re: Leaked video shows new 'nightmare-inducing' wheeled robot from Boston Dynamics

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I'm not excited about this. It will continue to replace hourly manual labor and cause a strain on the middle class taxpayer to subsidize the unskilled worker who becomes unemployed.

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Elon Musk spoke last week about the need for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) for workers who are displaced by robots. Hourly manual labor is the logical target for robotics as employers such as fast food chains demand workers that are never absent, don't complain, never spit in the food of customers and don't need expensive health insurance.

I'd like to see shakers and movers such as Musk begin to talk about the need for human population control as robotics take over production. It makes no sense to me to just give a UBI to displaced workers and allow them to keep breeding freely.

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There's also personal benefits you get working with humans. I love the guys who work for me and couldn't replace that with a cold robot with no personality

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Thanks for the anecdotal evidence of what will be lost as robots replace humans in the workplace. One of the great unknowns is the cumulative effect of robots on society.

As they take away the need for manual labor and increase the availability of food, we're already seeing the fattening of people in Western societies. What will happen when people don't have to work at all? Will drug-addled fat people just loll around on their sofas waiting for their UBI to be deposited in their accounts? Wait, I just described a lot of Kentuckians!