The signs of automation taking over our economy are already showing themselves in our world.
Chapter Index
00:00:00 | Intro
00:00:25 | Chapter Begins
00:01:43 | 1.1 Automated Shopping
00:11:57 | 1.2 Automated Manufacturing
00:21:12 | 1.3 3d Printing
00:28:54 | 1.4 Automated Construction
00:32:21 | 1.5 Automated Journalism
00:36:44 | 1.6 AI Assistants
00:45:33 | 1.7 Autonomous Vehicles
00:49:24 | 1.8 A (Possible) History of Self-Driving Cars
00:58:46 | Outro
Figures
Figure 1.1: The replicator in Star Trek creating a coffee mug.
Figure 1.2: The “Replicator”, an inexpensive 3D printer that prints object in colours.
Figure 1.3: A 3D printer-created lower jaw that has been fitted to an 83-year-old woman’s face in what doctors say is the first operation of its kind.
Figure 1.4: Beautiful pictures of 3D printed prostheses. Courtesy of Bespoke Innovations, Inc.
References
According to the Japan Vending Machine Manufactures Association website, there are 8,610,521 vending machines in Japan, or one machine for every 14 people.
http://www.jvma.or.jp/information/qa_01.htmlAmazon buys army of robots, Julianne Pepitone, 2012. CNN Money.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/20/technology/amazon-kiva-robots/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3Tesco Homeplus Virtual Subway Store in South Korea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGaVFRzTTP4The Weight of Walmart (Infographic)
http://frugaldad.com/2011/12/01/weight-of-walmart-infographic/Strikes End at Two Chinese Automotive Suppliers, 2010. Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66L0A220100722Table 3. The Circuits Assembly Top 50 EMS Companies, 2009. Circuits Assembly.
http://circuitsassembly.com/cms/images/stories/ArticleImages/1003/1003buetow_table3.pdfForbes Global 2000: The World’s Biggest Companies – Hon Hai Precision Industry, 2010. Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/companies/hon-hai-precision/Which is the world’s biggest employer?, 2012. BBC News.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786Apple partnership boosting Foxconn market share, 2010. CNET.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20011800-37.htmlFoxconn to replace workers with 1 million robots in 3 years, July 2011. Xinhuanet News.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/30/c_131018764.htmCompanies Making The Necessary Transition From Industrial To Service Robots, 2012. Singularity Hub.
http://singularityhub.com/2012/06/06/companies-making-the-necessary-transition-from-industrial-to-service-robots/Foxconn Factories Are Labour Camps: Report. South China Morning Post.Foxconn Security Guards Caught Beating Factory Workers, 2010. Shanghaiist.
http://shanghaiist.com/2010/05/20/foxconn-security-guards-beating.phpRevealed: Inside the Chinese Suicide Sweatshop Where Workers Toil in 34-Hour Shifts To Make Your iPod, 2010. Daily Mail (London).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285980/Revealed-Inside-Chinese-suicide-sweatshop-workers-toil-34-hour-shifts-make-iPod.htmlSuicides at Foxconn, 2010. The Economist.
http://www.economist.com/node/16231588Canon Camera Factory To Go Fully Automated, Phase Out Human Workers, June 2012. Singularity Hub.
http://singularityhub.com/2012/06/06/canon-camera-factory-to-go-fully-automated-phase-out-human-workers/China Is Replacing Its Workers With Robots, 2012. Business Insider.
http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-suisse-chinese-automation-boom-2012-8The Machines Are Taking Over, Sep. 14, 2012. The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/magazine/how-computerized-tutors-are-learning-to-teach-humans.htmlWhy Software Is Eating The World, 2011. The Wall Street Journal.
http://on.wsj.com/pC7IrXIn the TV series Star Trek, a replicator works by rearranging subatomic particles, which are abundant everywhere in the universe, to form molecules and arrange those molecules to form the object. For example, to create a pork chop, the replicator would first form atoms of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc., then arrange them into amino acids, proteins, and cells, and assemble the particles into the form of a pork chop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Star_Trek)Will 3D Printing Change The World?, 2012. Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gcaptain/2012/03/06/will-3d-printing-change-the-world/print/Objet Connex 3D printers.
http://www.ops-uk.com/3d-printers/objet-connexiPhone 4’s Retina Display Explained, Chris Brandrick, 2010. PC World.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/198201/iphone_4s_retina_display_explained.html3D printing.
http://www.explainingthefuture.com/3dprinting.htmlA primer on 3D printing, Lisa Harouni, 2001. TEDSalon London Spring 2011.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lisa_harouni_a_primer_on_3d_printing.html3D-printed prosthetics offer amputees new lease on life, 2012. Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/video/2012/02/27/3d-printed-prosthetics-offer-amputees-ne?videoId=2308786893D printer used to make bone-like material, 2011. Washington State University.
http://wsutoday.wsu.edu/pages/publications.asp?Action=Detail&PublicationID=29002&TypeID=1Making a bit of me, a machine that prints organs is coming to market, 2010. The Economist.
http://www.economist.com/node/15543683Transplant jaw made by 3D printer claimed as first, 2012. BBC News.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-16907104What drives us. Bespoke.
http://www.bespokeinnovations.com/content/what-drives-usThingiverse.
http://www.thingiverse.comFirst Downloaded and 3D Printed Pirate Bay Ship Arrives, 2012. TorrentFreak.
http://torrentfreak.com/first-downloaded-and-3d-printed-pirate-bay-ship-arrives-120205/30-storey building built in 15 days Construction time lapse. YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=Hdpf-MQM9vYTime lapse captures 30-story hotel construction that took just 15 days to build, 2012. The Blaze.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/time-lapse-captures-30-story-hotel-construction-that-took-just-15-days-to-build/Annenberg Foundation Puts Robotic Disaster Rebuilding Technology on Fast Track, 2005. University of Southern California School of Engineering.
http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/news/2005/news_20051110.htmHouse-Bot, December 30, 2005. The Science Channel.Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2010. Bureau of Labour Statistics.
http://bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htmCaterpillar Inc. Funds Viterbi ‘Print-a-House’ Construction Technology, 2008. University of Southern California School of Engineering.
http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/news/2008/caterpillar-inc-funds.htmColloquium with Behrokh Khoshnevis, 2009. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
http://www.media.mit.edu/node/2277GSP-09 Team Project: ACASA, 2009. YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=172Wne1t_2QProblem?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=trollingAre Sportswriters Really Necessary? Narrative Science’s software takes sports stats and spits out articles, Justin Bachman, 2010. Newsweek.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_19/b4177037188386.htmGarry Kasparov vs. Deep Blue, Frederic Friedel. Daily Chess Columns.
http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=146In computer science, brute-force search or exhaustive search, also known as generate and test, is a trivial but very general problem-solving technique that consists of systematically enumerating all possible candidates for the solution and checking whether each candidate satisfies the problem’s statement. For example, a brute-force algorithm to find the divisors of a natural number n is to enumerate all integers from 1 to the square-root of n, and check whether each of them divides n without remainder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brute-force_searchChatbots fail to convince judges that they’re human, 2011. New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/10/turing-test-chatbots-kneel-bef.htmlDid you Know?, Jeopardy!
http://www.jeopardy.com/showguide/abouttheshow/showhistory/Computer Program to Take On ’Jeopardy!’, John Markoff, 2009. The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/technology/27jeopardy.htmlAccording to IBM, Watson is a workload optimised system designed for complex analytics, made possible by integrating massively parallel POWER7 processors and the IBM DeepQA software to answer Jeopardy! questions in under three seconds. Watson is made up of a cluster of ninety IBM Power 750 servers (plus additional I/O, network and cluster controller nodes in 10 racks) with a total of 2880 POWER7 processor cores and 16 Terabytes of RAM. Each Power 750 server uses a 3.5 GHz POWER7 eight-core processor, with four threads per core. The POWER7 processor’s massively parallel processing capability is an ideal match for Watson’s IBM DeepQA software which is embarrassingly parallel (that is a workload that is easily split up into multiple parallel tasks).
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/advantages/watson/index.htmlInstant Reaction: Man-Made Minds, David Ferrucci, 2011. World Science Festival.
http://worldsciencefestival.com/blog/instant_reaction_man_made_mindsIBM’s Watson heads to medical school, Nick Wakeman, 2011. Washington Technology.
http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/02/17/ibm-watson-next-steps.aspx
Wikipedia, Watson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_\%28computerMission Control, Built for Cities. I.B.M. Takes ‘Smarter Cities’ Concept to Rio de Janeiro, Natasha Singer, 2012. New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/business/ibm-takes-smarter-cities-concept-to-rio-de-janeiro.html?pagewanted=allWill IBM Watson Be Your Next Mayor?, 2012. Slashdot.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/04/27/0029256/will-ibm-watson-be-your-next-mayorComputers to Acquire Control of the Physical World, P. Magrassi, A. Panarella, N. Deighton, G. Johnson, 2001. Gartner research report. T-14-0301.A World of Smart Objects, P. Magrassi, T. Berg, 2002. Gartner research report. R-17-2243.
http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=366151The Internet of Things. Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_ThingsStudy: Intelligent Cars Could Boost Highway Capacity by 273%, 2012. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/intelligent-cars-could-boost-highway-capacity-by-273Attributions
Chapter Text and comment section: Chapter 7: Evidence of Automation | Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That’s OKTheme song: The Freeharmonic Orchestra – RoboHoboAlbum art adapted by: Redd SpinksCopyright
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