robotics

Which street do we care more about, Wall Street or Main Street? [Christian]

On 05/08/2015, in 21st century, business, career development, change, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engineering, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, robotics, society, trends, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
This posting is not meant to pick on Freightliner or any other particular company. But the articles listed below (not to mention many other articles re: Google’s self-driving car or re: other technologies) caused me to reflect upon the ramifications of our decisions. The articles made me reflect upon the heart of capitalism and how/why we make the decisions we do within our corporations. That is, what happens when our corporations answer to Wall Street but not to Main Street? What are the ramifications to us, to our neighbors, to our neighborhoods, and to our nation? For that matter, to our very future?

And the topic is far bigger than self-driving trucks. The replacement of people with technology has been going on for quite some time. Modern day examples include ATM machines, self-service scanners/checkouts at the store, telephone switches and automatic voice response units, and more.

Readers of this blog will know that I’m generally pro-technology and that I see technologies as tools. However, replacing people with technologies at the pace that we’re seeing these days causes me to seriously pause…especially when jobs/humans seem to be being replaced far faster than new jobs are being created.

Freightliner unveils first autonomous semi-truck licensed to drive itself on highways — from spectrum.ieee.org by Evan Ackerman

Excerpt:

[On May 5, 2015], Freightliner introduced the world to its Inspiration truck, a prototype for the first semi-truck capable of fully autonomous highway driving that’s been officially licensed to operate on public highways in Nevada.

Mercedes shows off self-driving “Future Truck 2025” — from spectrum.ieee.org by Philip E. Ross

From DSC:
Hmm…though this truck looks like some incredible engineering, I’m more interested in addressing the overall trend here…and it’s a very troubling trend indeed. I say troubling because I see our corporations much more inclined towards answering to Wall Street, but not so much to Main Street. If the incentive is to maximize value for investors — regardless of the costs to society at large — then we as a nation could end up with far larger societal issues than we’ve ever encountered before.

If we answer to Wall Street, we will chose the less expensive algorithm or robot every time.

For example, if more lower and middle class jobs disappear, and people are out of work…downward spirals could start happening all over the place (and as you’ll see below and in many other articles out there, the trend of automation, robotics, algorithms, and other technologies replacing people isn’t limited to blue collar positions). People could get discouraged after not being able to find jobs. The rising cost of college and getting re-trained may be out of reach for many. Despair could set in along with increased use of drugs — addictions, crime, and violence could become more prevalent. Such things could lead to more broken families, increased incarceration, etc. These types of situations, in turn, would bring more costs in a variety of ways to our nation. Issues that could quickly have inter-generational, long-lasting impact.

The replacement of jobs is at all levels and covers white collar positions as well. For example, also see:

5 white-collar jobs robots already have taken – from fortune.com by Erik Sherman
Artificial intelligence, robotics and new disruptive technology are challenging white-collar professions that previously seemed invulnerable:
Financial and Sports Reporters
Online Marketers
Anesthesiologists, Surgeons, and Diagnosticians
E-Discovery Lawyers and Law Firm Associates
Financial Analysts and Advisors
.
The new bookkeeper is a robot — from by Vipal Monga
In corporate finance departments, software does tasks that once took armies of people
.
Automation replacing service, white-collar workers — from daytondailynews.com by Dave Larsen
Excerpt:
Robots and artificial intelligence are rapidly moving beyond the factory floor to new roles in service industries, which account for four out of five U.S. jobs. Many agricultural and manufacturing workers already have been replaced by machines that work faster and more efficiently, and other occupations, including some white-collar jobs, will soon follow, experts said.
.

So the above articles made me reflect on the heart of capitalism and what is driving it for us. If we answer to Wall Street, we will chose the less expensive algorithm or robot every time. But if we stop and think about the costs of getting rid of too many jobs too quickly, we may want to temper things a bit and either provide more resources for helping people get re-tooled for a new job and/or we could decide not to go with that algorithm or that robot after all.

This posting won’t go into other possible solutions. But if you are interested in obtaining further information on this trend and for further thoughts/potential solutions re: it, see the work of Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee.

DSC-which-street-do-we-care-more-abt-May2015

It’s important to note that this isn’t just a problem for someone else to deal with; we’re all in this boat together. “No man is an island” — a saying that still rings true.

———-

Additional questions:

What do these trends mean for how we educate our children? Our young adults?
What do these trends mean for remaining marketable over a lifetime?
How do these things affect higher education — our curricula, programs, degrees, and certificates?
How will these things affect alternative forms of credentialing?

———-

Addendums:

Is your job creative enough to resist robot automation? — from blogs.wsj.com by Amir Mizroch
Why isn’t the tech boom helping the economy? — from linkedin.com by Nishant Bhajaria
The near future of artificial intelligence and smart machines in community banking — from independentbanker.org by Elizabeth Judd
New machine could one day replace anesthesiologists — from washingtonpost.com Todd Frankel
We need new jobs as the machines do more of our work — from theconversation.com by David Tuffley
More STEM education won’t protect our jobs from robots — from phys.org by Toby Walsh
Bad news for IT: Robots and artificial intelligence will take jobs — from zdnet.com by Greg Nichols
In his new book, Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford argues that a bleak jobless future awaits if we don’t take action. Fortunately, he gives us a way forward.
Revolution in the Driver’s Seat: The Road to Autonomous Vehicles — Boston Consulting Group / bcgperspectives.com
Does Artificial Intelligence Pose a Threat? — from wsj.com by Ted Greenwald
A panel of experts discusses the prospect of machines capable of autonomous reasoning
Excerpt:

14 Surprising Jobs That Robots Are Doing — from jobs.aol.com
Actors? Waiters? The next machine age is coming.
Robots threaten these 8 jobs — from money.cnn.com
Soon you could be competing with a robot for a job.

Addendum on 7/15/15:

Here’s How Managers Can Be Replaced by Software — from hbr.org by Devin Fidler

Technology predictions for the second half of the decade — from techcrunch.com by Lance Smith

Excerpts:

Big Data and IoT evolve into automated information sharing
Self-driving vehicles become mainstream
The appearance of artificial intelligent assistants
Real-time agility through data virtualization

EdTech trends for the coming years — from edtechreview.in

Excerpts:

EdTech is about to explode. The coming technology and the new trends on the rise can’t but forecast an extensive technology adoption in schools all around the globe.

Specific apps, systems, codable gadgets and the adaptation of general use elements to the school environment are engaging teachers and opening up the way to new pedagogical approaches. And while we are scratching the surface of some of them, others have just started to buzz persistently.

Wearables + Nano/Micro Technology + the Internet of Things
3D + 4D printing
Big Data + Data Mining
Mobile Learning
Coding
Artificial Intelligence + Deep Learning
- Adaptative learning: based on a student’s behaviour and results, an intelligent assistant can predict and readapt the learning path to those necessities. Combined with biometrics and the ubiquitous persona (explained below) a student could have the best experience ever.
- Automatic courses on the fly, with contents collected by intelligent searching systems (data mining).
- Virtual tutors.
The Ubiquitous Persona + Gamification + Social Media Learning
Specialised Staff in Schools

Phones and wearables will spur tenfold growth in wireless data by 2019 — from recode.net

Excerpts:

Persistent growth in the use of smartphones, plus the adoption of wireless wearable devices, will cause the total amount of global wireless data traffic to rise by 10 times its current levels by 2019, according to a forecast by networking giant Cisco Systems out [on 2/3/15].

The forecast, which Cisco calls its Visual Networking Index, is based in part on the growth of wireless traffic during 2014, which Cisco says reached 30 exabytes, the equivalent of 30 billion gigabytes. If growth patterns remain consistent, Cisco’s analysts reckon, the wireless portion of traffic crossing the global Internet will reach 292 exabytes by the close of the decade.

9 ed tech trends to watch in 2015 — from the Jan/Feb edition of Campus Technology Magazine

Learning spaces
Badges
Gamification
Analytics
3D Printing
Openness
Digital
Consumerization
Adaptive & Personalized Learning

Even though I’ve mentioned it before, I’ll mention it again here because it fits the theme of this posting:

NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Higher Education Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

What is on the five-year horizon for higher education institutions? Which trends and technologies will drive educational change? What are the challenges that we consider as solvable or difficult to overcome, and how can we strategize effective solutions? These questions and similar inquiries regarding technology adoption and educational change steered the collaborative research and discussions of a body of 56 experts to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition, in partnership with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). The NMC Horizon Report series charts the five-year horizon for the impact of emerging technologies in learning communities across the globe. With more than 13 years of research and publications, it can be regarded as the world’s longest-running exploration of emerging technology trends and uptake in education.

From DSC:
Speaking of trends…although this item isn’t necessarily technology related, I’m going to include it here anyway:

Career trends students should be watching in 2015 — from hackcollege.com by

Excerpt:

Students Need to Pay Attention to Broader Trends, and Get Ready.
For better or worse, the post-college world is changing.

According to a variety of analysis sites, including Forbes, Time, and Bing Predicts, more and more of the workforce will be impacted by increased entrepreneurship, freelancing, work-from-home trends, and non-traditional career paths.

These experts are saying that hiring practices will shift, meaning that students need to prepare LinkedIn profiles, online portfolio, work at internships, and to network to build relationships with potential future employers.

———-

Addendum on 3/6/15:
Self-driving car technology could end up in robots — from pcworld.com by Fred O’Connor

Excerpt:

The development of self-driving cars could spur advancements in robotics and cause other ripple effects, potentially benefitting society in a variety of ways.

Autonomous cars as well as robots rely on artificial intelligence, image recognition, GPS and processors, among other technologies, notes a report from consulting firm McKinsey. Some of the hardware used in self-driving cars could find its way into robots, lowering production costs and the price for consumers.

Self-driving cars could also help people grow accustomed to other machines, like robots, that can complete tasks without the need for human intervention.

Addendum on 3/6/15:

Top 5 Emerging Technologies In 2015 — from wtvox.com
Excerpt:
1) Robotics 2.0
2) Neuromorphic Engineering
3) Intelligent Nanobots – Drones
4) 3D Printing
5) Precision Medicine

Robots open up the world of art [CBS News]

On 03/05/2015, in 21st century, accessibility / UDL, art, robotics, technologies for your home, telecommunications, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

With a special thanks to Krista Spahr,
Senior Instructional Designer at Calvin College,
for this resource

Description:

March 1, 2015 | The De Young, one of San Francisco’s fine art museums, now has two robots that open the museum up to those who cannot attend, including the physically handicapped. John Blackstone reports on the state-of-the-art in museum tour guides, and interviews robotics activist Henry Evans, a former Silicon Valley executive who is now almost completely paralyzed, and who worked with the museum to make touring by robot a reality.

From DSC:
To set the stage for the following reflections…first, an excerpt from Climate researcher claims CIA asked about weaponized weather: What could go wrong? — from computerworld.com (emphasis DSC)

We’re not talking about chemtrails, HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) or other weather warfare that has been featured in science fiction movies; the concerns were raised not a conspiracy theorist, but by climate scientist, geoengineering specialist and Rutgers University Professor Alan Robock. He “called on secretive government agencies to be open about their interest in radical work that explores how to alter the world’s climate.” If emerging climate-altering technologies can effectively alter the weather, Robock is “worried about who would control such climate-altering technologies.”

Exactly what I’ve been reflecting on recently.

***Who*** is designing, developing, and using the powerful technologies that are coming into play these days and ***for what purposes?***

Do these individuals care about other people? Or are they much more motivated by profit or power?

Given the increasingly potent technologies available today, we need people who care about other people.

Let me explain where I’m coming from here…

I see technologies as tools. For example, a pencil is a technology. On the positive side of things, it can be used to write or draw something. On the negative side of things, it could be used as a weapon to stab someone. It depends upon the user of the pencil and what their intentions are.

Let’s look at some far more powerful — and troublesome — examples.

DRONES

Drones could be useful…or they could be incredibly dangerous. Again, it depends on who is developing/programming them and for what purpose(s). Consider the posting from B.J. Murphy below (BTW, nothing positive or negative is meant by linking to this item, per se).

DARPA’s Insect and Bird Drones Are On Their Way — from proactiontranshuman.wordpress.com by B.J. Murphy

.

From DSC:
I say this is an illustrative posting because if the inventor/programmer of this sort of drone wanted to poison someone, they surely could do so. I’m not even sure that this drone exists or not; it doesn’t matter, as we’re quickly heading that way anyway. So potentially, this kind of thing is very scary stuff.

We need people who care about other people.

Or see:
Five useful ideas from the World Cup of Drones — from dezeen.com
The article mentions some beneficial purposes of drones, such as for search and rescue missions or for assessing water quality. Some positive intentions, to be sure.

But again, it doesn’t take too much thought to come up with some rather frightening counter-examples.

GENE-RELATED RESEARCH

Or another example re: gene research/applications; an excerpt from:

Turning On Genes, Systematically, with CRISPR/Cas9 — from by genengnews.com
Scientists based at MIT assert that they can reliably turn on any gene of their choosing in living cells.

Excerpt:

It was also suggested that large-scale screens such as the one demonstrated in the current study could help researchers discover new cancer drugs that prevent tumors from becoming resistant.

From DSC:
Sounds like there could be some excellent, useful, positive uses for this technology. But who is to say which genes should be turned on and under what circumstances? In the wrong hands, there could be some dangerous uses involved in such concepts as well. Again, it goes back to those involved with designing, developing, selling, using these technologies and services.

ROBOTICS

Will robots be used for positive or negative applications?

The mechanized future of warfare — from theweek.com
OR
Atlas Unplugged: The six-foot-two humanoid robot that might just save your life — from zdnet.com
Summary:From the people who brought you the internet, the latest version of the Atlas robot will be used in its disaster-fighting robotic challenge.

AUTONOMOUS CARS

How Uber’s autonomous cars will destroy 10 million jobs and reshape the economy by 2025 — from sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com by

Excerpt:

Autonomous cars will be commonplace by 2025 and have a near monopoly by 2030, and the sweeping change they bring will eclipse every other innovation our society has experienced. They will cause unprecedented job loss and a fundamental restructuring of our economy, solve large portions of our environmental problems, prevent tens of thousands of deaths per year, save millions of hours with increased productivity, and create entire new industries that we cannot even imagine from our current vantage point.

One can see the potential for good and for bad from the above excerpt alone.

Or Ford developing cross country automotive remote control — from spectrum.ieee.org

Or Germany has approved the use of self driving cars on Autobahn A9 Route — from wtvox.com

While the above items list mostly positive elements, there are those who fear that autonomous cars could be used by terrorists. That is, could a terrorist organization make some adjustments to such self-driving cars and load them up with explosives, then remotely control them in order to drive them to a certain building or event and cause them to explode?

Again, it depends upon whether the designers and users of a system care about other people.

BIG DATA / AI / COGNITIVE COMPUTING

The rise of machines that learn — from infoworld.com by Eric Knorr; with thanks to Oliver Hansen for his tweet on this
A new big data analytics startup, Adatao, reminds us that we’re just at the beginning of a new phase of computing when systems become much, much smarter

Excerpt:

“Our warm and creepy future,” is how Miko refers to the first-order effect of applying machine learning to big data. In other words, through artificially intelligent analysis of whatever Internet data is available about us — including the much more detailed, personal stuff collected by mobile devices and wearables — websites and merchants of all kinds will become extraordinarily helpful. And it will give us the willies, because it will be the sort of personalized help that can come only from knowing us all too well.

Privacy is dead: How Twitter and Facebook are exposing you — from finance.yahoo.com

Excerpt:

They know who you are, what you like, and how you buy things. Researchers at MIT have matched up your Facebook (FB) likes, tweets, and social media activity with the products you buy. The results are a highly detailed and accurate profile of how much money you have, where you go to spend it and exactly who you are.

The study spanned three months and used the anonymous credit card data of 1.1 million people. After gathering the data, analysts would marry the findings to a person’s public online profile. By checking things like tweets and Facebook activity, researchers found out the anonymous person’s actual name 90% of the time.

iBeacon, video analysis top 2015 tech trends — from progressivegrocer.com

Excerpt:

Using digital to engage consumers will make the store a more interesting and – dare I say – fun place to shop. Such an enhanced in-store experience leads to more customer loyalty and a bigger basket at checkout. It also gives supermarkets a competitive edge over nearby stores not equipped with the latest technology.

Using video cameras in the ceilings of supermarkets to record shopper behavior is not new. But more retailers will analyze and use the resulting data this year. They will move displays around the store and perhaps deploy new traffic patterns that follow a shopper’s true path to purchase. The result will be increased sales.

Another interesting part of this video analysis that will become more important this year is facial recognition. The most sophisticated cameras are able to detect the approximate age and ethnicity of shoppers. Retailers will benefit from knowing, say, that their shopper base includes more Millennials and Hispanics than last year. Such valuable information will change product assortments.

Scientists join Elon Musk & Stephen Hawking, warn of dangerous AI — from rt.com

Excerpt:

Hundreds of leading scientists and technologists have joined Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk in warning of the potential dangers of sophisticated artificial intelligence, signing an open letter calling for research on how to avoid harming humanity.

The open letter, drafted by the Future of Life Institute and signed by hundreds of academics and technologists, calls on the artificial intelligence science community to not only invest in research into making good decisions and plans for the future, but to also thoroughly check how those advances might affect society.

SMART/ CONNECTED TVs

Potential for good:
Learning/training-related applications, networking, obtaining employment and new projects
.
Potential for bad:
Spying on people (Is Your Smart TV Spying On You? Samsung SmartTV Privacy Policy Reminds Us To Watch What We Say Around Connected Devices — from idigitaltimes.com)

Though there are many other examples, I think you get the point.

That biblical idea of loving our neighbors as ourselves…well, as you can see,
that idea is as highly applicable, important, and relevant today as it ever was.

Addendum on 3/19/15 that gets at exactly the same thing here:

Teaching robots to be moral — from newyorker.com by Gary Marcus
Excerpt:
Robots and advanced A.I. could truly transform the world for the better—helping to cure cancer, reduce hunger, slow climate change, and give all of us more leisure time. But they could also make things vastly worse, starting with the displacement of jobs and then growing into something closer to what we see in dystopian films. When we think about our future, it is vital that we try to understand how to make robots a force for good rather than evil.

Addendum on 3/20/15:

Scientists seek ban on method of editing the human genome — from nytimes.com by Nicholas Wade

Jennifer A. Doudna, an inventor of a new genome-editing technique, in her office at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Doudna is the lead author of an article calling for a worldwide moratorium on the use of the new method, to give scientists, ethicists and the public time to fully understand the issues surrounding the breakthrough.
Credit Elizabeth D. Herman for The New York Times

Automation, jobs, and the future of work [mckinsey.com]

On 12/04/2014, in 21st century, business, career development, change, emerging technologies, engineering, future, innovation, pace of change, robotics, staying relevant, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, trends, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Automation, jobs, and the future of work — from mckinsey.com
A group of economists, tech entrepreneurs, and academics discuss whether technological advances will automate tasks more quickly than the United States can create jobs.

Excerpt:

The topic of job displacement has, throughout US history, ignited frustration over technological advances and their tendency to make traditional jobs obsolete; artisans protested textile mills in the early 19th century, for example. In recent years, start-ups and the high-tech industry have become the focus of this discussion. A recent Pew Research Center study found that technology experts are almost evenly split on whether robots and artificial intelligence will displace a significant number of jobs over the next decade, so there is plenty of room for debate.

What follows is an edited transcript plus video clips of a conversation on this topic, moderated by McKinsey Global Institute partner Michael Chui and MGI director James Manyika. The participants were Martin Baily, senior fellow, economic studies, Brookings Institution; Richard Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics, Harvard University; Curtis Carlson, former president and CEO, SRI International; Reid Hoffman, partner, Greylock; Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media; Matt Slaughter, associate dean of faculty, Tuck School of Business; Laura Tyson, professor of business administration and economics, Haas Business and Public Policy Group, University of California, Berkeley; and Vivek Wadhwa, fellow, Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University.

…

It’s quite clear, in the US in recent years, that we’re not creating enough good jobs. People care a lot about their W-2s—what incomes are they earning? If you segment this by educational attainment, 96.2 percent of the US workforce since 2000 is in an educational cohort whose total money earnings, inflation adjusted, have been falling, not rising.

…

What’s happening with the technology, which is skill biased and labor saving, is that it’s eliminating middle-income jobs but is complementary to high skills. The jobs are high-income jobs because some smart people have to work with the technology. But there’s a very large number of people who are being pushed down into lower-income jobs.

…

Maybe we’re looking at the wrong symptoms as opposed to looking at the fundamentals—we are not innovating at the speed of the economy. We are not adapting fast enough

Reflections on “Humans need not apply”

On 08/13/2014, in 21st century, change, emerging technologies, engineering, future of higher education, game-changing environment, reinvent, robotics, society, staying relevant, surviving, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

With thanks to George Veletsianos and @reddit,
& Audrey Watters for posting this item on Twitter

From DSC:
I don’t know much about this video in terms of who created it or what their purpose was in developing it. Though it paints an overly bleak picture IMHO, at least in some ways, I post it here because I think it outlines some solid topics to think about and to plan for — NOW! Not later.

Automation, algorithms, robotics, and more are with us today, but will be even more prevalent tomorrow. It doesn’t matter what the color is of the collar that we’re currently wearing (white, blue, other), more of our jobs are being replaced by such things. As such, we need to think about what the ramifications are concerning these trends. Societies throughout the globe are most definitely in a game-changing environment.

Along these lines, how do such trends affect what is taught? How it’s taught? In K-12? In higher ed? In the corporate world?

How do we stay relevant/employed?

How do we reinvent ourselves and to what?

Are our vocations affected by this? How so?

Also see:

our new robo-reader overlords — from text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com by Alan Jacobs
Teaching Machines: The Drive to Automate Education — from teachingmachin.es by Audrey Watters
AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs — from pewinternet.org by Aaron Smith and Janna Anderson
Excerpt:
The vast majority of respondents to the 2014 Future of the Internet canvassing anticipate that robotics and artificial intelligence will permeate wide segments of daily life by 2025, with huge implications for a range of industries such as health care, transport and logistics, customer service, and home maintenance. But even as they are largely consistent in their predictions for the evolution of technology itself, they are deeply divided on how advances in AI and robotics will impact the economic and employment picture over the next decade.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC — with thanks to Mr. Joe Byerwalter for this resource):

What is the future of learning? FIRST® LEGO® League teams will find the answers. In the 2014 FLL WORLD CLASS? Challenge, over 230,000 children ages 9 to 16* from over 70 countries will redesign how we gather knowledge and skills in the 21st century. Teams will teach adults about the ways that kids need and want to learn. Get ready for a whole new class – FLL WORLD CLASSSM!

FLL challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers. During FLL WORLD CLASSSM, teams will build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS® to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game. They will also choose and solve a real-world question in the Project. Throughout their experience, teams will operate under FLL’s signature set of Core Values.

*9-14 in the US, Canada, and Mexico

5 items re: robotics

On 05/22/2014, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, engineering, human-computer interaction (HCI), robotics, by Daniel Christian

New centre will give robots the gift of sight — from Queensland University of Technology; 18 March 2014

Excerpt:

“Society is on the cusp of a revolution in robotics in which personal robots will become an everyday fact of life. What we need to make this happen is to develop technology which allows a robot to perceive its environment – to sense, understand and learn from the information it gathers.

“We want to use cameras in robots, which are less costly and use less power than other types of sensors,” he said.

“Cameras provide very rich information about the world, and we know from our own experience that our eyes, which are just cameras, provide the information we need to perform complex tasks like driving cars or picking up objects.

“This Centre will deliver the science and technologies that will turn cameras into powerful sensing devices capable of understanding and responding to their environment, and enabling robots to operate reliably over long periods, in complex unstructured surroundings where they will interact with humans as well as objects, many of which will require delicate handling.

US Army to test robots that “think – look – move – talk – work” — from robohub.org by Colin Lewis

Excerpt:

A report issued by the US Department of Defense shows that the army intends to test robots that “think – look – move – talk and work.” Figure 24 from the report summarizes the Army’s vision for these five problem domains, barriers to achieving its vision, and work to be done to advance toward the vision.

Deep Learning’s Role in the Age of Robots — from innovationinsights.wired.com by Julian Green

Review: Robots App brings world of robotics to iPad — from by Colin Lewis

IEEE_Spectrum_-robots-app

Avidbots wants to automate commercial cleaning with robots — from spectrum.ieee.orgby Evan Ackerman

These are the surprising jobs you’ll be doing by the 2030s [Dvorsky]

On 05/22/2014, in Canada, career development, future, robotics, workplace, by Daniel Christian

These are the surprising jobs you’ll be doing by the 2030s — from io9.com by George Dvorsky

These Are The Surprising Jobs You'll Be Doing By The 2030s

Excerpt:

As our technological and sociological realities change, so too do our jobs. But just what, exactly, will we be doing 15 years from now? Here are some completely unexpected jobs you’ve almost certainly never heard of—but likely will soon.

Indeed, the landscape of careers is changing. But knowing which vocations are around the corner is not obvious. This is why the Canadian Scholarship Trust, as part of its Inspired Minds campaign, recently collaborated with the foresight experts at Idea Couture (a team that included scifi author Karl Schroeder). Together, they came up with 10 jobs that are likely to appear within the next 15 years or so, along with the skills and education required.

The end result is Careers 2030—an intriguing piece of speculative work designed to inspire conversations—between parents and kids, teachers and students, and so on—about what the world of work might look like in the near future. To learn more, we contacted Jayar LaFontaine, a Foresight Strategist at Idea Couture.

From DSC:
As this article illustrates, we need to be more inventive in the jobs that we think of, create, recognize, and pay for.

Technology is leaving too many of us behind [McAfee & Brynjolfsson]

On 05/16/2014, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, creativity, education reform, innovation, reinvent, robotics, society, staying relevant, surviving, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, by Daniel Christian

Technology is leaving too many of us behind — from cnn.com by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson

Excerpts:

Technology is racing ahead so quickly, in fact, that it’s leaving a lot of our institutions, organizations, policies and practices behind. It’s in these latter areas where we must increase the pace of innovation. The solution is not to slow technology down but instead to speed up the invention of new jobs. That requires unleashing entrepreneurs’ creativity. It also requires a host of other conditions.

…

Will our primary education system decrease its current emphasis on rote learning and standardized testing and start teaching skills computers don’t have, such as creativity and problem-solving?

…

The greatest flaw with our current path is the fact that a large group is being left out in every important sense. Too many people aren’t getting the skills and support they need in order to participate in a rapidly changing economy and don’t feel that they have any stake in a society that’s being created around them and without them. As a result, many are dropping out — of education, of the work force, out of their communities and out of family life.

MIT Technology Review’s “10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2014”

On 05/14/2014, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), biology, collaboration, data related items, emerging technologies, engineering, mobile technologies, research, robotics, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2014 — from MIT Technology Review

Also see:

MIT Lists its 10 Breakthrough Technologies for 2014 – Part 1 — from WFS.org

Will our children need to know how to interface with robots? — from quib.ly by Daniel Christian

Also see:

4 robots that teach children science and math in engaging ways– from scientificamerican.com by David Greer
Modular, programmable automatons make STEM learning fun

National All-Star [robot trading cards] Lineup for 2014 — from robotics.gatech.edu

CeBIT 2014: Three ways machine learning is changing the world — from businessinsider.com.au by Alex Heber

5 items re: robotics

On 05/03/2014, in 21st century, engineering, robotics, STEAM-related, by Daniel Christian

5 cool (and informative) robot videos you don’t want to miss — from robohub.org by Frank Tobe

Excerpt:

This wide-ranging group of robotics-related videos are worth watching. Set aside some time, make sure you have a hi-speed connection, and watch them. They range from cool to informative to downright scary.

5 areas in robotics that will transform society and their economic impact — from robohub.org by Colin Lewis

Excerpt:

The 5 areas in Robotics, which are already here, that I believe will have a major economic impact and help to transform society over the next decade or so are:

Drones
Medical Procedures, Operations and Health
Prosthetics and exoskeletons
Artificial Assistants
Driverless Cars

Robot gives telecommuters a presence in the workplace — from bostonherald.com

Excerpt:

The robot memorizes the layout of an office building, allowing a remote user to simply press a point on a map to dispatch Ava 500 to a certain office or conference room. Once there, the worker “teleports” into the robot, appearing on the screen and engaging with whoever’s around.

4 robots that teach children science and math in engaging ways — from scientificamerican.com by David Greer
Modular, programmable automatons make STEM learning fun

Excerpt:

Robots can capture a child’s imagination like no other tool by creating a fun, physical learning process. With robots, kids learn programming via interactive play by moving a robot in various sequences and using intuitive, visual programming on a computer screen. The children also learn STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) by watching and interacting with robots that demonstrate the practical results of the day’s lesson.

Microsoft makes socially interactive robots a reality (video) — from technocrazed.com by Arsalan Rasheed

From DSC:
This is a bit troubling to me. My fear? Businesses will replace people with robots in a heartbeat if they can cut costs. If a robot can learn to give directions to visitors, will the companies keep their receptionists, information center employees, other — or lay them off?

Along those lines, here are a couple of items that speak to this fear:

It is not skills or majors that are being devalued. It is people.

Sarah Kendzior
Surviving the post-employment economy

Do today’s leaders actually care about the person that is doing the work?
Do they even know their name let alone what provides them with job satisfaction?

Dan Pontefract
Whose job is leadership, anyway?

From DSC:
Last spring, I saw the following graphic from Sparks & Honey’s presentation entitled, “8 Exponential Trends That Will Shape Humanity“:

If today’s changes are truly exponential — and I agree with Sparks & Honey that they are, especially as they relate to technological changes — how soon will it be before each of us is interacting with a robot?

This is not an idle idea or question, nor is it a joke. It will be here sooner than most of us think! The science fiction of the past is here (at least in part). Some recent items I’ve run across come to my mind, such as:

Hitachi’s EMIEW Robot Learns to Navigate Around the Office — from spectrum.ieee.org by Jason Falconer

Photo: Hitachi

Excerpt:

Now EMIEW 2 still relies on maps of its surroundings, but its navigation software has a new feature: It uses designated zones that make the robot change its speed and direction.

iRpobot Ava 500

Excerpt:

Ava 500 enables this new dimension in telepresence with:

autonomous navigation and mobility – remote users simply specify a destination and the robot automatically navigates to the desired location without any human intervention.
standards-based videoconferencing – built-in Cisco Telepresence® solutions deliver enterprise-class security and reliability.
an easy-to-use client application – an iPad mini™ tablet enables remote users to schedule and control the robot.
scheduling and management -seamlessly handled through an iRobot managed cloud service.

Also see:

Chinese city aims to have 80% of production done by Robots by 2020 — from robohub.org
Robohub Digest March 2014 — — from robohub.org
With Farm Robotics, the Cows Decide When It’s Milking Time — from the New York Times by Jesse McKinley

Learning Ecosystems

Which street do we care more about, Wall Street or Main Street? [Christian]

Robots open up the world of art [CBS News]

Automation, jobs, and the future of work [mckinsey.com]

Reflections on “Humans need not apply”

These are the surprising jobs you’ll be doing by the 2030s [Dvorsky]

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