Big Ideas: Thinking Robots
How will technology change our lives in the next 20 years?
Let’s look back 20 years to 1994:
Yahoo and Google did not exist, and the (primitive) web was used by techies and researchers. Mobile phones were big, expensive and just made phone calls. The term “social media” meant reporters who covered glamorous events.
A lot has changed in 20 years. If that pace continues or accelerates in the next 20 years, how will our lives be different?
How will investors fare because of technological changes?
Google may provide some insight to those questions. In the past few months, Google purchased Boston Dynamics, a robot company, and Nest, a smart home thermostat company. This amazing video of the Boston Dynamics robot, Big Dog, was created 6 years ago; it carries 340 pounds of cargo up a wooded slope, across an icy parking lot, and rights itself after a kick in the side. It was developed to resupply the military in dangerous areas.
Google has a well-developed self-driving car.
Today we think of robots in manufacturing environments, performing repetitive and highly controlled tasks: automobile assembly, electronics manufacturing, and even warehouse order fulfillment.
But we may be at the beginning of a period of dramatic change in the integration of robotic technology with the internet, GPS, and very advanced software that “sees,” “listens,” and “speaks.” Huge technology impact is usually caused by a combination of technologies. We will see robots that are so advanced by today’s measure that they will seem to be thinking.
For example, thinking robots could:
- deliver some basic patient care in the hospital, or even at home: transferring a patient or cooking a simple meal
- provide “security” at the Super Bowl or in Times Square on New Year’s Eve
- deliver packages to your door from a self-driving van that disgorges delivery robots
- drive us to work, enabling us to get a head start on the day’s work while we travel
- prep and paint the outside of a building
Robots will displace some workers and challenge all of us to constantly upgrade our skills and adapt to a changing workplace. Lower-skilled jobs will be especially at-risk. But jobs in dangerous environments would be better done by robots.
Robots also have the potential to improve quality of life.
Robots will enable much greater efficiency for large companies as they use capital from their balance sheet to reduce operating expenses, leading to greater profitability. As a company’s profit rises, its stock price generally goes up as well. US companies may be especially well-positioned to take advantage of robotics because they already use today’s robots, while some technology companies are building the next generation.
Thinking robots could be the next technological wave that will transform life and provide a boost to the economy.