needs.
Your comment seems to assume jobs are the only way to distribute wealth among people.
Staf, Utopia is where people are engaged in a meaningful endeavor that provides enough satisfaction to make individuals feel secure enough that they don't have to put others down or feel inferior to support their damaged egos. Sadly, I don't ever see this happening. Being partially disabled and surviving many assaults between 5 and 18 has given me a far more accurate view of human nature than most. Violence can be economic, political, emotional and physical. At best we will be able to minimize it to some extent.
