back to article Wanted: Bot mechanic. New nerds, apply within

The machines are taking over. At the forefront of this change is the US Air Force, which now has more jobs for drone pilots than any other type. This is not likely to be an isolated event. The USAF is populated by pilots who like to fly planes. This, combined with poor working conditions and fewer paths for career advancement …

  1. Philip Storry

    Robots? To settle a problem of aging population?

    Or we could, y'know, confront our fears and prejudices and simply allow people from other countries to settle here to do the jobs we're not producing enough people for.

    I'm all for automation, but many of the jobs mentioned here are just better done by a person.

    Although it is nice to know that if I keep up with my Linux skills I may have some part-time work available in my dotage...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "[...] to do the jobs we're not producing enough people for."

      Isn't there a danger of effectively creating a ponzi scheme? If we need more people of younger ages to support a given number of older people - then we need even more in the successive generations to support their own older generations.

      The solution has to come in population stability - and where a long life doesn't mean an increased period of morbidity and daily dependence on others. That means medical science to crack the ills of old age - and ways to enable old people to be independent and productive.

      1. DropBear

        "That means medical science to crack the ills of old age...

        Rightio. I'll set my cryo-chamber to not less than 500-800 years then.

        ...and ways to enable old people to be independent and productive."

        All I'm seeing so far is expensive governmental projects to better monitor senile aunt Jemima falling over (again) in her nursing home. Oh, f### that - make it 2000 years flat...

        1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

          embrace the future!

          OAP care is one of the few areas I cant see a machine doing that well.

          Luckily there will be lots of unemployed Bus drivers ( and dozens of other jobs) to fill the gap.

          If I was in charge we'd get so automated that we can all have the afternoons off.

          If that happened in real life however it would result in bigger class divisions / haves and have-nots / war ,struggle, revolution ..... dogs and cats living together ... etc

      2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Unhappy

        "Isn't there a danger of effectively creating a ponzi scheme?"

        Are you aware of how the British "National Insurance" scheme actually works?

        Look up the term "rollover fraud"

  2. hplasm
    Happy

    Sounds like a job advert-

    For Susan Calvin + spanner set.

  3. Roger Greenwood

    Plug and play

    Surely this will be the future for most robots. Not all, of course, but central management and control solves a lot of day-to-day problems. This is already happening with infrastructure kit (electrical power, for instance) - you plug in new kit and it downloads all its settings from central management. Some kit has been doing this for decades (industrial controls) so it is only a matter of time before the mobile robotic chromebook arrives.

    The folks who swap the kit in the field could be significantly de-skilled from days of ye olde fault finding.

    1. DropBear

      Re: Plug and play

      I tend to agree. I don't think anyone will bother with "administering" a failed robot past "pull out old SSD, slide in new one, press power button remove padlock from lock-out tag, let corporate CMS stream in current settings".

  4. 0laf

    Drones aren't really robots yet. They're just large expensive radio controlled planes flown at long distance. Until they are making decisions for themselves that's all they will be.

    There will be a much bigger debate to be had yet about robots able to make autonomous decisions which will result in deaths especially when that leads to the inevitable friendly fire incident.

    Robots in other places will probably be subject to hot swap, coded at a base then taken out to replace the duffer. Like everything these days no one will be allowed to own the robots they'll all be on subscription.

    So when you're old and decrepit make sure your subscription for your ACME arse wiping robot doesn't lapse or things could get very messy very quickly.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't sweat it - they'll just slap one of their typical hypermacho-patriotard euphemisms on it like "CobraHawkFalcon RazorSteelTalon JusticePounceStrike Threat De-escalation Asset" or some such, pat private Snafu on the back assuring him that this thing is his bestestest buddy, and quietly disappear anyone trying to leak top secret footage of half a friendly squadron / unarmed wedding party being methodically massacred by the first one going slightly glitchy. It's all good though, I'm sure the relatives of the would-be leaker will be handed a lovely folded flag with a matching tale.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The real danger will be if robots will run a copy of an outdated operating system...

    ... just because it's cheap and people fear anything new.

    And not something designed from scratch to address the very different needs of a robot - especially security. Robots will also need a far more secure hardware - again, designed to address security needs and risks.

  6. rob_ea

    Apply Here

    https://www.engineeredarts.co.uk/jobs/

    1. Conall O
      Devil

      Re: Apply Here

      i read that as Engineer Darts.

      The actualy link was immediately less interesting.

  7. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Go

    Yes, on that basis the future is going to be quite exciting.

    Lot's of new skills to learn and new problems to deal with.

    Although I suspect the successful players will start with things that are really RPV with remote operators "driving" an adequately strong, adequately agile unit that for so many hours a day, or in emergencies. Otherwise it sits on the wall charger.

    Over time it will develop better "reflexes" and acquire more canned sequences for known tasks until it only calls home when needed, or for a (secure and authorized) software upgrade.

  8. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Repair bots. That isn't a sentence, because "repair" isn't a verb (not this time), it's an adjective.

    There will be robots to repair other robots. Jobs for the toys.

    But admittedly perhaps not straight away.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Those of us who studied electronics build and repair as well as computing are laughing...

    ...well, at least as long as our new robot overlords allow us to anyway.

  10. MNGrrrl
    Stop

    HELL THE F*CK NO.

    We cannot use technology to solve social problems. PEOPLE solve social problems, and that's it. Every asshat who has tried it has failed spectacularly, occasionally with horrifying results for the larger society. It's the height of hubris to think we can create a technological thing that can make better people. The Germans tried it... it started WWII. The Romans tried it. The world fell into hundreds of years of war. The Christians tried it... it led to the Crusades. You cannot make people better. They are, what they are.

    And the idea of letting robots care for the elderly is disgusting. These people need tender and loving hands, not being locked away in a robot factory to spend their last days. What a shameful display by our leaders to even consider such a thing. Throw any businessman who suggests such a thing into the gladiatorial arena and let the bastard get eaten by a lion. It'll get my clap.

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      "We cannot use technology to solve social problems. "

      We shouldn't use technology to solve social problems.

      But we do.

      I think the ongoing brisk business at US ER's demonstrates some societies unwillingness to confront the root causes of problems and use technology (IE medicine) to temporarily deal with them.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder how many will apply for the job of servicing the sex robots?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Presumably we'll need people to find mobile robots that have just wandered off. I know, we could give these folk environmentally friendly 4-legged transport and loops of rope so they could catch and stop the dang critters without hurting their hides.

  13. Chemical Bob

    Marvin sez

    Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to change old people's soiled undergarments. Call that job satisfaction? ‘Cos I don’t.

  14. F0ul

    This is how an industry is built.

    When I was doing the 90s tech thing, I saw similarity with what I was doing to the way the automotive trade had developed 50 years earlier.

    The robot trade with be very similar - a few years of doing stuff badly will lead to some standards and simplification. Most of the companies with go bust or be bought up and order will start to be seen.

    Most of these techie jobs - besides thouse that need physical access, will rely on container technology, so robots will just boot up their new OS every morning, and everytime something goes wrong or needs a bit of a skills update, it will download a new arm movement control container, or delivering coffee to the customer container or cleaning up the mess made by an old person container - Robots will be just another node on the datacentre devops list of things to update.

    Within 10 years, it will all be automated much like the mobile phone industry is today.

    But what do I know, history never repeats itself perfectly.

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