Automation

[chegitz guevara]

I'm conducting a study group in socialism for comrades here in South Florida. The reading list pinned in this forum is quite useful, but one comrade is very interested in learning about Marxist views on using automation to eliminate work. I know it exists. I've read it. But I don't remember where. Specifically, Marx and Engels, but any other comrade would be good as well.

[Revy]

Robotics is improving. Robots are being used as workers in a limited manner in Japan.

The capitalist dilemma with robotics and automation is that they could profit more substantially but that profit does not mean much when the vast majority of the population would be out of employment. If they did that, there would be a revolution, they can't have that. Expect robots to be sold mainly for house labor. Washing dishes, cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, the company iRobot is already selling these kind of robots (at least the autonomous vaccuum and lawn mower). Thus they make a profit, but they don't contribute to a breakdown of the capitalist system (because when the proletariat is removed as a class, the capitalist system has already de facto abolished itself).

Socialism is the ONLY system that can accommodate the widespread use of robots as labor.

This theory of capitalism using robots and causing a socialist revolution was noted in an article in Wired. (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/10/robot-lovers-an/)



"In theory we should all be able to go on a perpetual vacation as robots do all the work," Brain told attendees in a presentation at the Singularity Summit in San Jose. "Instead because of the way the economy is structured right now, when robots arrive it will have devastating effects on all of us because there will be so many unemployed people."

The implications of an increasingly automated economy could be dire for society unless we restructure our economy, he argues.




To deal with that version of the future, he suggests society should redesign the economy to get the benefits of automation.



His solution? Spread the benefit of productivity to everyone by breaking the concentration of wealth, increase pay and reduce the work week. Sounds a lot like socialism, doesn’t it?

[Dave B]

It was put somewhat poetically by Karl in.




Capital Vol. III, Part VII. Revenues and their Sources, Chapter 48. The Trinity Formula




In fact, the realm of freedom actually begins only where labour which is determined by necessity and mundane considerations ceases; thus in the very nature of things it lies beyond the sphere of actual material production. Just as the savage must wrestle with Nature to satisfy his wants, to maintain and reproduce life, so must civilised man, and he must do so in all social formations and under all possible modes of production. With his development this realm of physical necessity expands as a result of his wants; but, at the same time, the forces of production which satisfy these wants also increase.

Freedom in this field can only consist in socialised man, the associated producers, rationally regulating their interchange with Nature, bringing it under their common control, instead of being ruled by it as by the blind forces of Nature; and achieving this with the least expenditure of energy and under conditions most favourable to, and worthy of, their human nature. But it nonetheless still remains a realm of necessity. Beyond it begins that development of human energy which is an end in itself, the true realm of freedom, which, however, can blossom forth only with this realm of necessity as its basis. The shortening of the working-day is its basic prerequisite.


http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch48.htm (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch48.htm)


It was discussed on Libcom recently


http://libcom.org/forums/theory/what-would-anarchist-society-look-20092008?page=2 (http://libcom.org/forums/theory/what-would-anarchist-society-look-20092008?page=2)

[JohannGE]

Following on from reports of corpse eating self propeled battlefield robots, it's developers, Cyclone Power Technologies Responds with reassurance that the robot is strictly vegitarian:-

PRESS RELEASE

Cyclone Power Technologies Responds to

Rumors about “Flesh Eating” Military Robot

POMPANO BEACH, FL, July 16, 2009. In response to rumors circulating the internet on sites such as FoxNews.com, FastCompany.com and CNET News about a “flesh eating” robot project, Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. (Pink Sheets: CYPW) and Robotic Technology Inc. (RTI) would like to set the record straight: This robot is strictly vegetarian.

On July 7, Cyclone announced that it had completed the first stage of development for a beta biomass engine system used to power RTI’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR™), a Phase II SBIR project sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Defense Sciences Office. RTI’s EATR is an autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling.

RTI’s patent pending robotic system will be able to find, ingest and extract energy from biomass in the environment. Despite the far-reaching reports that this includes “human bodies,” the public can be assured that the engine Cyclone has developed to power the EATR runs on fuel no scarier than twigs, grass clippings and wood chips – small, plant-based items for which RTI’s robotic technology is designed to forage. Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or RTI.

“We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” stated Harry Schoell, Cyclone’s CEO. “We are focused on demonstrating that our engines can create usable, green power from plentiful, renewable plant matter. The commercial applications alone for this earth-friendly energy solution are enormous.”

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Cyclone+Power+Technologies+Responds+to+Rumors+abou t+%22Flesh+Eating%22...-a0203879227

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/company-denies-its-robots-feed-on-the-dead/

I am still unsure if that's funny, or scary.