“Apple switching some of its products to being manufactured in the USA is not just a publicity stunt,” Patrick Frye writes for The Inquisitr. “While, in the short term, the effects of globalization have allowed for greater profits by outsourcing over time the economic playing field will begin to flatten, the lower cost of localization plays a factor in Apple’s decision to move some manufacturing back to America, but, in the long term, robots will play a bigger role.”
“As cheap as a Chinese assembly worker may be, specialized manufacturing robots promise to be even cheaper,” Frye writes. “The most valuable part of a computer, smartphone, or tablet is the motherboard loaded with microprocessors and memory, and these parts are already largely made with robots.”
Frye writes, “The movie iRobot [sic] featured an economy rocked by the effects of robotization. Though only a fictional movie, the next industrial revolution will likely feature very high company efficiency along with low employment. Fortunately, this only applies to jobs involving automation. Most jobs will still require a human touch, but it’s possible this could change over time as AI research progresses.””
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: I, Robot ’twas a book before it was a movie and a much better endeavor, at that.
Related articles:
Will Apple spark a U.S. manufacturing renaissance? – December 10, 2012
Why Apple is bringing manufacturing back to the United States – December 6, 2012
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s pledge to make Macs in the U.S. seen adding 200 jobs – December 8, 2012
Apple’s ‘Made in USA’ computer likely to be Mac Pro – December 8, 2012
Apple’s return of Mac production to U.S. next year to go well beyond mere assembly – December 7, 2012
Why Apple is bringing manufacturing back to the United States – December 6, 2012
Apple CEO Tim Cook announces plans to manufacture Macs in USA; says TV is ‘area of intense interest’ inside Apple – December 6, 2012
Saw that coming. Anyway once nutrition can be 3d printed employment will become a lost art.
The robots were to solution to the problem: How do we get key parts of our production out of China (where patents are not respected)? And assembly in the USA with robots is a first iteration solution. Maybe a better solution will come along later.
just my $0.02
Patents are not respected anywhere.
Maybe it’s time to invest in the companies that make the robots.
+1
Also learn how to design and program those robots! So, there will not have jobs for none educated peopple! Get out to study!
Don’t forget that someone has to make the robots that will make the goods we want.
And ACME Robot Repair Schools!
Robots will also create a need for technical support. Creating a net of support for those 200 direct employees. A wee larger footprint than what is seen directly.
Was a “twilight zone” episode long before the book MDN.
I, Robot was published nearly a decade before “The Twilight Zone” aired its first episode. The first short story was written almost two decades before TTZ.
A.
Actually, “I, Robot” was written by Isaac Asimov and published in 1950. The TV series “Twilight Zone” was not broadcast until 1959.
The title of Asimov’s book comes from a short story by Earl and Otto Binder that first appeared in 1940. That story was adapted into a 1964 episode of “The Outer Limits.”
Correction: Amazing Stories magazine first published the Binders’ “I, Robot” in January 1939.
Anybody have a sabot? 😉
My 12 gauge is loaded with sabots. For protection when sleeping in the woods with the Griz while Moose hunting.
The movie iRobot [sic] featured an economy rocked by the effects of robotization.
That was NOT the point of the movie I Robot at all. Try again!
It is not “made in USA”, it is “assembled in USA”.
iRobot the movie SUCKED donkeys. It bore previous little resemblance to Asimov’s book. And the casting of Will Smith (which was a good of an idea as in THE WILD WILD WEST) further turned it into crap.
I sure hope this clip was made while Scully was CEO.. I just can’t imagine Steve Jobs approving this. lol
They’re assembling the original Macintosh computer which was the direct result of Steve Jobs’ involvement. This implies that Steve had a hand in the setting up and the running of the manufacturing plant.
Yes, i read the Walt Isaacson bio too.. I know that Steve was involved with and set up the manufacturing plant.
My comment was regarding the “CLIP” (i.e. video) not the manufacturing plant.
On a side note: I wish men could still get away with wearing shorts like that.
What do you mean? Since when can’t we?
This is vintage early 1990s, and several of the ckt boards shown are PowerMacs not the original Macintosh, also Steve was not there. These plants were standard Apple factories at world wide locations in the US, Hong kong, and Ireland. I worked for Apple at the time in the eng. department. A typical plant with 8 surface mount machines employed around 1500 people and made close to 4 million Mac’s a year.
Actually, Singapore, not Hong Kong!
“I, Robot” was a collection of science fiction stories written by Isaac Asimov published in 1950. That was considerably before any tv shows or the movie. I don’t remember any Twilight Zone episode based on I, Robot, but the movie I, Robot really only is a riff on Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. While the movie is mostly mindless action, which I love, it certainly touched on issues related to the effect robotization would have on economy. Displacement of labor. Decay of the cities. Concentration of wealth in the hands of the technology rich few. An even more scary.
How can you see a self directed AI controlling the manufacture and control of legions of robots and sending those robots out to wreak havoc on a clueless world and not see it as a metaphor for MS and a crazy demented CEO?
That was one scary movie!
Funny fact:
The Mac and the NeXT computers were supposed to be assembled mostly by robots.
In fact, in the case of NeXT, one of the main problems with that was that Steve jobs didn’t like the color of the machines, and painted them differently, against the manufacturer’s advise.
The additional paint layer decalibrated the high-precision machines and the assembly line went to hell.
I’d say Steve learned a valuable lesson then. Not even Steve Jobs was perfect.
Bunk
This author would be amazed at the stuff they talk about in business school. Lol Sure, manufacturing in the US is more capital intensive which makes US workers much more productive. You hse more equipment here along with better trained workers. That’s always been the case. The truth us that labor is a very small part of the cost of manufacturing. Now that global oil prices remain relatively high, the costs of transporting things back from low wage countries eats into any savings. That being said, I think it has more to do with PR in this situation.
Highly suggest the Harlan Ellison screenplay of I, Robot. Absolutely fantastic! If only they’d made that movie instead of the other… http://www.amazon.com/I-Robot-The-Illustrated-Screenplay/dp/B00161X0QI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1355267878&sr=8-4&keywords=I%2C+Robot+Screenplay
I think you’ll really like this TED talk:
(Think: Terminator. Little ones now.)
Clap! Clap! Clap! for the musical piece. Thanks Hg Wells!
You’re welcome!
The thing that really struck me is his regular use of the word “autonomous” when talking about the robots. But they are impressive!
Dumb people decried the loss of simpler jobs to “China” and “Mexico” and some now decry loss to “robots”, when they should use the term “automation”, and realize it is automation which will allow our citizens to have a chance at useful jobs.
When was the last time you saw an actual typewriter?
People who don’t want to keep up and just bitch are going to be weeded out of the gene pool. No one deserves a job for life, let alone a job that requires no skills, just because of laziness.
We were a nation founded on freedom of personal actions and freedom to engage in commerce and if we are to grow as a nation, commerce & personal freedoms must again be at the forefront of the philosophy of how we grow.
Man you guys are slacking….
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.
When Steve made the comment on Apple manufacturing coming back to the U.S. was “not going to happen” he was right. The skilled labor that was required to make it work no longer exists in the U.S., it’s all in 3rd world countries and said labor works for chicken feed. Most of the so called skilled labor has been engineered out of existed by robotics. or replace by monkey people which number in the millions in the far east.
Sheldon is a robot.
His mom had him tested 😉
Certainly there simply aren’t the number or quality of engineers in the West to make large scale re establishing of manufacture practical in the short term at least, and most of the competence to put into reality such large scale efficient production processes now lays in the far east even if the overall design above that still resides here.
Trouble with this article is that it is a complete re working of similar predictions from when I was a teen and that is a long time ago, indeed it goes back to the 50s as did the equally absurd idea that nuclear power would be too cheap to bother metering. Robot production line technology hasn’t really changed in nature for many years, only stepped improvements have occurred and if we ever get to the point where we can produce an intelligent robot it will certainly not be wasted on a production line, while most of the population have more ‘constructive’ jobs. The only jobs that are and will be in demand in that scenario are highly skilled and creative jobs and low end mundane jobs and even the latter would go in the scenario of this article where robots could be that cheap AND intelligent. After all the 60 odd years of the dream of the domestic Robot has progressed how far?
Equally why would we need many of those high end jobs either, after all another unfulfilled thread of technological prediction said that by 1998 computers would have passed the point of being able to learn more than they were programmed with, thus opening the age of computers designing better computers (remember Hitchikers Guide). And if I remember right that prediction was initiated by Alan Turing who effectively invented the concept of real life thinking machines so not sure the ramblings of a hack is likely to convince me of anything much.
Hey, White Girl, you mention “intelligent robots” more than once. Did you watch the video I posted above? Those robots were put together at a university but the potential is clearly there (in my mind) for fully independent robots, effectively acting on their own. They don’t talk like Number Five does (yet), but I certainly see the possibilities of similar independent “autonomous” actions with their on-going development in the not too distant future. Depending on which science fiction stories interest you, that may or may not be a good thing.