"Robots, Sir. As far as the eye can see..."

[Graeme]

A couple of recent stories caught my eye.

[1] Development of a humanoid robot prototype, HRP-5P, capable of heavy labor and set to replace builders everywhere.

REF 1: Youtube: Short Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLPh...

REF 2: Phys.org: Some more detail around the research program: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-humanoi...

Then on the other hand.

[2] Robot surgeon goes berserk.

REF: DailyMail. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...

[3] Which kinda tells us we're no where near the 'Prometheus,' automated surgery pod.

REF: Youtube: WARNING: Cringeworthy surgical movie scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEbX7...

So the bottomline.

Robots replace builders the way that tractors replaced farm workers.

What does society do with the spare labour this time around?

And, would you agree to robot surgery?

[Nik]

Damn, we might be living through last decades of available unsophisticated labor. Don't know whether all be able to acquire PhDs or be artistic enough to make a living in the future. Maybe time to grab properties and make dough to buy enough robots to protect them -:)

I've undergone both successful and unsuccessful manual surgeries. I guess I'd agree to anything with proven record.

[Ian]

I suspect we shall always have some manual labour because some jobs require some subjective matters.

As for robot surgery, if you are going to be an early settler on Mars, you will probably have it if you need surgery. I suspect a robot would be far more efficient than a human for carrying out the surgery, provided the diagnosis was correct and complete. I am not so sure they would respond properly too.