Global Robot Population

I see no way this trend can continue without eventually rendering almost all of us irrelevant.

Global Robot Population

International Federation of Robotics

earlywarning

STUART STANIFORD | Early Warnings

The robot population seems to have a doubling time of about 2 1/2 years

The curve may slow down if the robotics industry is unable to develop robots fast enough to find new market niches at the same rate in future as it has in the last decade.

I note that Kurzweil's prediction for the singularity is 2045 - this curve seems to be in broad agreement.

I hate thinking about this stuff because it's so painful. However, in the interests of not being guilty of intellectual cowardice, here's my best current thinking about how this might play out:

• This trend will continue because it's in the short-term interests of societal elites.

• The median influencer's life can be made better with more robotically produced consumer goods

• and with service robots to perform tedious chores (or human labor made cheap by competition from robots).

• Ever larger numbers of people will continue to be made technologically unemployed by this trend.

• Managing the "class formerly known as working" will become an increasing challenge.

• More and more of them will present as "criminals", "terrorists", and other undesirable labels since society is not able to provide them with a meaningful way to contribute (and people need meaning).

I am simply unable to come up with a narrative convincing to myself in which there are many future generations of tolerably happy humans.

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