will robots supersede humans?……………This is a highly controversial question and if you ask a bar room philosopher, http://www.james-albus.org/are that he will erupt into a blistering diatribe against free market economics ,today s robber barons,global warming and what not! ……………………The only thing we can say is that accelerating tecnology over the last centuries has consistently erased jobs only to replace them by other jobs.True, the transition periods have caused temporary discomfort and even vicious battles.There are many examples of technophobia in history.In England,the Luddites rebelled against technological advances in the textile industry but the long term outcome has been largely positive……………………… Now,it s not because,so far,tecnological progress and automation haven t caused massive unemployment that the tables can t be turned in the future!…………Until now,machines had only replaced brawn but now with the advent of the microchip,they are also replacing brain……………………So far,displaced workers have found employment in services and moreover physical activities that used to be classified as leisure activities now command an income like sport .In the 19th and 20th centuries as countries industrialized,a giant market in athletics,winter sports,team sports,individual sport,popped into existence.Better living standards together with exodus from the countryside spawn a host of new services such as health care,day care centres,education,the entertainment industy,beauty parlours,pet shops,fitness centres and what not!…………… The emergence of new activities will probably continue unabated .Prospects are bright for solar energy,windmills,the protection of the environment and space conquest with the terraforming of MARS and VENUS in a more distant future!……together with birth control,what we could witness is not a surge in unemployment but a labour shortage!……………………………Besides,it must be noted that many human beings work more than 40 hours per week so that a shorter working week will create new jobs.For the last hundred years,man has reduced considerably his working time.That s the way history is going…………Productivity,thanks to ever better performing robots will increase tremendously………In a PHILIPS factory,in the Netherlands,hundreds of workers use their hands and specific tools to assemble electric shavers.That s the old way that harks back to the famous movie “Modern times” with Charlie Chaplin!……….At a sister company, in the Dutch countryside, 128 robot arms do the same job with yoga like flexibility without complaining about working conditions or low wages!……Video cameras guide them through feats well beyond the capability of the most dexterous human beings…..This is the future……A new wave of robots,far more adept than those now commonly used in the auto industry,are replacing workers.The ever growing sophistication of robots has touched off a renewed debate among economists to know how many and how quickly,jobs will be lost! Several economists contend that the sheer magnitude of the phenomenon is recent and could quickly have serious repercussions such as mass unemployment and of course social unrest………….Let s come back to the current state of the art robots.Whereas,many robots in an auto factory typically perform 1 function,in the new TELSA factory they might do up to 4…..welding,riveting,bonding and installing……Thanks to an inexpensive video camera,a new robot can quickly discern the irregular dimensions of randomly placed objects…………………………………………………………..So,given such a revolution,small wonder many people come up with the standard argument to wit as robots get more numerous and more advanced,human work will be no longer needed to produce goods and provide services.This means that humans won t have any jobs and consequently won t be able to afford any goods because they won t have any income!…..Now,it s easy to show that this line of reasoning is a fallacy that can easily be debunked ….Did we have to work last year to afford gravity,daylight,sunshine,rain,snow?….So if one day robots supplant human beings in every field ,we won t have to work any more and will live in a world of plenty and serendipity………..Getting rid of compulsory work will free up our time and efforts for other more enjoyable pursuits….such as educating oneself,reading,painting,sculpting,conversing,playing,practising sport,watching TV,writing essays and what not,the crux of the matter being that you no longer engage into an activity from a utilitarian point of view but for pleasure………………………………..Obviously I can overhear pained comments by lots of people sneering about such ingenuousness,daydreaming and even plain rigmarole…………………………………………………………..As a conclusion,i d like to mention a complete unknown in Europe,at least,for the layman; a visionary with lots of degrees under his belt.The man is James ALBUS. He was a senior fellow with the Krasnov institute for advanced studies.He worked with two small companies in robotics research……………….Much concerned about poverty,injustice , pollution and global warming ,he firmly believed that our societies would benefit from technological development and advanced automation.He believed that robots were the only means of liberating mankind from poverty and oppression………………………….In his latest book,he explains the economic model for solving the current problems of slow economic growth and suggests a foundation for future prosperity based on widespread ownership of capital assets…………………….His plan is simple in concept:Increase the rate of wealth production by raising the rate of investment through public funding and personal savings…….Distribute the returns directly to the people through dividends………………ALBUS imagines an investment trust for making robots.Each citizen would invest equally.He has caculated that if investment had begun in 1976,the dividends paid would have amounted to 12.000 dollars per person and per year by the end of the 20th century!
The Essay on Lance Reporter Job Journalist Sports
Words of Wisdom Sometimes the strangest situations turn out to be miracles in disguise. That is what happened to me. Who thought that someone who did not like English that much would pick a career that deals with it every day? I sure did not. It must have been something in the air at Kossuth High School, maybe the teachers, it could have been my friends, or it could just be a young boy maturing in ...
