And so it begins, Flippy the burger flipping robot starts work in California

[Eaglerino]

I wonder if this means

 

-Food won't be randomly good and randomly bad as often

-Nobody can spit in my food now

-Asking for minimum wage hike brought this on faster than otherwise

-The food will be even cheaper because they don't have to pay people to work there anymore

[PhantomJaguarr]

Instantly reminded me of this:

 

 

?

[AresKrieger]

Well it was people in California wanting a 15 dollar minimum wage correct? Well they may indeed get that, however it seems very likely they made the wish on a monkey paw.

[Evanair]

I'm waiting for this to backfire on companies in a horrible way in about 15 years...

 

1. Fully automate the entire unskilled labor force industry, putting all unskilled labor out of the job.  This saves the company millions each year, allowing them to increase profits for the owners/shareholders.
2. Entire unskilled labor force is out of work, with no means to move upwards. Companies refuse to higher anyone because they have robots to do everything that use to be done by humans.
3. Colleges are sought out as a Masters degree becomes a requirement for any "human" job, with a large influx of applicants, colleges can pick and choose from the elite pools of people or classes they wish.
4. People who are "not college worthy" try to go on welfare.  Welfare collapses due to influx of need, low skilled workers start to migrate out of US or die off.  Earth population drops by 25% over 10 years, fixing overpopulation.
5. Educated, well paid people do not generally eat at fast food places, so industry that started it all collapses.

[8uhbbhu8]

6 hours ago, mr moose said:

 

They go to school and get an education unhindered by the need to work. Because with automation comes a shift in wealth, which means taxes and other sources of funding will reduce the need for students to pay for their own education.

 

I know it's a complex concept (many experts still debate how it will work), but the essential ideal is that the shift in wealth distribution will lead to people spending more time working and learning in disciplines that require them and not emptying bins or flipping burgers.  By the time my grandchildren get to university (about 20 years I expect) I imagine it will be free and in subjects that largely centre around stem and integrated philosophies.

 

 

 

 

 

That's... NOT how it works at all.

 

There is NO distribution of wealth that will happen. The people who are running these will get richer and those that loose their jobs will become poorer.

 

Most of the people at these type of jobs are those that:

 

A: Are at their first job and literally can't do anything else because that "first job" is so crucial. Most companies won't even consider you unless you have had A job. Never mind your training. It proves you can work for a period of time in a corporate setting.

B: Are in school and this type of job is the only thing that fits their hours available and without it they won't be able to afford school or even live (This is probably the biggest reason of any as especially in the US school is expensive and debt is almost impossible to avoid unless you have rich parents or are super lucky)

C: Are older people who were "let go" to make room for newer younger workers who have different ideas. They usually won't be hired by companies as they don't want to deal with people who won't "give their whole life to them" So then these ones have to find a job at a place like this to survive as the US also has nothing to help them out unlike the rest of the world.

 

Ahahahahahahha!!! People were saying that 30 years ago, ITS THE USA. As long as corporations are in charge (which will NOT change for a very long time) that will never ever happen!

[Misanthrope]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if this entire new story and it's follow ups were written entirely by AI? Which is a thing already btw.

 

In fact you probably wouldn't believe me but I am not an actual person but an advanced, experimental AI designed specifically to irritate and amuse you in equal parts but at different times.

[mr moose]

6 minutes ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

That's... NOT how it works at all.

 

There is NO distribution of wealth that will happen. The people who are running these will get richer and those that loose their jobs will become poorer.

 

Most of the people at these type of jobs are those that:

 

A: Are at their first job and literally can't do anything else because that "first job" is so crucial. Most companies won't even consider you unless you have had A job. Never mind your training. It proves you can work for a period of time in a corporate setting.

B: Are in school and this type of job is the only thing that fits their hours available and without it they won't be able to afford school or even live (This is probably the biggest reason of any as especially in the US school is expensive and debt is almost impossible to avoid unless you have rich parents or are super lucky)

C: Are older people who were "let go" to make room for newer younger workers who have different ideas. They usually won't be hired by companies as they don't want to deal with people who won't "give their whole life to them" So then these ones have to find a job at a place like this to survive as the US also has nothing to help them out unlike the rest of the world.

 

Ahahahahahahha!!! People were saying that 30 years ago, ITS THE USA. As long as corporations are in charge (which will NOT change for a very long time) that will never ever happen!

Not too sure what you are trying to say here, but

 

A. there will always be another job,  If companies refuse to employ people who haven't worked jobs that don't exist, then they won't employ anyone.  Of course things will change and companies will not be looking for people with traditional "first time" jobs.  A quick look through out history will show you this happens all the time.

 

B. I addressed that,  you see it is quite possible in a society with better distribution of wealth to have free education, so said student won't need that job.  In fact there are already countries in the world with free (or exceedingly cheap) education, so it's not an unworkable proposition.

 

C. redistribution of wealth means pensions so older people who canm't work don't have to.

 

 

I think the issue is people just don't understand how malleable the economic structure of the world is.  Most of the things we consider to be unavoidable, like 40 hour work weeks and governments not funding health/retirement.education are simply concrete thinking.  re-distribution of wealth is not a communist/socialist policy, it is not a concept that takes from one and gives to the other.  It is a process by which we find a new definition for value of time spent working.  Wealth is already being distributed differently today than it was 100 years ago, and even then it was different than 100 years before that.   We work less hours now than our 18th century counterparts, we live longer and have better more affordable education.  That;'s what automation brings to the table.  What distracts from that is the fear people have that it is somehow going to be different this time.   

 

Historians are pretty unanimous in their beliefs that the two greatest changes to humanity where trains and the internet.  Many still argue the trains had a bigger impact 200 years ago.  Everything else we discuss will likely have less of an impact than those two, thus not going to be the issue everyone fears. . 

[Brooksie359]

7 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

As if we didn't all know this was coming.  Fast food workers constantly bitch about how they aren't making enough money, so companies go the cheaper route that doesn't involve complaining.

Not only that but a robot can work unlimited overtime and it doesn't cost any extra. The thing will likely replace more than one person's worth of work making much more cost effective than people realize.

[xAcid9]

Not very practical imo, at least for now.

[Maslofski]

hell yeah, if i ever go to a ff restaurant i want to see a glass wall to the kitchen and atch em work

[DemiGod]

#TheyTookOurJobs

[Sauron]

13 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

This raises some interesting questions for me, in 10 years when all fast food restaurants have Flippies what do all the people who no longer have jobs do for work?

In theory they move up to less repetitive jobs, in practice they'll probably just be left home because they aren't qualified for those new positions. This is what happens when a country doesn't invest in its people's education.

12 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

As if we didn't all know this was coming.  Fast food workers constantly bitch about how they aren't making enough money, so companies go the cheaper route that doesn't involve complaining.

That's like saying a slave shouldn't complain because at least he's getting food...

[JoostinOnline]

10 minutes ago, Sauron said:

That's like saying a slave shouldn't complain because at least he's getting food...

It's not even remotely like that. 

 

The only slave here is Flippy. I say #freeflippy!

[asus killer]

i get the job loss argument, but this is expected and happened time and time again in the past. The people that cared for the horses are gone, we have cars. I guess the robot industry will have a bloom, both building, programing and maintaining them. Of course it's not the same shoveling horse shit or driving/fixing a car, they need to learn a lot more skills to do it, but we survived.

Truck drivers will face a similar problem very soon. Education is increasingly important as low qualification, mindless jobs, will tend to be less and less in the future i guess.

[Sauron]

Just now, JoostinOnline said:

It's not even remotely like that. 

Isn't it? It seems to me you were saying that this is somehow the fault of the employees complaining their wages are too low...

 

An easy solution is to tax the crap out of fast food companies using flippy to substitute humans, but the US doesn't like taxes...

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

The only slave here is Flippy. I say #freeflippy!

#flippyourhero

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, asus killer said:

i get the job loss argument, but this is expected and happened time and time again in the past. The people that cared for the horses are gone, we have cars. I guess the robot industry will have a bloom, both building, programing and maintaining them. Of course it's not the same shoveling horse shit or driving/fixing a car, they need to learn a lot more skills to do it, but we survived.

Truck drivers will face a similar problem very soon. Education is increasingly important as low qualification, mindless jobs, will tend to be less and less in the future i guess.

The proble this time is that it's happening much faster and "higher tier" jobs require significantly more education which, especially in the US, is not something everyone is able to obtain. Furthermore, if you substitute n horses with n cars the number of people required for maintenance is not that different, whereas 100 flippies only require one maintenance guy to come every so often.

[JoostinOnline]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Isn't it? It seems to me you were saying that this is somehow the fault of the employees complaining their wages are too low...

 

An easy solution is to tax the crap out of fast food companies using flippy to substitute humans, but the US doesn't like taxes...

#flippyourhero

You're applying your own definition of "too low". If people were forced to work at a specific place, your slave analogy would make more sense. But they aren't. 

 

I do think a robot tax is a good idea though. 

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

You're applying your own definition of "too low". If people were forced to work at a specific place, your slave analogy would make more sense. But they aren't. 

I'm not saying they are like slaves, I'm saying you can't fault them for complaining about their position. And forced or not, their choices are that or unemployment, so...

 

[raphidy]

Looks so gimmicky. Most likely early adopters. It would be more efficient to have something similar to a 3d printer/oven and multiple arms for condiments/manipulation. Then again, it would only process burgur at a time.

[asus killer]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

The proble this time is that it's happening much faster and "higher tier" jobs require significantly more education which, especially in the US, is not something everyone is able to obtain. Furthermore, if you substitute n horses with n cars the number of people required for maintenance is not that different, whereas 100 flippies only require one maintenance guy to come every so often.

in no way disagree with you. Adaptation is a problem. Education is another. The happening fast i don't agree, it was incredibly slow, most people thought this should be a thing of the past by now, back in the 80's at least people already discussed this.

 

I also agree that there will be need for a lot less people if you go from flipping burgers to robot building and maintenance, but that's why i said no one should rely on low paying mindless, no skills required jobs in the future. I'm not to pessimist as there could be a time there is not enough jobs, there are always new reinventions of what people can do. Low skill jobs those i'm really pessimist about, they will tent to be less and less.

[mr moose]

34 minutes ago, Sauron said:

The proble this time is that it's happening much faster and "higher tier" jobs require significantly more education which

 

They have been saying that about automation all along though. A great example were the switchboard operators before automated phone systems,  there were something like 350,000 in the US (just over 1/4% of the population at the time).  They were replaced mostly through natural attrition while others got jobs in companies that used private switchboards. Which is the same as the truckies face (which is 1% of the current population I believe), however automated trucks and taxis are still a few decades from becoming fully adopted.  

 

I do agree with the education bit though.    Everyone needs/deserves access to good education.

[Sauron]

9 minutes ago, mr moose said:

 

They have been saying that about automation all along though. A great example were the switchboard operators before automated phone systems,  there were something like 350,000 in the US (just over 1/4% of the population at the time).  They were replaced mostly through natural attrition while others got jobs in companies that used private switchboards. Which is the same as the truckies face (which is 1% of the current population I believe), however automated trucks and taxis are still a few decades from becoming fully adopted.  

Hopefully that's the case, we'll have to wait and see.

[kilgore_T]

good...now we need a Thurgood the lettuce throwing robot and Chester the cheese placing robot cause im tired going to mcdonalds and all the insides are outside

[MyName13]

15 hours ago, RotoCoreOne said:

That'd be cool except for being fat lol

A hedonist society that does nothing?

[vorticalbox]

15 hours ago, knightslugger said:

The yearly maintenance on that thing from hovering over vaporized animal fat will probably cost as much as a year of health insurance. Breaking a leg would cost less than fixing that thing.

Plus when it break there aren't 20 more sat a home who would be happy for the overtime