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Not destroying your body lifting heavy weights for 50 years seems like something people might like. We automated looking after the house after it's been built,
by mavhc 5y ago
Not destroying your body lifting heavy weights for 50 years seems like something people might like.
We automated looking after the house after it's been built, no need for people scrubbing floors and clothes any more, freed up 40% of the workforce.
My partially automated vacuum cleaner, clothes washer, dish washer, food cooker, water heater, all work well.
- coldacid 5y ago>Not destroying your body lifting heavy weights for 50 years seems like something people might like. And that's why the exoskeleton system mentioned in passing in the article is more popular with construction labourers than any of these robots.
- minikites 5y agoBetter tools amplify human skills instead of attempting to replace them.
- dendrite9 5y agoThis always has seemed like a good goal to have. There is some work where automation makes sense, but I don't think replacing is always the right goal. https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/17/reverse-centaur/#reverse-centaur https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/17/reverse-centaur/#reverse-...
- imtringued 5y agoIt does sound like a mason that can lift 5 bricks at a time is more productive than a machine that can lay bricks 5 times faster in a synthetic benchmark.
- yodelshady 5y agoThink I'd put money behind a separate machine, but one that just delivers you the brick at hand height, rather than a continual bend-down/place/pick-up cycle. I would say "Brick Butler" or if a startup... Brcklr, the device is free, but the bricks have DRM and post instagram stories as you lay them.
- coldacid 5y agoYeah, that seems like the best plan. It might not improve the speed of bricklaying, but it would certainly be an improvement on the bricklayers' quality of life.
- themaninthedark 5y agoNice, also build a management interface so they can see the workers brick per hour stats. Add in GPS, keep all the data and later sell the database to insurance companies so they can charge higher rates for construction that happened too fast.
- version_five 5y agoMost construction relies on fit young men to do the "heavy lifting". It would be interesting to see how the dynamics changesd if technology moved the needle on the brawn->brain scale, so that the core value prop of a construction worker was not their fitness. I'm not convinced it would be for the better. Also just want to add that working in a physical job for 50 years is much better for your body than sitting at a desk for 50 years.
- makeitdouble 5y ago> physical job for 50 years I think you’re envisioning jobs with high skill requirements or low demand, or a mix of both. Like landscaper for the town, or garbage truck operator. Otherwise you’ll generally be met with a combination of RSI, hazardous product ingestion (dust, paint fumes, exhaust…), allergies, injuries, or sheer overwork. Working a low wage low level physical job is more often than not closer to Amazon warehouse worker than artisans healthily exercising their bodies.
- NoPicklez 5y agoI just want to iterate that working an office job also carries with it its own health problems. Low physical activity from sitting all day, forward posture from sitting all day, RSI from typing and mouse movement, eye problems, overwork (Arguably more than labor jobs).
- XenophileJKO 5y agoAs someone that has worked digging ditches and carrying shingles up a ladder all day. I respectfully disagree. They are not remotely comparabe.
- xyproto 5y agoOne doesn't exclude the other. All types of work-induced health problems are possible.
- concordDance 5y ago> freed up 40% of the workforce. And did that actually improve everyone's quality of life? Or did it just increase the cost of positional goods (check out house prices in the West)?
- mavhc 5y agoIt improved the quality of life of people who didn't have to spend all day washing floors. Isn't the point that house prices are high because they've not been automated? And also that people expect to buy a house using a massive loan over decades. Although from the videos it looks like the brick walls don't actually hold anything up half the time, so might as well replace them with brick patterned wallpaper
- imtringued 5y agoHouse prices are high because land prices are high. There are some cities where permitting is a nightmare and the "brainy" people displaced the "brawny" people but those are the exception. >Although from the videos it looks like the brick walls don't actually hold anything up half the time, so might as well replace them with brick patterned wallpaper Idea: Assemble the wall paper on the ground with a machine and install it in one go.
- MillenialMan 5y agoPeople already have the option to not lay bricks. They don't choose it, because they need money. I get that everyone is going to say, "well then, UBI" but bear in mind in an automated society, power is disproportionately in the hands of the people who own the machines, and they're unlikely to part with their wealth voluntarily.