Can't do worse than human baggage handlers.
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That's actually not a bad job to be lost to automation. Don't get me wrong I don't want people to lose jobs to robots.
But that job is really tough on the body. All the dynamic usage of joints, bending and lifting... Lots of mileage on the body.
I first read that as cheese made humanoid robots and it was an odd mental picture
Humanoid robots are as dumb as a bag of hammers. It's like when the first automobiles looked like carriages because that's what everyone was used to.
The only practical reason to make a robot look like a person is so you can fuck it. That's it. Every other task can be performed better by removing human limitations and complexity.
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World is built for humans. In the near future it could be cheaper to use humanoids for some tasks than to rebuild the whole area for industrial robots.
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Humanoids are excellent for tasks that require human interaction.
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In the far future we could have humanoids that can handle multiple different tasks simultaneously, instead of purpose-built robots.
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Humanoids don't have human limitations. The joints can move inhumanly.
So the article referenced a "chronic labor shortage", but nobody can afford the little luxuries they afforded 10 year ago.
Have they tried just paying people more?
It's Japan. Labor force is shrinking because not enough kids
it is not just japan, whole world has the same problem. all developed countries have birth rate low below the clean reproduction rate and are slowly dying out.
Wages have also mostly not kept up with inflation that went nuts starting around Covid times. Some companies have been doing raises, but a lot haven't been able to keep up with inflation.
You gotta get some of those soccer robots if they're going to realistically dropkick the shit out of the luggage.
The reason for their labor shortages is that they make it so hard to immigrate into their country.
Sounds like they need to fix their immigration policies to attract new young labour
Eh, the Japanese really like their way of life. They don't want their culture to change. If they'd rather disappear from the face of the Earth than accepting foreigners, I think they're free to do so. Personally, as a Japanese-Canadian, I think it's stupid and they should at least allow dual citizenship so they'd get "immigrants" with actual ties to the country, but they don't even wanna do that. So fuck it, let them do their thing. It really isn't up to anyone else to say they "need" immigrants, imo.
That in any case. But honestly, I'm OK with this job being done by robots. It's hard, potentially dangerous work that isn't complicated/complex and that's exactly the kind of work we should strive to automate.
That the money saved probably doesn't end up where it should is a different issue.
Every country will experience labor shortages at some point, it's unavoidable
Aside from being a circlejerk for the companies competing their bots, I've never understood why they use humanoid bots for most tasks. Are they all really that vain to believe the human body, a bipedal body, is the ideal for jobs like this.
Can they carry my emotional baggage?
Why does it have to be humanoid? Why not shaped in optimal baggage handling efficiency?
And this means those former workers get full pay and benefits for doing no work, right? Right???
Strange. Id expect aviation workers to be some of the most unionized workforces anywhere.
I've always loved how well Japanese airlines treated my baggage and haven't lost anything so far (domestic within Japan or overseas). Here's hoping the quality stays up.

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