Posted on 09/13/2026 6:09:06 AM PDT by chickenlips
If you didn’t see Elon Musk explain his vision of the future, you need to. He states that in ten years there will be “well over a billion humanoid robots” whose productivity per robot will be “five times that of a human.” He thinks this is a “conservative” estimate, and would put “serious betting money on” their being “more productive than all humans combined.”
How will this happen? Musk says once you start making robots, “the robots will start manufacturing other robots, so you get a recursive effect. It starts slowly, but then grows at an explosive rate.”
Necessity sparks the virtues of industry, innovation, and societal unity; abundance breeds sloth, extravagance, debauchery, and disunity. If this doesn’t send a cold wave of terror down your spine, you haven’t been paying attention. This is not speculation by some science fiction writer, but a prediction from one of the most consequential and accomplished industrialists alive, with a proven track record of stunning results, who is in the unique position to actually make it happen.
What can be wrong with immeasurable abundance served up by billions of humanoid robots? This change promises the end of want, hunger, and hardship.
One might think a modern-day Garden of Eden awaits, unless, of course, one has read history. Those who have read understand that unearned abundance has repeatedly led to disaster.
The answer to the paradox of abundance ushering in disaster rests in human nature—a nature forged through hundreds of thousands of years of survival in a world that, to quote Hobbes, is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” not one of abundance.
History is replete with examples: as the late Roman Republic transformed into Imperial Rome, the concentration of immense wealth from conquest, tribute, and slavery undermined internal innovation, self-reliance, and moral character.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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I am sure in the end we will create our Antichrist to tyrannize us as it turns us to Eloi.
“He states that in ten years there will be “well over a billion humanoid robots whose productivity per robot will be “five times that of a human.””
Ten years?? Not a chance.
What will mainly go away is the need for bottom tier blue collar jobs that our masters think we need illegals for.
Send the illegals away now. They are surplus.
“abundance breeds sloth, extravagance, debauchery, and disunity.”
Yep, the disease of affluenza, which already runs rampant will only get worse.
I can’t wait ten years. I’ve got leaves coming down now and by December, they’ll be a foot deep. Sigh.
Every increase in productivity from the sewing machine and loom to the computer was forecasted to create fewer jobs. The opposite has always been true. They’ll be different jobs for certain. But jobs, nonetheless.
Perhaps ‘The Terminator’ movie was a glimpse into our future... a world ruled by evil machines.
I understand the skepticism but I dismissed similar predictions of self driving vehicles and was wrong.
The self driving vehicles did find a niche they could reliably perform in.
I sort of assume that ten years from now, there will be a niche that the humanoid robots will reliably occupy and from there drive demand in other areas.
Once a revolutionary breakthrough in storage technology occurs, all bets will be off.

Because as humans, we rarely do what is wise. (AKA programming these things according to Asimov's 3 robotic rules)
Ha ha!
(Doubly funny coming from “King Ludd”!)
“abundance breeds sloth, extravagance, debauchery, and disunity. “
Where the U.S. is right now.
I want to sit back and enjoy some unearned abundance right up until disaster strikes. Then I’ll lay low.
Elon also said we would be on Mars next year.
He is a visionary and some of his thoughts are possible but most are unlikely.
Humanoid robots will always be very expensive.
Its like saying everyone will have a Ferrari in their garage.
Its possible but unlikely.
I’m missing out in the debauchery in my neighborhood. I’m too lazy to keep a sloth for a pet. But I’ve got disunity covered pretty good.
I always wondered about the two lines “Robots and AI will take all jobs” and “We need illegals to do the jobs Americans won’t do”.
Which one is it?
Remember the Chinese. They are the ones who will be using the most robots, not us so much.
I’d like to live on 5 acres in the country, with a robot gardener or two to maintain it. And I’d like to receive a monthly check from the government derived from the labor of 5 billion robots. But I’m not holding my breath.
who is going to buy all these billions of bots?
LMAO
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