The End Of Human Labor

I have bash scripts lying around on my computer. I love them. They do things, they’re obedient, they copy-paste data, they move files around the way I want it to, they replace this string with that string, they’re helpful, they save me time. When doing manual, digital labor, I trust my bash scripts more than I trust myself—I make lots of mistakes, like misclicking or copy-pasting the wrong thing. Computer code diligently executes what they’re told to do.

Now, imagine that, but applied to physical labor: a programmable humanoid robot that will do whatever you tell it to. “Raise your arm twenty-four point seven degrees,” “Yes sir.” “Step your left foot with your right foot with force assigned to variable step_foot_force,” “Yes ma’am.” No more emotional problems; obedient execution without politics.

Computers outcompete humans in manual, digital labor. It won’t be long before computers outcompete humans of manual, physical labor.

July 21, 2022