People are going to attack robots, until this happens...

Robots are beginning to appear in public, the first generation that will share our public spaces. As they begin to appear, designers must worry about how their expensive new machines will fare amid the public.

A robot on patrol at Stanford.

Highlights

By Marshall Connolly (CALIFORNIA NETWORK)
CALIFORNIA NETWORK (https://www.youtube.com/c/californianetwork)
5/2/2017 (6 years ago)

Published in Technology

Keywords: robots, Knightscope, vandalism, protests, sabotage, economics

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- Robots are beginning to appear in public. Not just in Silicon Valley either, but in cities across the U.S. including San Francisco, Phoenix, and Washington D.C. and more. Within the next year or so, most Americans living in urban environments are likely to encounter one or more autonomous robots. Within a few years, these electronic denizens will become ubiquitous.

Knightscope is providing robot security guards for malls and parking lots. Google's Waymo will provide self-driving car rides around Phoenix and a few other cities in Arizona including Chandler, Mesa, and Tempe. Dominos and other delivery services are launching fleets of drones to deliver pizza and packages. And Boston Dynamics also wants to deliver packages to your door using robots, and testing has already begun.

It's these attributes that make robots attractive to owners. They can increase productivity for much less cost than human investment. This also makes them a threat to humans who stand to lose their jobs to robots.

What happens when one of these disgruntled humans encounters his robotic replacement? It's naĂŻve to assume it will go well. Violence against robots is not only expected, it has already happened, and will increase.

In 2014, a robot designed by a pair of Canadian architects who wanted to see if it could hitchhike across the USA was found hacked into pieces. More recently, a Knightscope security robot was spray painted by vandals. However, the Knightscope had a secret weapon, a camera and the ability to read license plates. Police later tracked down the vandals and brought them to justice.

The economic forces bringing robots to market far outweigh any certainty of violence against them. Once robots become commonplace, most violence will cease. People once sabotaged and vandalized steam engines and other machines. They don't do so anymore.

Violence is incited by fear and loathing, brought about by the loss, or potential loss of employment. However, robots have the potential to take away commonplace drudgery, allowing people to focus on more fulfilling pursuits.

The difference will be made in who benefits from robots.

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During the first industrial revolution, people sabotaged machines because they feared losing their jobs to them. In the short-term, thousands of people were displaced and suffered. But eventually, the benefits of mechanization, in the form of cheaper, higher quality, consistent products reached everyone, even the poorest. The unemployed found new jobs.

The Fifth Industrial Revolution will be the same. We will face shock, fear and uncertainty. There will be incidents of sabotage, vandalism and violence. People will suffer because of displacement. But the long term will be beneficial to all.

The robot revolution we have long predicted has arrived. It's time to adapt, and to prepare ourselves for the changing world to come.

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