3 ms·

Anyone who don't know what manufacturing automation looked like for past decades should go watch those "factory tours" video or two. Then write down what are sh

Anyone who don't know what manufacturing automation looked like for past decades should go watch those "factory tours" video or two. Then write down what are shared characteristics of manually handled objects in it and what are deltas between those videos and this. There are just way too many fantasies around here. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQeQWGqfFN0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQeQWGqfFN0 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csifG1AM5d8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csifG1AM5d8 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg8YYuLLoM0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg8YYuLLoM0

bagels 2y ago
You seem to imply that you have an answer to this. What are the shared characteristics of manually handled objects?
mrtksn 2y ago
IIUC, while this type of mass manufacturing is very efficient, it also limits the materials and what the final product can be. Especially in food manufacturing, they need to add certain chemicals in the food ingredients so that the machines can process them and that's what separates the cheap mass produced food from artisan food. A humanoid robot might be able to apply traditional processes and make artisan, additive free products cheap and available. If we end up having practically unlimited energy(which we actually have, just not harnessed fully yet), we can also have small production centers on every corner that produce bespoke products using humanoid robots and traditional tools instead of having centralized and highly specialized and streamlined mass production.
- freeone3000 2y ago
  We have re-invented the tamale stand, but with robots.
- idiotsecant 2y ago
  Someone is drinking the 'bespoke artisan' koolaid. Food additives are almost entirely about making products more visually appealing or shelf stable. Cellulose to keep cheese from sticking, nitrogen to keep meat from oxidizing, etc. Your 'bespoke artisan' products are mostly improved marketing and improved staging (better lighting, less crowded stores, more personal service, etc)
317070 2y ago
At first, humanoids will not be used for these inflexible, old-style mass manufacturing factories. Humanoids can automate where flexibility is needed. E.g. a baker baking 5000 breads a day for a local community cannot afford the capital expenditure to automate every step in his pipeline with these ABB machines. He could afford to automate with one of these new humanoids though, as the same machine first does step 1, then step 2 all the way to the end of the recipe, in a kitchen which is already there. Same idea with individual production. A toyota factory builds you one exact copy of a car in any colour you want (as long as it's black). But we might go back to a more individualised default in manufacturing, where for example tailor made clothes become affordable to most people again.
- berkes 2y ago
  > to automate every step in his pipeline with these ABB machines. That's still too much "inside the box" thinking. That baker doesn't need "automate everything", in fact, no-one does. What "that baker" needs, is to rank work on effort, cross sectioned with "costs to automate". And then automate the top item or items only. The baker needs a machine to knead the dough. Special tools to cut the dough of twenty cookies at once with minimal waste. Trays and tools that can be cleaned in a dishwasher. A bread slicing machine. A bakery that can be mopped in one go, rather than a fully automated humanoid mopping machine. This is an analogy for all automation: we don't need to cover 100%, be fully autonomous, 100% flexible. We need to automate the hardest part, even if that's boring tech. Then the next hardest part. And so on.
  - blargey 2y ago
    Those top items were already automated long ago. What remains is a fractal scattering of irregular tasks that would be excessively costly to automate with single-task machinery that is 0% flexible. -100% flexible, considering most machines require the process itself to be bent around its limitations, and the costs trickle all the way down to the features and properties of the final output. An omnitasker that can emulate a significant chunk of "all the stuff you just give up and have a human spend an hour on" is precisely what the baker (and countless others) need after hitting that threshold.

bagels 2y ago

You seem to imply that you have an answer to this. What are the shared characteristics of manually handled objects?

mrtksn 2y ago

IIUC, while this type of mass manufacturing is very efficient, it also limits the materials and what the final product can be. Especially in food manufacturing, they need to add certain chemicals in the food ingredients so that the machines can process them and that's what separates the cheap mass produced food from artisan food. A humanoid robot might be able to apply traditional processes and make artisan, additive free products cheap and available. If we end up having practically unlimited energy(which we actually have, just not harnessed fully yet), we can also have small production centers on every corner that produce bespoke products using humanoid robots and traditional tools instead of having centralized and highly specialized and streamlined mass production.

freeone3000 2y ago
We have re-invented the tamale stand, but with robots.
idiotsecant 2y ago
Someone is drinking the 'bespoke artisan' koolaid. Food additives are almost entirely about making products more visually appealing or shelf stable. Cellulose to keep cheese from sticking, nitrogen to keep meat from oxidizing, etc. Your 'bespoke artisan' products are mostly improved marketing and improved staging (better lighting, less crowded stores, more personal service, etc)

317070 2y ago

At first, humanoids will not be used for these inflexible, old-style mass manufacturing factories. Humanoids can automate where flexibility is needed. E.g. a baker baking 5000 breads a day for a local community cannot afford the capital expenditure to automate every step in his pipeline with these ABB machines. He could afford to automate with one of these new humanoids though, as the same machine first does step 1, then step 2 all the way to the end of the recipe, in a kitchen which is already there. Same idea with individual production. A toyota factory builds you one exact copy of a car in any colour you want (as long as it's black). But we might go back to a more individualised default in manufacturing, where for example tailor made clothes become affordable to most people again.

berkes 2y ago
> to automate every step in his pipeline with these ABB machines. That's still too much "inside the box" thinking. That baker doesn't need "automate everything", in fact, no-one does. What "that baker" needs, is to rank work on effort, cross sectioned with "costs to automate". And then automate the top item or items only. The baker needs a machine to knead the dough. Special tools to cut the dough of twenty cookies at once with minimal waste. Trays and tools that can be cleaned in a dishwasher. A bread slicing machine. A bakery that can be mopped in one go, rather than a fully automated humanoid mopping machine. This is an analogy for all automation: we don't need to cover 100%, be fully autonomous, 100% flexible. We need to automate the hardest part, even if that's boring tech. Then the next hardest part. And so on.
- blargey 2y ago
  Those top items were already automated long ago. What remains is a fractal scattering of irregular tasks that would be excessively costly to automate with single-task machinery that is 0% flexible. -100% flexible, considering most machines require the process itself to be bent around its limitations, and the costs trickle all the way down to the features and properties of the final output. An omnitasker that can emulate a significant chunk of "all the stuff you just give up and have a human spend an hour on" is precisely what the baker (and countless others) need after hitting that threshold.