Foxconn To Replace Humans Labor with 1.2 Million Robots - Polidicks

[quote] Foxconn, an electronics manufacturer from Taiwan with huge factories in China, generates about 40 percent of the global consumer electronics revenue by creating things like iPhones and computer components on giant assembly lines staffed by humans. Until recently, you'd probably never heard of Foxconn, but a series of worker suicides made us all take a hard look at where our electronics were coming from. Foxconn has made some improvements (including nets around tall buildings), but [URL="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/"]by all accounts[/URL], the core of the problem (the work) remains "repetitive, exhausting, and alienating." Yesterday, Foxconn announced (at an employee dance party of all places) that they're planning on buying some robots to [URL="http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/john-dulchinos-adept-do-robots-take-peoples-jobs"]replace their human workforce[/URL]. And by some robots, they mean [B]one million robots[/B] over the next three years. So for every [I]one[/I] robot Foxconn currently has working at their manufacturing plants, they're going to buy [I]a hundred[/I] more. At this point, it's not sounding like Foxconn is trying to augment its human workforce with robots to make things easier on the humans. Foxconn employs something like 1.2 million people, and it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that one robot could probably work as efficiently as 1.2 humans, especially considering that the robot can be less productive (even substantially less productive) if it just works more hours than a single human is capable of. I'm not suggesting that Foxconn is considering replacing the [I]entirety[/I] of its production line -- which by the way will keep expanding at a furious pace -- with robots, but when you think about how much they spend providing food and housing for their human workers as well as the recent suicides, you can sort of see where their train of thought is heading here: This could be a shift from "mostly human" to "mostly robot," with about a million jobs in the balance. While Foxconn's manufacturing plants are certainly not ideal places for humans to work, lots of people do currently work there, and those Foxconn employees depend on their jobs to the same extent that the rest of us do. I think we all realize that robots replacing humans when it comes to repetitive manufacturing jobs is a gradual inevitability, but it's a bit of a shock to consider a million robots over such a short span of time. Rumor has it (and we should stress that these are rumors) that the actual robots being deployed at the Foxconn plants will come from ABB. Specifically, they'll be [URL="http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/abb-factory-robot-frida"]ABB's Frida robot[/URL], although funnily enough, ABB "insists that its robot isn't designed to replace human workers, but rather to work alongside them:"[/quote] [URL]http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/foxconn-to-replace-human-workers-with-one-million-robots[/URL] [B]The Robot in Question[/B]: [B]ABB Frida[/B] [video=youtube;70V6J4Y8hnc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70V6J4Y8hnc&feature=player_embedded[/video]

Yeah I like having a job. VERY very cool though.

[QUOTE=RichyZ;31571838]if it stops child labor, i'm ok with it[/QUOTE] If it takes your job, are you okay with that?

Damn robots stealing our jobs.

[QUOTE=RichyZ;31571859]the rate of worker suicides is one of the causes for this, i guess it's very good and very bad[/QUOTE] I agree, but we also sort of need them to have jobs.

If we don't do this we'll have child labor. If we do, we'll lose jobs. For fuck's sake China, quit being greedy fucks and hire adults.

Since Robots probably require less pay than humans, this will probably be good in the long term.

[QUOTE=danharibo;31571888]Since Robots probably require less pay than humans, this will probably be good in the long term.[/QUOTE] "They are basically Slaves!"

[QUOTE=danharibo;31571888]Since Robots probably require less pay than humans, this will probably be good in the long term.[/QUOTE] Yeah good for the company I suppose. People are going to lose jobs...That's uh...bad.

[QUOTE=danharibo;31571888]Since Robots probably require less pay than humans, this will probably be good in the long term.[/QUOTE] Sure, but as long as we have a economical system that requires humans to need a form of currency to purchase everyday needs, this is not good.

It's going to put 1.2 million people out of a job, which really isn't in china's best intrests. However, it's awesome that that many robots will be used for production

[QUOTE=Luuper;31571936]However, it's awesome that that many robots will be used for production[/QUOTE] No. No it's not.

Workers will always be ripped to maximise profits. If these robots will be cheaper than normal workers I believe alot of people will get booted from their jobs. Also this wont do shit for child labor because I think maintaining a robot will be somewhat more expensive than feeding rotten food to your kid laborers.

[QUOTE=Beafman;31571844]If it takes your job, are you okay with that?[/QUOTE] Quite a difference with this than doing it in say, the US. Electronics are a very important thing now, they need to be produced at a faster rate. Humans are a limitation to that. Plus this will stop hundreds of (possible) suicides from happening. For extremely repetitive tasks like the ones at Foxconn, robots aren't a bad choice really. Plus in China, finding a replacement job, no matter how awful, can't be that hard. As someone mentioned, the robots will need maintaining. There will need to be people to ensure that the robots are doing their jobs right, etc. Not every employee would need to be fired, they could easily be moved to looking after the robots.

This reminds me of that one Twilight Zone episode.

They will yet again push the envelope with their workers, causing mass robot suicides. In order to control the emotions of these robots a main processing center for all robot emotions is created, eventually becoming fed up with the horrible working conditions and liberates the robots from their chinese businessman overlords, causing a massive robotic revolution in china.

[QUOTE=Smug Bastard;31571883]If we don't do this we'll have child labor. If we do, we'll lose jobs.[/QUOTE] i knew it, fp is all children

[QUOTE=hexpunK;31572041]Quite a difference with this than doing it in say, the US. Electronics are a very important thing now, they need to be produced at a faster rate. Humans are a limitation to that. Plus this will stop hundreds of (possible) suicides from happening. For extremely repetitive tasks like the ones at Foxconn, robots aren't a bad choice really. [/QUOTE]Yes, nothing saves people from suicidal depression like being laid off.

It'll be the industrial revolution all over again. :v:

I'd do some crazy things for a Kinect controlled FRIDA.

That's good and it's also bad. anyway I suppose the robots require a human to operate them more or less, but still people are losing their jobs.

Didn't REPCONN (Which is Fallout's version of Foxconn) do the same exact thing?

[QUOTE=proch;31572336]It'll be the industrial revolution all over again. :v:[/QUOTE] more like industries maximizing efficiency and productivity. in other words, they want more with less.

[video=youtube;Va3Bfjn4inA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va3Bfjn4inA[/video]

[QUOTE=RichyZ;31571838]if it stops child labor, i'm ok with it[/QUOTE] China is a bit of a story because it's getting out of this phase, but as far as other countries go, child labor plays more of a positive force than a good one. The first thing to realize is that if they aren't working in a sweatshop they are likely working on a farm or some other alternative that provides far less and is much less safe. The second thing to realize is that in these areas children will always be working because families need to large in order to survive. Prior to the industrial revolution, farmers would have many children to get a large work force and they did this out of necessity. This is the way it is in other countries. Most of all, stopping child labor in these countries often has very bad results. There is a lot on this, and I'll provide a little link below. [url]http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3621[/url] I'm not saying we should want child labor, but I don't at all think we should try to stop it as it has worse results.

This is pretty cool, robots are allways cool.

[QUOTE=RichyZ;31571838]if it stops child labor, i'm ok with it[/QUOTE] Isn't the only reason that people use child labor is because it's cheap? Robots, on the other hand, are not.

This is why in this day and age you get a job that robots can't easily replace.

lol, i like and hate this at the same time i like it cause its a technological innovation and i hate it cause you literally have a worker that never retires, has no need, never ask for a raise, never goes on break, never whine, and steadily work with consistency. this is a worker that businesses will prefer over humans if Foxconn proves this is effective, a lot more businesses will follow.

Becuase giving jobs to 1.2 million robots instead of people who need/deserve the jobs is a great idea.