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To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (48998)	3/30/2006 2:47:02 PM
From: shades	Respond to of 116555

wild-adventure.com ...we'll outsource it to either robotics or some other repressed and backward economic(more politically sympatico) refugee looking to escape domestic aristocratic 'ruling class' content with the status quo First wild adventures hired the local rednecks - then they got too expensive - so then they hired illegals mexicans - then they go to expensive - so then they flew spear chuckers over from africa and rotate them out for new spear chuckers every 3-6 months - robot is the next cheapest.

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (48998)	3/30/2006 9:30:47 PM
From: regli	Respond to of 116555

"hell, if we can use robotics to move humans around, surely we can use them to pick strawberries" As you implied, it is purely an issue of incentive. Robotics combined with artificial intelligence are fast becoming extremely capable. I have no doubt that picking strawberries and many other tasks would be possible if the ROI is good enough. "once the mexkins outlive their usefulness, ie, form unions and make demands for higher wages and bennies, ... " I don't even think it needs this much. The race to automate and robotize is on in most industries. It isn't just the threat of unions but even the prospects of an essential employee taking hike unless the bennies are upped acts as an excellent motivator. Technology is on the fast track to make the human worker obsolete. Outsourcing is only a diversion along that path. Hopefully we humans learn to value our limitations soon or the world will lose its humanity. Thanks for the :). I guess you were referring to this article? Aging Japan builds robot to look after elderly news.yahoo.com Tue Mar 14, 12:34 PM ET TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese-led research team said it had made a seeing, hearing and smelling robot that can carry human beings and is aimed at helping care for the country's growing number of elderly. Government-backed research institute Riken said the 158-centimeter (five-foot) RI-MAN humanoid can already carry a doll weighing 12 kilograms (26 pounds) and could be capable of bearing 70 kilograms within five years. "We're hoping that through future study it will eventually be able to care for elderly people or work in rehabilitation," said Toshiharu Mukai, one of the research team leaders. Covered by five millimeters (0.2 inches) soft silicone, RI-MAN is equipped with sensors that show it a body's weight and position. The 100-kilogram (220-pound) robot can also distinguish eight different kinds of smells, can tell which direction a voice is coming from and uses powers of sight to follow a human face. "In the future, we would like to develop a capacity to detect a human's health condition through his breath," Mukai said. Japan is bracing for a major increase in needs for elderly care due to a declining birth rate and a population that is among the world's longest living. The population declined in 2005 for the first time since World War II as more young people put off starting families.