Brian Merchant, senior editor of Motherboard, VICE’s science
and technology channel, introduces an idea of robotic advancement for the
benefit of the people. At first, I looked at the title, “Fully Automated Luxury
Communism” and thought that the article would be very theoretical. Interestingly enough, Merchant writes about how this
type of technological revolution could benefit the entire nation! The sad thing
is that businesses have become so greedy that it might be difficult for
businesses to transfer to models like this. Plan C is a group that advertises
the idea of “luxury for all”. He explains that at our rate of technological
advancement, robo-luxury is bound to expand. Things like Phones, cars,
computers, and whatnot used to be luxuries and now they are viewed as
necessities. My mom used to tell me to do a research paper in college she would
have to go to the library and search all day. Now I have the luxury of Google
and the other wonders of the internet. I agree with Merchant that this could be
an amazing revolution in our lifetime, although the idea of robots doing my
laundry and feeding my cat kind of scares the hell out of me, but I think I
could get used to it! I just hope we don’t end up like those fat lazy people on
the movie “Wall-e” who drive around their automotive chairs and forget to
actually use their legs every once in a while… In the long run, if this
automated luxury system worked fairly and justly I think we could achieve great
things! People wouldn’t have to stress about so many little things that
machines could do for them and scientific revelations would occur more
frequently. Maybe one day I will live the luxury of having my robot chef make
me dinner, but for now I will just be grateful for the luxuries I do have.
The problem I have with this article is that of the term “Communism” just because you add the words “Automated Luxury” in front of it doesn’t change the concept of communism. The concept o f communism is based on the equality of everybody on an economic level however it has been seen in history that this doesn’t work. Even though I would love to stop doing a lot of things and let robots take care of things for me, we must realize that yes we will become the people in Wall-E as you stated. Another thing about this concept is that of “luxury for all”, this doesn’t exist at all. Someone will eventually take advantage of the system , creating an inequality in said society. Also if it was implemented you can still see that not everyone would benefit from said luxury. Only those who could obtain said luxury of automated machinery. The implementation of this would also knock many people out of jobs that probably don’t have the education to do anything else further creating a split in society. This idea is bad news fam. Don’t allow us to reach this point, just do your own things and lets stop being lazy as hell.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think that having robots do most of the work could be a good thing, I also think that we need to really watch how we do this. There have been lots of movies about robots taking over the country/world and they don't always end well. If we just had robots doing everything for us, where would that leave the human race in forms of purpose? What would we be doing with our lives? Humans are the types of beings that need to be doing something. We get bored too easily and if we don't have jobs, then it will be a mess. Not to mention it will just make the poverty and unemployment rate go up. On the contrary, I think there are good uses for robots to take over, like dangerous jobs for example. I also am for the advancement of technology because I think its amazing and a lot of good can come out of it.
ReplyDeleteThough having robots do everything for us sounds luxurious, I believe we would inevitably turn into the people in Wall-E. With some cars already driving for us people are sleeping behind the wheel or on their phone and letting some robot drive for them. Yes, it would be nice to come home and have a robot do all the cooking for you but soon you will get used to that laziness and have a robot start doing the laundry, then the cleaning and soon enough even washing you in the shower and brushing your teeth. Robots can help in some aspects of life, but bring them into the day to day life and we'll end up in the Wall-E universe. There would be no need for people anymore. You need groceries? have the robot go get them from the grocery store that has only robot employees, then the robot brings the food back and cooks it and feeds it to you. Having robots in the common society would be one of the worst things to happen. Like stated in the article, we already have algorithms smart enough to pass for human. The machines can get smarter and smarter to a point where theoretically, they could take over and we end up never leaving a chair and drinking our meals from a straw.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is important to realize that the author shows how "primitive" robo-technology like phones already control our lives as a necessity, yet 20 years ago smartphones did not exist and most people did not have cell phones. However, it is also important to understand that this idea of "Fully automated luxury communism" could create a society of people with no inspiration to change or grow, as they would simply rely too heavily on robotic life to live. I liked your allusion to Wall-e, as this is the future I envision when i think of the future and how robots and humans will exist together. Although this might not become a reality, it is interesting. Our technologically advanced society has never had to live without the internet or Uber, and we have become more reliant on new technology to help us live from day-to day. With this, it is easy to see the author's point of view and we can see how our society could become increasingly less work-based and more robot and technologically based. The "communism" the author mentions is not referring to government or economics, but rather personal,material objects that all people can universally enjoy. This, of course, could potentially lead to a society with fewer health problems and more personal time for humans.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Gabi that “In the long run, if this automated luxury system worked fairly and justly I think we could achieve great things!” But even within that statement you emphasize on “fairly and justly” to where if these robots operate the way they are programmed to operate everything will be fine. Although, you then have to think about if the people will use these robots fairly and justly. Even if this ideal automated luxury is presented to sound delightful it might not be the greatest decision to look forward to. From the reading of “What about other perspectives?” it implies that we should acknowledge other arguments, because if not we would be left with unfilter statements and ideas, leaving us vulnerable for failure. Not knowing the full outcome of things that can affects us as individuals and as whole. So when it comes to this automated luxury sytem we have to think to ourselves what would other people do with this kind of technology? Use it for it’s proper purpose or for malicious desires. Furthermore, this can also develop a vulnerability with humans too, making people more dependent upon technology rather than human productivity. As said by you Gabi “I just hope we don’t end up like those fat lazy people on the movie “Wall-e” who drive around their automotive chairs and forget to actually use their legs every once in awhile…” this is a possibility we may have to face dealing with this high end form of technology. What are we to do if we have a mass electromagnetic shock wave shutting down all our so called automated luxuries? We would sit there lost and confused continuous pressing the power button to turn them on. Making the movie “Idiocracy” come to a reality.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Brian Merchant's article that robots should be integrated into the workforce, let alone created for the soul purpose to serve us. I think that machines can make jobs easier and more efficient when they are being operated by someone, not when they are operating on “algorithms smart enough almost to pass for human”. I would like to point out the word almost in that sentence, to me almost passing for human and passing for human are two totally separate things. There are many things that humans experience that robots probably will not ever get to experience, such as a range of emotions. Robots will not be able to feel the same way about anything we have tied to a particular emotion.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Zak, i don't think that as humans we should plan to completely rely on robots and other technology. If we started all these advancements in technology with each other just using our minds and bare hands, why not keep it that way? seems to have efficiently work so far. I also barely trust people as it is so i wouldn't want any machine trying to make my food or auto pilot a vehicle with me in it. I believe most of the time that the manual way is the best way.
ReplyDeleteBrian Merchant article about the robot luxury is great in theory, just as communism is, but implementation and adverse effects are the issue. Some countries are more developed than others, America's outsourcing of jobs would be revoked, taking away jobs from underdeveloped countries. The underdeveloped countries would in turn lose an outlet for the well being of the population. Realistically the transition from life today into a robot luxury utopian society would have to be simultaneous world wide to negate failure of less developed nations. The fact that the transition will have to be simultaneous in order to work defeats the theory. Not all countries will agree with a fully automated society, resulting in failure. Merchant declares "Ultimately, this is about politics". Being about politics is the exact reason the plan is destined to fail. Political views differ greatly within America. Imagine the robustly opposite views of different countries; a consensus will never be reached. Robots would also have the capacity for conscious thought after a certain point of development resulting in a scenario like the movie Terminator.
ReplyDeleteI personally would like to agree; however, I would ultimately have to disagree. Sure, having robots at your beck and call might sound like a good idea on paper, but in practice we will more than likely will end up like the human from Wall-E. If we mechanize our society there will be a loss of jobs and need for working humans. Having everything automated in a communist society would leave people with nothing to strive or work hard for. The American dream all of us work so hard to achieve would be given to us instead of us having to earn it. I will agree that some mechanization, if done properly will be good for our society and help us move forward. Alternatively, we could just stop being lazy. I would be fine with Gundams though.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Brian Merchant’s article. I don’t find it necessary to have robots, especially for luxury products. Of course robots can be very beneficial though. Take for example maybe one of the best heart surgeons isn’t able to make it to one of their surgeries last minute. They actually have robots that can successfully perform the surgery without them being there. The idea of these robots is just dehumanizing. There are some tasks that were just specifically meant for humans to do, because of that personal connection with the task. I feel as if these robots would do more harm than good in two different occasions. The first being the economy. Sure companies might be flourishing because they no longer need to pay people for jobs. However, in turn, those people are now jobless, so what now for them? The high level of people without jobs could spark an increase in poverty. The second occasion is that it decreases the work ethic expected for humans. Think about if there were robots simply catering to us, doing everything in our life. Is there a need now to work hard? People no longer have will to put forth effort because they practically don’t need to. However, think about how that would play a role in the development of our future leaders.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with this article is that humans will not be motivated to do anything if they have robots doing jobs humans would usually do. Because of the invention of robots doing jobs humans would do, then many humans would be out of jobs and it would result in many humans just being lazy and not doing anything. It would also result in humans not getting an education and giving up easily because they feel that robots would replace them easily. This would be a corrupt society in which humans become lazy and do not reach their full potential in life and just sit at home everyday not doing anything productive. This new innovation of robots doing human jobs will lead to a corrupt world and will result in humans not even being productive and not necessary in the world since they are not doing anything to help the world.
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