Prepare yourselves: the robot uprising begins tomorrow!
Okay, well not really, but sort of.
Meet the KUKA KR Agilus. She recently earned the title of fastest robot in the world, and she’s about to dethrone one of mankind’s greatest athletes.
Sort of…
Many of us like to poke fun at the idea of table tennis players being considered real athletes, and there’s certainly some merit to that humor. I mean, you don’t have to be particularly in shape, and you don’t need to be all that tough.
However, if we put our prejudices aside, there’s no denying the level of technical skill and prowess required to compete on the professional level.
Timo Boll is one notable name among these highly skilled quasi-athletes. He’s ranked No. 1 in the German Table Tennis National League and No. 8 in the World Rankings. Athlete or not — he’d absolutely embarrass any of us on the table either way.
Boll is sponsored by KUKA (OTC: KUKAF), a German manufacturer of industrial robots, and will be competing against the company’s KR Agilus robot tomorrow, March 11, 2014. If we’re placing bets, I’m all in on Agilus.
The event is a bit reminiscent of IBM’s Deep Blue computer beating Grand Master Garry Kasparov in a chess match in 1997. It could also be compared to artificial intelligence (AI) program Watson crushing record-holder Ken Jennings at Jeopardy just a few years back. The main difference this time around is that KR Agilus is competing on a physical level.
Now it’s true the whole machine versus human debate isn’t anything new, but it does seem to be growing more common, and it’s touching areas we never before thought possible. As robotics and AI continue to advance at an accelerated rate, it’s becoming increasingly clear that humans are losing their competitive edge one inch at a time.
Whether we like it or not, machines will soon drive our vehicles, analyze our data, and write our daily news. They’ll eventually translate our languages, teach our children, and fight our wars. The food you eat, the house you live in, and even the music you listen to will some day be completely automated.
For anyone who happens to doubt this, just remember two simple facts: a) capitalism rules the market, and b) robots are specifically built to be more cost-effective than human workers. It’s really just that simple.
From an economic standpoint, this can be frightening, and some of you may be asking yourselves, “What happens if robots really do take all of our jobs?” Oddly enough, there aren’t many economists out there seriously addressing this question, and I admittedly don’t have a definitive answer for you either.
My prediction right now is that the middle class will continue to shrink as robotics and AI penetrate the workforce. New technology will create jobs, but these jobs will be exclusive to highly skilled workers. As a result, the wealth gap will continue to grow larger, and the purchasing power of the middle class will crumble.
Eventually, the lack of purchasing power from the middle class would touch those at the top of the food chain, and redistribution of wealth would follow. Barring any political opinions, I do see socialist ideals becoming increasingly popular in such an environment — after all, if robots are doing all the work for us, the tenets of free market capitalism pretty much fall on their face.
Now, many might view this as a doom and gloom scenario, but that’s not how I see it (at least not in the long term). What this ultimately means is that humans will be freed from the nine-to-five grind and in many cases the burden of labor. Forget nations raising the retirement age to 67 — robots can bring it down to zero.
Of course, this future is a long way off, and we’ll just be witnessing a glimpse of it in our lifetimes. A fully automated society is something only our children and grandchildren will see. For those of us living today, things are likely going to get worse before they get better — unless, of course, you decide to do something about it…
We’ve all heard the aphorism “When life gives you lemons…” and this is certainly one of those scenarios where it holds true. Robots and AI might be killing the middle class workforce, but they’re also turning middle class savings into fortunes. Just take a look at the performance of three robotic stocks over the last year:
Besides returns as high as 600%, you might have noticed we didn’t even make it past the first letter of the alphabet. These plays were just picked from the top of my pile — what you see here is only the tip of the iceberg.
If you really do have any doubts about the capability of robotics, make sure to tune in tomorrow to watch KR Agilus put a hurting on Timo Boll right here.
Turning progress to profits,
Jason Stutman
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