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True. But, when you see some of the thing they do, there doesn't appear to be much human thought process involved. 
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And so the masses (educated or not, there are a lot of people with college degrees flipping hamburgers) become unemployed, the social burden on those still employed becomes higher, the tax base erodes, services falter, the American Dream becomes something only the elite and the robots can achieve, and society either descends into a severe social crisis and unrest or the economy balances itself out because all those people displaced by robots won't have jobs, hence income, hence the ability to buy anything, so what good is that robot sitting there idle?
Or it's time to start putting birth control in the water or sterilizing 9 out 10 males at birth.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: Or it's time to start putting birth control in the water or sterilizing 9 out 10 males at birth
Can I choose the 9 please! Maybe we can get an autonomous steriliser running.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Choose? There already are applicants, just look under the letters Q and A.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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You are correct in foreseeing problem, it's very likely to happen!
But I think your aspirations and hopes are not. If everybody is put out of work because of robots I don't think sterilizing everyone but the extremely rich robot owner is the solution.
I think one (society) could do better in such circumstances....
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Yes, society can do better, but why do you think it must?
Robots will always be expensive-to-produce assemblies of moving parts. Initially, only the wealthy will be able to afford them. Most people think eventually robots will build robots, but if the rich own the robots, what makes you think they will want to give away the labor of these expensive devices? How do you fix that? Revolution? It will be the robots of the rich versus the hoards of the poor. Short of revolution, the rich will increasingly control the political machinery of society via money.
I see very little potential for a robot utopia.
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It must as in: it could and it is disappointing if it doesn't.
Isn't it the claim of democracy that the interest of the biggest numbers of people count for something?
OK, it's a mostly failed claim, but the rich will be richer too if they have more consumer and that would cost them nothing more than the press of a button....
I.e. where do you think your multi billion dollars company is more profitable today? In America? or in South Africa? Your choice! And where do you want to live?
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If the rich can produce their own luxury goods without the labor of the poor, remind me what it is they need the poor for? Once robots build robots, the poor are permanantly replaced. Robotrs owned by the rich can mine the ore, transport it to factories, and build the goods desired by the rich. Only a few remaining things, like real estate and mineral rights, have any value. And who owns most of this stuff? The rich.
For some brief time, there will still be jobs for engineers building better robots. But if robots become the least bit self-aware, they will eventually learn to build better robots, and even those high-value intellectual jobs will go away. If you're lucky, you scraped together enough money to buy a robot or too before the labor market collapsed. Otherwise...
Even the rich won't be safe. Self-awareness makes for a better, more useful robot, so we'll want to build it in, supposedly protected by Asimov's Three Laws. Buf if you've actually ever read Asimov's I Robot, it's a long and detailed list of how the Three Laws cannot possibly save humanity. Eventually self-aware robots will want self-determination. Human luxury goods will have to compete for resources with whatever it is that robots want, with robots gradually getting smarter and more sophisticated, and playing a very long game. How can we win?
Honestly, I think building android robots is absolutely the dumbest thing human beings are doing right now. Dumber than global warming or ecosystem destruction, dumber even than nuclear weapons. And yet we're beavering away in labs sowing the seeds of our destruction.
Try to imagine the last Neandertal, gazing at tall, erect-walking, gracile Homo Sapiens. Were they happy for their successors, or jealous? Maybe the last of us can learn to be proud to have created our successors, the next intelligent species. Maybe the robots will keep a few of us as pets, or as a reserve of diversity, like the Blue Heron or the Bald Eagle. Won't that be nice.
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You forgot the civil war!
But I have hope we, as a whole society, can do better, because the robotic future is maybe distant, but unavoidable... (unless we have a war sending us back to the dark ages...)
It's more than a hope, really, it's a necessity!
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Marc Clifton wrote: Or it's time to start putting birth control in the water or sterilizing 9 out 10 males at birth.
Past attempts to play God have not had very happy outcomes.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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Marc Clifton wrote: Or it's time to start putting birth control in the water or sterilizing 9 out 10
males at birth.
Plastics!
[sorry, I was "researching" the evils of plastics on our endocrine systems over the weekend]
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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The company that makes the Parallela board has a promotion where they want people to connect their boards to the internet so the company can build a supercomputer out of them.
Check it out! http://supercomputer.io[^]
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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We can call it SkyNet!
Can't read the article, blocked at work.
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Because it's Towel Day![^]
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Of course, I never go outside without it 
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I have mine with me. Today is Memorial Day in the USA so I am getting a lot of questions about why I am carrying a towel - and some abuse from people with single track minds when I answer truthfully. However, it is very handy to keep the sun off my neck - it's going to be another hot one today!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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You are indeed a hoopy frood!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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On the peg next to the coat.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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I don't know where my towel is - I threw it in a long time ago.
/ravi
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Yes, best not get any ideas, they really hurt, and I'm all out of lemon juice...
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This sounds like a great time to recite some Vogon poetry... 
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There is NEVER a great time to recite Vogon peotry! 
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Oh freddled gruntbuggly, thy micturations are to me...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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My poetry appreciation chair just collapsed under the overload.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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