Are robots in control, does a person work?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

What makes you think that robots will replace workers in the first place?

Recently, bourgeois freaks have become very active, who talk no less about the imminent disappearance of the working class and its replacement by robots. Obviously, they are inspired by the successes of robotics and an entertaining video about robots on YouTube. Most of all, it is striking that they predict the disappearance, for some reason, of the working professions, although there are tendencies of a completely different plan.

However, there is nothing surprising in this. This is how human society and the human psyche are arranged. Since the time of the Egyptian priests, intellectuals have always disinterestedly served the ruling classes, trying to prove that only the "elite", which cannot be replaced by anyone (or anything), is the source of all blessings, and the "rabble" should be grateful for the fact that they are given a job and fed. So now, as soon as someone builds another doll capable of moving arms and legs, an enthusiastic squeal is heard immediately: "Look, you rogues, and thank the owners for the fact that you have not yet been replaced by robots."

Liberals profoundly argue that only businessmen will remain on Earth in speed, and they cautiously put forward the idea of the need to "dispose of extra people." The opportunist "socialists" (or the so-called left) squeal with delight, anticipating the introduction of a "basic income" and the forthcoming "class struggle" for its steady rise.

It's even a pity to upset these guys, but it seems that their pink dreams are not destined to come true.

On the one hand, of course, human intelligence is not some kind of divine substance. And in principle, everything that a person is capable of doing can be taught to make an artificial system. The emergence of such systems is only a matter of time.

But where did you get the idea that robots will replace workers in the first place?

Preparing for cuts

Can you imagine robots that independently, well, for example, set up a drilling rig in the taiga. Me not. With all my faith in the power of modern technology, we are now much farther to this than to the Moon. Why is there the Moon, it is clear how to fly to Mars and there is no technical difficulty in this, there would be money. But how to make robots that can, for example, dig a hole and fix a faulty pipeline, even Elon Musk himself does not yet know. All such technologies are still too distant fantasy.

Yes, programmable robots are excellent at doing routine work, for example, assembling consumer goods such as cars, smartphones, etc. But even the most elementary functions, which require an independent search for a solution in the space of the most ordinary three-dimensional world, are, alas, not up to them. Automation and, in general, technical progress in production have never been accompanied by a reduction in the size of the working class. On the contrary, the more cars there were, the more workers became, due to the reduction in the number of the petty bourgeoisie, for example, peasants. And now the working class continues to grow with villagers in China and India. But the Indian peasants are far from the only source of recruiting the proletariat.

There are such spheres of activity and mass professions in which, undoubtedly, computers will completely replace humans in the next few decades. Moreover, this is already happening on a massive scale. However, our Nostradamus for some reason prefer to keep quiet about these processes. They may even guess about something, but are afraid to admit to themselves, because this recognition would cause them a cognitive dissonance, like those robots from the Soviet science fiction film that burned out, being unable to solve the problem about "A and B sat on the pipe."

First of all, to the great disappointment of the liberals, the modern development of information technologies will lead to the fact that such a phenomenon as small business will disappear almost completely, or move to the margins of civilization.

Most people did not notice the revolution that has taken place in the field of organizational management automation technologies. But it is these technologies that are bringing about great changes in the lives of billions of people. Modern computer systems allow real-time control in the smallest details of the economic activities of any enterprise. They deprive small businesses of their competitive advantage in terms of greater manageability and business agility, and give their giant networked monsters the opportunity to grow even more.

Small business is now rapidly disappearing. In industry and agriculture, it disappeared in the past centuries in connection with the introduction of machines, which, incidentally, led to a gigantic growth of the proletariat in general and the working class in particular. But until recently, small business still dominated trade, public catering, and various types of services for the population. Now the situation is changing rapidly. From the retail trade, it is being replaced by supermarket chains of various profiles. From public catering - chains of snack bars and restaurants. This happens precisely due to the development of information technologies and automated control systems. After all, it is they that allow you to manage the huge number of outlets that modern companies specializing in the field of retail have.

We can say straightforwardly that the computer is destroying the small private entrepreneur as a class.

In our country, chain retail appeared in the late 90s. And by the beginning of the 2008 crisis, the share of the 10 largest chains in the total retail turnover reached 7%. Today, only 7 largest chains already control 22.5% of retail. Another 26% is accounted for by "smaller" chains, each of which is actually a large enterprise that operates a large number of stores. Thus, half of the total retail trade turnover already now falls on large capitalist businesses, which aggressively capture local markets, seeking to penetrate every village. There is simply no room for little things.

A similar picture is observed in public catering, which in the past was also the fiefdom of small businesses. Share of networks, i.e. large capitalist enterprises has already reached 21% in this industry and continues to grow. Research conducted by RBC in 2015 showed that when there was a fairly significant drop in Russia's GDP, the number of restaurants, cafes and bars began to decline. But at the same time, the number of catering enterprises related to network companies increased by 3%. That is, during the crisis, it is primarily small business that goes bankrupt, while large capitalist firms continue their expansion.

In support of the thesis about the imminent replacement of people with robots, the recently appeared unmanned vehicles, which supposedly will soon destroy the driver's profession, are often cited. Perhaps this is partly true. But the driver is not just about driving. It is also a lot of other functions that only a person can perform so far. Therefore, it is unlikely that drivers will start losing their jobs en masse so soon. But right now we are witnessing how a small business associated with transportation (taxi drivers, truckers, etc.) is literally feverish and distressed due to the introduction of new information technologies. It is difficult to predict anything, but, apparently, all this will end with the fact that small business in this area will become a thing of the past.

However, the destruction of the class of the petty bourgeoisie does not exhaust the consequences of the progress of information technology. Countless office workers queue up to be sent to the museum for a spinning wheel and a stone ax. Let's say what, for example, the work of an accountant is. With all due respect, this is simply the recording of the results of economic activities and the preparation of reports in a form strictly defined by legislation. Such work lends itself to automation very easily. If, of course, economic activity is correctly reflected in the enterprise management system. But this is only a matter of technology and the transition to electronic document management, which is already happening everywhere.

Each industrial enterprise has a supply department. What does he do? Calculates the needs for raw materials and supplies and places orders to suppliers, choosing reasonable offers in terms of price and quality. This work cannot yet be entrusted to a computer, not because it is so highly intelligent, but because the supplier has a sales manager - the person who takes orders. It is better for a person to communicate with a person. But nothing fundamentally interferes with connecting the management systems of many enterprises and suppliers, and buyers with a single data transfer protocol, and then the process of ordering the necessary products will be able to take place without any human intervention at all.

Bank employees, sales and purchasing managers, economists, accountants, all these specialties do not have long-term prospects in the world of booming information technology. The legal and engineering professions may live longer, but they too will gradually be supplanted by artificial intelligence.

However, not everything is so sad. Any computer system needs eyes and ears to communicate with the outside world. Not all information is easy to obtain with the help of automatic sensors. Therefore, the position of a PC operator will remain for a long time, due to which the job cuts will not be so sensitive.

But the most important change that we have to go through is that computers in the not too distant future will begin to supplant middle managers, and possibly top managers. A computer is not prone to corruption, it has no human weaknesses, it cannot have any conflict of interest. This is the perfect boss. AI-driven companies will displace traditional human-driven firms from the market.

The bourgeoisie has always tried to create a mystical halo around the management process, creating the impression that this requires a special talent, which by no means can be crammed into a computer model. In reality, the only difficulty is managing people. As for material and financial assets, everything here is just quite prosaic and easily amenable to automation. However, it is precisely the control over material and cash flows that makes management close to the class of the bourgeoisie and elevates it above the "gray proletarian mass." Automating management will strip managers of control over flows and turn them into regular administrators.

In essence, the process has already begun. Let's take, for example, all the same retail trade. To work as a director of a store in a large federal chain in Tomsk, one needs at least a year of work experience and a secondary specialized education. Job responsibilities are clearly defined: coordination and control of the work of personnel, organization of training, conducting inventories, control of the correctness of accounting for goods. The director does not turn around the financial flow, he does not decide what to sell and from whom to buy, all this is decided centrally. He simply commands people and receives 50 thousand rubles a month. A skilled worker can count on such a salary, and a large one. But we are talking about the position of director of a commercial enterprise, about a person corresponding to a businessman, a store owner. In essence, this is no longer a director in the traditional sense, but simply one of the salespeople, simply singled out as a responsible person. The time is not far off when the director of an industrial enterprise will turn into exactly the same manager and controller, who does not stand out much from the general mass of workers and PC operators.

But what happens after the petty bourgeoisie and middle management disappear? And a very curious picture will turn out, society will split into two unequal parts: into a huge mass of the proletariat and a small group of capital owners. Such a society cannot exist for a long time. After all, it is the small entrepreneurs and managers of various levels that constitute the mass support of the capitalist elite. On the one hand, they already have a fairly high position in society and a good standard of living, and they can also count on joining the capitalist elite, it is from their midst that the top is constantly replenished. Therefore, they are directly interested in preserving the capitalist system. On the other hand, they have a certain prestige among the proletariat as direct leaders on whom the success of social production depends. Thus, it is through them that the owners of capital keep the broad masses under their control.

But as soon as this wonderful layer ceases to exist due to the progress of control technologies … Bah-bang! The world of capital will turn upside down and, hello, the communist revolution, hello, the dictatorship of the proletariat!

All these tendencies are quite real and are already knocking on the door, in contrast to the fantastic robots-janitors and robots-santahniks, which liberals and opportunists dream of.

In the sweat of your brow you will earn your daily bread

Okay, all this is good, let's say, first of all, the petty bourgeoisie, management and "intellectual workers" will disappear. We left the Liberals. But there are still our "socialist-anarchists" - parasites and freeloaders. They will answer that after all, in the end, robots will be created that can perform work functions no worse than humans. This means that human labor will die, losing all meaning and all reasonable application. Consequently, the "leftists" will judge, it is necessary to start fighting for the future kingdom of the general freebie right now.

Of course, universal robots capable of performing any functions no worse than humans will be created. I doubt that this will happen soon, but not because it is a mega-difficult task, but because modern capitalism slows down technological progress. Most likely, this task will be solved already under communism. But neither under communism, nor under capitalism, the development of robotics will not destroy human labor.

First, a person is ideally adapted to perform various manipulations in a three-dimensional world. If you need to lift, put, fasten, weld something, and at the same time do it not according to the program, but so that it is "right", then you will not find a robot better than a human. In any case, no one has yet succeeded in creating such a robot based on modern von Neumann computer architecture, although there have been a million attempts.

Perhaps someday technical problems will be solved, but humans have another important advantage over robots. He can repair himself on his own. Let's say you twisted your leg, an occupational injury. No problem. We lay down for a day, ate pizza delivered from a pizzeria by a delivery man. And the next day, as if nothing had happened, you can start working again. And the robot needs to be repaired, broken parts need to be replaced. This is certainly not a problem when it comes to a single device. But if we want to replace humans with robots, then a huge army of robots will be needed to produce robots and maintain their performance, almost larger than the one that is busy "replacing people." There are great doubts whether it is generally possible to create a self-replicating system based on electronic-mechanical robots. Will it not be so bulky that it lacks the resources of the entire planet? Can we afford to keep this mass of robots in addition to the huge mass of people, pets and various equipment? If we want robots to do everything for us, we will have to share with them a place in the sun.

But why do we need all this iron rubbish, if people can do everything themselves?

That is, the use of robots to automate all the work performed by people is not only extremely difficult to implement technically and not economically profitable, but also impractical from an environmental and energy point of view. Sorry, but there is not enough room for people on the planet. And you also want to populate it with billions of robots who will build houses instead of us, plant trees, clean snow from the roof, etc. Will it not be greasy?

A little poetry in the end:

Boulevard.

Car.

Sun penny - something will turn, hisses disgustingly.

Two minutes later, something like this, a three-penny climbs out of the car

chocolate bar.

Sheep!

Why did you get pissed off with a bunch?

In the store and easier, and cheaper, and better.

V. Mayakovsky 1922