4 Day Week

Today in the Independent online:
"Robot bricklayers to be deployed in Brexit Britain as developers grapple with skill shortage."

Good to see something positive (and detailed!) about robots and people co-working, Ilovecheese. In fields where things need to be moved around a lot, and data sent around the works and to and from customers and suppliers, they can increase productivity and decrease costs (once the place is set up for them). There are still many areas which rely on face-to-face contact, though, where they can't replace a human.

If I were in a care home, I don't think I would be very happy on being looked after by a machine. You can't ask them how their children are getting on at school, or what they think of today's lunch menu.

Gillybob (and anyone else who might be interested)
I have just read a very interesting article in the New Statesman, which seems to be reinforcing your opinion that robots and human beings can work well together. Paper edition so I can't, unfortunately, send you a link.

it is about small robots called "cobots" who work together with people in workplaces, mainly factories and packing plants admittedly, but working well together.

One very hopeful example was of a company in Denmark, which makes adhesives. They (quote) " installed 42 cobots over a period of 18 months. In that time, the company logged a reduction in costs while productivity increased." "And with increased productivity and quality, order numbers surged - to the point that 50 new jobs were created, in the company's logistics, marketing and finance departments." (unquote)

I think this is a really positive story. The cobot company is called 'Robots of London' so sounds like it is British.

Thank you for pointing out my grammatical error Gabriella it’s much appreciated and highly relevant to the thread ... and every other irrelevant emoticon .

*gillybob*. hare-brained not hair-brained.

Those robots aren't nearly quick enough.

Top class brickies can earn top dollar and save some to tide them over the winter when work is slow...or cultivate another stream of income when it's too bad to work outside on site. Plastering or similar.

For those who may not have seen the YouTube robotics video link on the previous page i have placed the link again below. As anyone can see those robots could be used in large and small businesses. You can imagine one of them stacking the shelves in your local supermarket.

Link follows:-
youtu.be/rVlhMGQgDkY

gillybob, yes, humans and robots do work well together at present. However, AI robotics technology is becoming more powerful all the time.

Computers are now able to write software for themselves in recent months, and it is believed that many thousands of programmers and software engineers will lose their jobs in the near future because of that technology.

That is the future many believe and the issue the TUC has raised

I've seen an awful lot of pre-fabricated buildings in the country (some of which I would regard as complete eye-sores) Evidently some farmers aren't fussy Annie. In fact I think some would willingly pull down a hard to maintain old barn if they could.
What most of them are doing of course is converting barns into holiday lets, and sticking the cows etc in prefab buildings

Anniebach, the above is a ridiculous post. trisher was referring to new build as well you know.

I am sure farmers will be happy to take their barns down and replace them with pre-fabricated buildings.

All houses in the country be replaced with pre-fabricated buildings too.

More worried about bl**dy Brexit and all our manufacturing being lost to Europe . Now that’s a very real possibility !

I really don’t think so grandad I wonder sometimes if some people ( not you) read too many Sci-Fi novels . The point is that robots and humans work in harmony with the robots doing the jobs the humans cannot ( or should not ) . We work with AI and robots cannot program themselves they cannot breed . I have no worries .

Roofs don't have to be slates. If we were to move more towards pre-fabricated buildings (and arguably we could have more houses built if we did) robots would probably be invaluable then.

gillybob, it is far more likely that the humans will gradually be removed from the plants as the robots are able to do more and more tasks.

As stated, that problem was the core of the TUC debate. In that, they were looking at how to keep workers employed and off government subsidies and benefits for which taxation on all of us will have to pay for.

Using Nissan as a good example of people and robots working in harmony.

Nissan employs 6,700 people in its Sunderland plant in the North East with a further 900 employed in their technical centres in the South of England.
They support a further 27,000 jobs within their tiered supply chain again mainly in the North East.

Nissan run one of the most efficient car factories in the world with robots doing most of the jobs deemed too dangerous for humans. What would happen if they removed all of the robots within the plant?

That is the type of robotics are what the TUC is talking about. AI robotic development as seen the above video could be used in large an small businesses.

Then what happens to the human workforce?

Yes, judging by that video in the very near future to.

Can imagine a robot wizzing up ladders and carrying slates!

And if anyone thinks that robots will not be roofing buildings etc in the not too distant future just follow the link below to see the latest technology, especially where they deliberately pushed the robot over at the end

youtu.be/rVlhMGQgDkY

Quite so.

"What the media reports is not always what has been said,"
Yes, exactly.

What the media reports is not always what has been said, Ilovecheese. They pick on the most sensational interpretation and bang on about that. Joe and Josephine Bloggs then think of the problems that their representation will cause.

There seems to have been a misunderstanding or a misrepresentation of Frances O'Grady's speech at the TUC.

She was not demanding that every worker should work a four day week and have a pay rise, what she was saying was that we should make sure that the benefits of new technology should be felt by everybody.

A headline could read: "Union demands a four day week"

or a headline could read "Union wonders how we can all benefit from new technology"

The case that Anniebach sites, asking how a builder can put a roof on a barn in the winter, is an example. A human being can't put a roof on a barn in the winter, but before too long, a robot will be designed that can put a roof on a barn in the winter and at every other season of the year. So what happens to the human being? How can we find a way that they can benefit from this?