The citrus industry has had automation called tree shakers available for decades. They don't use them because of the availability of slave labor.
Posted on 07/31/2013 7:20:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
SALINAS, Calif. (AP) — On a windy morning in California’s Salinas Valley, a tractor pulled a wheeled, metal contraption over rows of budding iceberg lettuce plants. Engineers from Silicon Valley tinkered with the software on a laptop to ensure the machine was eliminating the right leafy buds.
The engineers were testing the Lettuce Bot, a machine that can “thin” a field of lettuce in the time it takes about 20 workers to do the job by hand.
The thinner is part of a new generation of machines that target the last frontier of agricultural mechanization – fruits and vegetables destined for the fresh market, not processing, which have thus far resisted mechanization because they’re sensitive to bruising.
Researchers are now designing robots for these most delicate crops by integrating advanced sensors, powerful computing, electronics, computer vision, robotic hardware and algorithms, as well as networking and high precision GPS localization technologies. Most ag robots won’t be commercially available for at least a few years.
In this region known as America’s Salad Bowl, where for a century fruits and vegetables have been planted, thinned and harvested by an army of migrant workers, the machines could prove revolutionary.
Farmers say farm robots could provide relief from recent labor shortages, lessen the unknowns of immigration reform, even reduce costs, increase quality and yield a more consistent product.
“There aren’t enough workers to take the available jobs, so the robots can come and alleviate some of that problem,” said Ron Yokota, a farming operations manager at Tanimura & Antle, the Salinas-based fresh produce company that owns the field where the Lettuce Bot was being tested.
(Excerpt) Read more at techland.time.com ...
It will not solve our issues of illegal immigration, our politicians will encourage them to come here for the hand-outs. Jobs or not the liberals need them for their votes.
They go in the field, but even those that use the porta potty- there are usually no facilities to wash up and then they handle our food with those hands.
Why would this solve it? Might help; but think; not much. There are still; the ‘benefits’; benefits. . .benefits. Just no sending checks home. . .
Judge Dredd happens. Or maybe Star Trek. But I’m thinking Judge Dredd. We like to think that if a large percentage of the population suddenly became “unnecessary” for the survival of the society they’d all do creative and inventive things, but they probably just wind up doing drunken and stupid things.
Some could, but the point of automation is that it’s a force multiplier. You replace 20 people with 1 robot maintained by 1 or 2 people. And of course as predictive algorithms get better and we’re already getting machines that can announce when they’re going to break, and then you can automatically dispatch machines to fix the machines even those 1 or 2 might not be necessary anymore.
The citrus industry has had automation called tree shakers available for decades. They don't use them because of the availability of slave labor.
That must be the $50 lettuce Juan McCain was talking about.
The 3-D Printer concept has matured and now works with nanotechnology. What that means is that core atoms can be used to construct anything you want. Your food. Your clothing. Your inflatable mattress. Push the buttons and "the feed" accesses the resources and builds what you need.
But this does not mean everyone is rich. Stephenson doesn't spell out the nuances of the social stratficiations, but people now belong to tribes or "phyles". Some phyles are large, global, and rich. One of these rich phyles is the Atlantean phyle which combines American and Victorian sensibilities. Very proper and polished and old-fashioned -- and they control much of the cutting edge technology due to their work ethic and self-discipline. There are many phyles, some better than others.
Below that, there are the "thetes" who are basically proles. Yeah, they can push buttons and get "stuff" but they have no other existence. They pretty much make up the criminal class because they have no hope and nothing to do.
There is one phyle which is sort of based on the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century. They make paper by hand, carve furniture and shoe horses. They are artisans and servants of the Atlantean/Victorian phyle. It is mentioned at one point that with nanotechnology available, making paper by hand is a little silly. It is also mentioned that the Arts and Crafts emphasis is only sustainable because the rich, high tech Atlanteans find hand-crafted items to be quaint and pleasant. These observations are "shushed" as rude or impolitic.
The book is probably 20 years old now, but it discusses drones (lots of these), 3-D printing, modern tribal cultures, feral populations, and a world which is spinning out of control. We're heading there.
why would a low information voter give up a couch and welfare check for work?
There is no incentive since they have no morality of duty or right and wrong.
They are just an extention of the pot soaked stinky mud drenched hippies of woodstock wait for the adults to bring them food and water.
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