I’m just not ready for this – and never will be.
If you haven’t already seen it, make sure you Google “robot installing drywall” and behold a video depicting the reality of how close the human race is to having machines replace us in countless areas of employment and other labor-related aspects of everyday life. The 34-second clip shows a quite humanoid robot, called HRP-5P, from Japan’s Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Institute actually installing drywall. Yep, from picking a full-sized sheet off of a stack, to orienting it so it’s vertically positioned, to putting it in place against wall joists, to securing it with a hand-held power tool, the biped cyborg independently completes a task (with an incredible amount of dexterity) that until now has always required human traits (like a big brain and thumbs).
According to its makers, the HRP-5P is capable of handling multiple common construction tasks. Wow, cool!
Wait, not so fast. The image is – in my opinion – hair-raising and downright creepy. The darn thing looks like it’s straight out of a “Star Wars movie.
Call me old-fashioned, but I’ll never be a fan of relying on robots to do stuff for me. No thanks; I’ll walk the dog and mow the lawn, OK?
The HRP-5P’s creators apparently believe there’s an urgency for getting humanoid robots into the workplace.
“By utilizing HRP-5P as a development platform of industry-academia collaboration,” they said, “it is expected that research and development for practical use of humanoid robots in building construction sites and assembly of large structures such as aircraft and ships will be accelerated.”
So who exactly is promoting such “acceleration” of humans being out of work because of machines? Not me, that’s for sure.
Team HRP-5P also apparently believe that declining population and the danger involved in many jobs and job sites justify a robotic work force.
“It is expected that many industries such as the construction industry will fall into serious manual shortages in the future, and it is urgent to solve this problem by robot technology,” they say. “Also, at work sites assembling very large structures such as building sites and assembling of aircraft and ships, workers are carrying out dangerous heavy work, and it is desired to replace these tasks with robot technology.”
Whose desire? Not mine, that’s for dang sure. And I don’t know anyone else expressing that desire.
And isn’t a bit of danger and difficulty inherent to many jobs and job sites? What, are we now so weak and “entitled” that we’re just going to abandon everything but watching TV and “posting” on social media?
Sure, many construction contractors and factory bosses will say that due to numerous relatively new societal trends, it’s not easy finding good, reliable help these days. And I have to admit, I think I’ve seen guys do worse work than HRP-5P does in the video.
But I certainly hope a whole bunch of C3POs isn’t the answer to that dilemma.
Anyway, if robots are going to take over all the hard, “dangerous” work historically done by humans, and then start making us dinner, doing the laundry and running errands, then what are the humans going to do?
I’m reminded of the 2008 Pixar movie, “WALL-E,” which pretty much provides the answer: Not much, if anything.
God help us.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald.
Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.
