> automation hasn't proceeded across the spectrum. Exactly. Its impact has been limited to areas where there is repetitive work on standardised, clean objects[

> automation hasn't proceeded across the spectrum. Exactly. Its impact has been limited to areas where there is repetitive work on standardised, clean objects[1], in standardised environments, in product lines where volumes are sufficient to justify the investment in machinery. > Yet automation equipment has boomed in the last 20 years. Yes it has. The size of the needed investment has gone down a lot in activities where automation is feasible. But manufacturing has been a minor part of the US economy for more than 30 years, and its share is getting smaller. "Services" is over 80 percent. Advertising, making movies, sports, construction... zillions of different things. [1] If any manufacturing work should be automated, it's meat packing. Unpleasant, boring work that gives you carpal tunnel syndrome and other joint and tendon injuries. Plants are always short of workers and absenteeism is rife because of the nature of the job. But automation is impossible, because animals are not standardised enough. Putting that another way: because machine vision is still so ludicrously bad. And so is the state of robotics.