Robotics, Ageing, and Employment – where are we and what’s next?
The link to the article below will take you to an overview of how robotic design is developing towards a more ‘natural’ form of human movement. To a larger extent, this is part of the normalisation process so that those of us exposed to robotics can be more accepting of their presence. This is indeed a very good sign – a move away from a capability focus toward an acceptance framework should speed takeup of robotics especially in more socially demanding areas like hospital assistance and aged care. And there’s one layer that is yet to be included:
Here’s the link to the story first featured on KurzweilAI called ‘Making Robots More Like Us’. For those of you have heard me speak about Honda’s ‘Azimo’ you’ll know the reason the humanoid was so small: it’s at a comfortable eye level for elderly people sitting down and as such, less of a physical threat.
So assuming that size and type of mobility is covered effectively, we can expect the facial software programs that are well underway (which display quite natural looking facial movements), to be incorporated into these more human like machines. From a jobs perspective that makes them an easy and ready replacement for jobs like toll booth operators, desk bound security, reception clerks and even to an extent, check out staff in supermarkets or drive through restaurants.
And the step after that that MUST come for their to be a more ready take up is smell. Despite our relatively limited Olfactory capabilities, Humans are surprisingly good at detecting the smell of other humans – the novel ‘Perfume’ by Patrick Suskind explains in delightful form the impact of human scent. The lack of a ‘human scent’ will expose robots (even those plainly out in the open) as less palatable to us. Expect robotics to move into artificial pheromones. Robots – coming to a perfume counter near you!
You’d think that given a focus on the future, you’d ask specialists in the future to have some input, and whilst that didn’t occur for the PM’s Summit in Canberra over the weekend, some of Australia’s Futurists had already done the leg work to contribute their thoughts on the future of Australia. That report is…
Read More >Some of Australia’s leading futurists gathered in Melbourne in March to provide a specialist Futures approach to addressing the Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra. The outcome of that Summit and the development that subsequently followed has led to the creation of the report ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’ that has worked through each of the ten…
Read More >Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will meet with eminent ABC radio presenter Jon Faine on Wednesday the 16th of April to discuss the outcomes of the Australia 2020 Futurists Summit and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra on the weekend With a focus on the future of Australia it would be only natural…
Read More >A group of leading Australian Futurists gathered over the weekend to consider the 10 core themes set to be tackled at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 Summit in Canberra in April. Convened by Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber, the 2020 Australia Futurists Summit utilised some of the advanced facilitation and strategy development techniques as a…
Read More >As preparations continue for the Prime Minister Rudd’s ‘1000 heads’ ideas summit in Canberra in April, a group of Australia’s leading futurists are gathering in Melbourne this weekend for the ‘Australia 2020 Futurists Summit’. The futurists attending the summit work across Australia, in corporate, not for profit and Government agencies in a variety of fields…
Read More >A few thoughts on what steps could be taken to overcome the ‘treat everyone like a nail’ approach that Interest Rate rises seems to do. Check out the idea under the ‘Latest Focus’ section Interest Rate Rises are going to penalise too many people who don’t deserve to lose their homes
Read More >Marcus Barber offers his thoughts on How to Stop Japanese Whaling in its Tracks and suggests that raiding boats won’t do the job. Instead he suggests that the key to negotiating with the Japanese is to have the Japanese people do the work. And to encourage them to do so we must begin to talk…
Read More >If an ‘Inconvenient Truth’ raised the profile of global warming to the general population, it appears that a willingness by political leaders to take appropriate action to mitigate the possible ramifications is still very much lacking. It is such a pity. No one who holds the Global Warming scenario close to heart wants to be…
Read More >Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will join Tim Cox on 774 ABC as part of the conversation hour next week Tim is filling in for Jon Faine whilst he takes a well deserved break and Marcus will join him for the conversation hour kicking off at 11am on Thursday the 13th of December, where they’ll discuss…
Read More >At the AustForesight 2007 Conference, Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber and fellow Futurist Steve Tighe presented their take on what is required to enable futurists to be seen as more relevant to the Corporate world. Drawing on their shared experience as facilitator and client, they detailed the journey of foresight and futures across the past 50…
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