DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!*

Danger, Will Robinson! is a classic line from the 1960s space-opera “Lost in Space.” Originally a traditional science fiction show following a pioneering space family, the show became the Dr. Smith, Will Robinson and Robot fantasy adventure. Replete with human-sized vegetables, space hippies, and intergalactic bikers.

The Robot, whose purpose was to perform tasks for the family Robinson, and to defend them, often said “Danger, Will Robinson” when menace threatened Will and Dr. Smith. Will and the Robot were dedicated adventurers. Dr. Smith, by contract, was a malingering foil to the robot and maligned the mechanical monstrosity in malicious and contra-mellifluous terms. Uh, uh, er something.

One cannot swing a dead carnivore without hitting an article about the future of work being usurped by robots and Artificial Intelligence. The Author has addressed it several times. In “By the Pricking of my Thumbs,Something Wicked this Way Comes,”  the author addressed the risk to the future of work. Or more precisely, the lack of work thereof. And what the low information unemployed illiterates say, the problem "ain't the Chinese or the 'Mezcuns. The Author wrote in the earlier post:

         
    At every small town dive bar and VFW, it is the Chinese and the “mezcuns,” that’s “uh taken our jawbs.” Sorry cuz, there must be something funny in the AM Radio you listen to. It’s automation. Its here, and it is big. And hungry.

In the last decade or so, Mexico and China combined took about 1.7 million American manufacturing jobs. Sounds like a big number and it is:

That might sound high. But consider that last year alone, the U.S. added more jobs than those losses combined (1.7 million). Other research shows robots eat up a much bigger portion of the job-loss pie.

One study by two Ball State University professors found that between 2000 and 2010, about 87% of the manufacturing job losses stemmed from factories becoming more efficient. The chief driver of more efficiency in factories: automation and better technology. The other 13% of job losses were due to trade. [1].

NOBODY BUT CHEAP POLITICAL PANDERERS WIN TRADE WARS. AND THERE SHOULD BE LITTLE SYMPATHY FOR THE CEMENT HEADS THAT BELIEVE THEM.

In “Why the Robots Will Win the Coming Trade Wars,”, Patrick Watson, a colleague of John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics,  lays it out bluntly:

The first step to surviving a war is knowing which side you are on. But in a trade war, that’s not always easy…

But one group is sure to win in a trade war because demand for their services will skyrocket.

Who are these lucky people?

They aren’t people at all. They’re robots.

Watson concludes with the obvious:

This isn’t a new development. Intense competition is already forcing automation, but new trade restrictions will 
add further urgency.

DESPITE OUR MOST DESPERATE EFFORTS, AUTOMATION PROVIDES NO EFFICIENCIES IN THE DESERT OF THE REAL!

*”Danger, Will Robinson,” is also the name of a rock band from Northwest Indiana.

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