I'm just watching a tech show on UK TV called Click. It raises the dilemma of whether robots should be taxed! The idea behind this is the notion that robots will create a deficit in tax revenues as more and more humans become jobless. A rather stark economic vision emerges.
The counter argument appears to be that robots will only take over menial tasks and therefore low-paid, low-tax jobs, thus allowing humans to take up much more skilled and higher tax paying employment. Hmmm.
Apparentky there is a cafe in San Francisco called Cafe X run entirely by robots so I suppose robots are already on the high street.
What do you think readers?
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Whilst doing some minor repairs on my battery-operated Scramble Bug I suddenly thought: could it actually scramble over the regolith on the Moon? Could my toy Moon Prospector really bump n go on it too for that matter? What do you reckon readers?
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One of the video's I've boxed up for a future house move is Slipstream from 1989. It star's Luke Skywalker himself Mark Hamill. I've never watched this film. It sounds interesting on Wikipedia. Have you seen it?
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Some words sound the same or almost the same. I think they're called Homophones like bear and bare, sea and see and lock and loch. One almost-a-homophone I particularly like is sideboard and cyborg. I've often wanted to simply exchange them in conversation and see what happens! Examples might be: just put those keys over there on the cyborg! Is it true that the Bionic Man was a sideboard? ha ha. Can you think of any more half-homophones like these?
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I am getting a small pile of novels together for my annual holiday. Besides some horror I will be taking the Bicentennial Man by Asimov. Is it a good one?
CafeX looks promising, selling coffee at almost half price:
ReplyDeletehttps://techcrunch.com/2017/01/30/cafe-x-opens-in-san-francisco-bringing-robots-to-the-coffee-shop/
Taxes on robots would be a good thought, taxing AI would be even better for it's AI that will destroy most white-collar professions. Though cynical me thinks the main reason for such taxes will primarily be to maintain government income - be interesting to see what happens to the growing number of jobless and what they'll receive...
Bicentennial Man is good, as is anything by Asimov - you should enjoy it!
Best -- Paul
Yes its a stark vision of the future Paul which no longer appears to be science fiction. I'm unsure if billions of future humans will spend their days weaving baskets and playing the flute as I'd like to think they might. Mankind seems to get bored with too much time on its hands and pick a fight with somebody. Probably the nearest robot! Maybe I've been watching too many flicks like Terminator and Lawnmower Man! Certainly that other so-called liberating tech, the digital TV revolution, has been a mixed success. OK, new players like Amazon and Netflix have emerged to challenge the likes of the BBC, ITN and Skyin the UK but the idea that hundreds of TV channels have somehow lifted the quality programmes and begun to educate the watching public with anything uplifting is flawed. In the UK Freeview is mostly dross in my opinion - endless repeats of Police chases, Emergency wards, Killer Kids, Mothers of Murderers, Hitler's relatives, Killer Mothers of Hitler, Fishing for Marlin and endless antique hunts, house renovations and afternoon game shows. OK there's something I actually like, The Horror Channel but its specialist nature is the exception really. Freeview is cheap free entertainment boiled down to the lowest possible denominator. I wonder if all mass media ultimately go the same way, downwards? But hey, what the hell do I know!
DeleteWot... Precision robots trying to replace Brenda's generous portions in our chippy, Woodsy... No way! Locals would give 'em a right batterin' :D
ReplyDelete'Brenda's generous portions'..ha ha, I love that Tone. Do you know I used to love chicken and chips from the chippy when I was a kid rather than a battered fish. Chicken and Mushroon Pies as well. But the king of chippy meals has to Steak Pudding, Chips, Mushy Peas and Gravy with tons of salt and vinegar and maybe a splash of ketchup! The food of champions! I can't see a robot getting all that right!
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