7 ms·

One of the (many) areas in which China is doing great is industrial robotics. Not the fancy dancing dogs, but robots that replace workers in factories.

saturn8601 23d ago
That why I said it either goes to robots or it goes away. Can the current robots replace something like this? I don't think right now but maybe they figure it out. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYxSX6xP2U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYxSX6xP2U
- don_esteban 23d ago
  That factory looked like it employed a lot of easily replaceable manual work. You don't have to replace 100% of workforce, replace just the ones whose work is the easiest to do by a robot. Replacing 50% of workforce buys you enough time that by the time your available worker pool has shrunk 50%, robotics and AI will be much better and you will be able to replace another big chunk. Production-wise, shrinking demographics are not such a big deal (they still have a lot of youth unemployment). Shrinking demographics is a problem due to a) the ratio of workers vs seniors, b) shrinking overall demand pool -> shrinking economy c) smaller overall talent pool -> less diversity, less 'geniuses', i.e. the real drivers of innovation, and less capability to mobilize for great projects
  - saturn8601 22d ago
    You haven't seem to have accounted for costs. Can the speaker still be produced at the same price? It remains to be seen. A lot of products will simply go away due to economics. Thats a reduced quality of life compared to today.
- don_esteban 23d ago
  Timely contribution from BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62m4zn1q6mo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62m4zn1q6mo :-)
  - saturn8601 22d ago
    Yeah China bought out Kuka a while back and have done some amazing efforts in automation. Their pragmatic approach to AI and automation may win out in the end. We will have to wait and see.
- imtringued 23d ago
  I didn't watch the entire video, but 90% of the tasks I've seen in that video are easy to automate. The hardest ones are the cable pulling, putting the coil on the insert and soldering directly on the conveyor belt.
  - saturn8601 22d ago
    It remains to be seen if that bluetooth speaker can be produced with advanced automation at the same price that they are selling it for at this time. If not, parts or the entire category of product (tiny LED bluetooth speaker) might just have to go away as it does not make sense economically anymore. That is the reduced quality of life I am talking about in the other comments here.

saturn8601 23d ago

That why I said it either goes to robots or it goes away. Can the current robots replace something like this? I don't think right now but maybe they figure it out. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYxSX6xP2U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYxSX6xP2U

don_esteban 23d ago
That factory looked like it employed a lot of easily replaceable manual work. You don't have to replace 100% of workforce, replace just the ones whose work is the easiest to do by a robot. Replacing 50% of workforce buys you enough time that by the time your available worker pool has shrunk 50%, robotics and AI will be much better and you will be able to replace another big chunk. Production-wise, shrinking demographics are not such a big deal (they still have a lot of youth unemployment). Shrinking demographics is a problem due to a) the ratio of workers vs seniors, b) shrinking overall demand pool -> shrinking economy c) smaller overall talent pool -> less diversity, less 'geniuses', i.e. the real drivers of innovation, and less capability to mobilize for great projects
- saturn8601 22d ago
  You haven't seem to have accounted for costs. Can the speaker still be produced at the same price? It remains to be seen. A lot of products will simply go away due to economics. Thats a reduced quality of life compared to today.
don_esteban 23d ago
Timely contribution from BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62m4zn1q6mo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62m4zn1q6mo :-)
- saturn8601 22d ago
  Yeah China bought out Kuka a while back and have done some amazing efforts in automation. Their pragmatic approach to AI and automation may win out in the end. We will have to wait and see.
imtringued 23d ago
I didn't watch the entire video, but 90% of the tasks I've seen in that video are easy to automate. The hardest ones are the cable pulling, putting the coil on the insert and soldering directly on the conveyor belt.
- saturn8601 22d ago
  It remains to be seen if that bluetooth speaker can be produced with advanced automation at the same price that they are selling it for at this time. If not, parts or the entire category of product (tiny LED bluetooth speaker) might just have to go away as it does not make sense economically anymore. That is the reduced quality of life I am talking about in the other comments here.