

Foxconn to speed up robot deployment; 20,000 robots already in its factories - stfu
http://www.itworld.com/362706/foxconn-speed-robot-army-deployment-20000-robots-already-its-factories

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adventured
I've yet to figure out how China's population numbers are not going to be a
massive liability for them in the coming decades as robotics devalues their
manufacturing labor.

Not today mind you, as I'm fully aware of the arguments against robotic
manufacturing versus human manufacturing _right now_. At the extreme rate of
improvement that robotics is moving at, within a few decades, large, cheap
human labor pools will be a huge liability for social stability. Foxconn
mentions turning their workers into robotic technicians; a million robots will
not need a million technicians, the ratio will be a small fraction of 1:1.

It's not going to be: where is the cheap labor, but rather, where are the
robotic factories and the resources to feed them.

Small, well run nations will be able to punch increasingly far above their
weight through the substantial multiplication of effort that robotics is going
to enable.

