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Monday, August 20, 2012

Science We Are the Robots

Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Aug 20, 2012 at 8:19 AM

On Mars:

Screen_shot_2012-08-20_at_8.26.40_AM.png

NASA

Curiosity is now zapping rocks with a laser. An alien actually has a laser gun. All of those science fiction films and novels turn out not be about aliens visiting us but us visiting alien worlds. Science fiction is not a window but a mirror.

On Earth:

The Tesla assembly line is a stark contrast, brilliantly lighted. Its fast-moving robots, bright Tesla red, each has a single arm with multiple joints. Most of them are imposing, 8 to 10 feet tall, giving them a slightly menacing “Terminator” quality.

But the arms seem eerily human when they reach over to a stand and change their “hand” to perform a different task. While the many robots in auto factories typically perform only one function, in the new Tesla factory a robot might do up to four: welding, riveting, bonding and installing a component.

As many as eight robots perform a ballet around each vehicle as it stops at each station along the line for just five minutes.

How can you not be impressed by this vision of the future that's rapidly, wonderfully colonizing the present? But what about the jobs, I hear you say. You are a Marxist, how can you not see this as one arena in capitalism's global war on workers. First: Marxism is only a critique or theory of capitalism; it is not an economic system. You do not replace capitalism with Marxism. The end of capitalism is the end of Marxism. Second: Socialism, which can replace capitalism (as it is an economic theory), has a long history of seeing in machine labor the spiritual and intellectual liberation of humankind. The machines can do all the work and we can finally all become scholars—the root of which, schole, means “spare time, leisure."

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word salad again.

socialism cannot replace capitalism, it was tried in the ussr, also cuba, north korea, china, and it failed. does not work. no body wants 100% gummint ownership of the means of production. and to say socialism is a theory of liberation when in reality it's mainly a bunc h of harsh dictatorships is a bit...well, asinine.

Posted by too much schola? on August 20, 2012 at 8:59 AM

So far, on Mars, we've landed an SUV, created a waste dump of various spent components, are polluting the atmosphere with the waste vapor of a nuclear powered engine, and now we're carving our initials in rock face with a laser.

We come in peace!

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on August 20, 2012 at 9:15 AM

The question in my own mind is if there is evidence of life having been on Mars, what then? We will know life came quite possibly from outside the solar system. That would mean the universe itself is making a spectacular effort to spread life. Then the question is why? Why would billions of trillions of stars be creating cradles for life? People give the simplistic answer it just is. We could have accepted that answer for any one of the questions we've had.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on August 20, 2012 at 10:15 AM

We should just put a big sign on Mars saying "Future Dump Site".

Posted by Will in Seattle

on August 20, 2012 at 12:34 PM

I totally agree Charles. This, our liberation from the drudgery of work, is the dream of the scientific age. I think socialism, especially in the form of mandated reduction of work hours to ensure full employment, wil be required to cope with the reduced need for labor.

Posted by MoonPatrol on August 20, 2012 at 12:34 PM