The Rise of The Machines

[andrewducker]

more

Comments

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

The numbers seem plausible, but is there a bright line dividing industrial robots from other programmable machines?

[andrewducker]

I assume it's situational - if they're in industrial plants/factories then they're industrial robots. If they're hoovering your floor then they're personal :->

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Suspect the reason the UK's not on that graphic is because we don't actually have 10,000 manufacturing workers any more :)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Also, robots move themselves. So my PC, my phone, and even my car are not robots in my book.

Although even there it's a bit of a fuzzy line at the margins. My PC decides whether and how fast to spin its fan without reference to me, and my car's management system has all sorts of servos, pumps and motors under its sole control. And those huge industrial robots are, for the most part, bolted to the floor or fixed on rails - and bloody good thing too or the robot apocalypse would be on us already.

Up to a point, Lord Copper...

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

As of March 2010, there were 2.5 million manufacturing jobs in the UK. See page 25, table 6 in this publication (apologies for pdf).

[anef.livejournal.com]

Clearly, we do not have enough robots. How can we have fewer robots than Spain?