NEWS & LETTERS, September-October 2010
Coming R2 invasion
Detroit--At the beginning of the year, there was a brief announcement that NASA and GM had collaborated to create an improved robot that was named Robonaut 2, or R2. What is special about R2 is that it has five fingers with an opposing thumb with the same dexterity as a human hand.
R2 is scheduled to be launched in September as a permanent feature of the space station now in orbit around the earth, and will be able to operate every tool in the space station. This is a fantastic technological achievement and should be applauded. Such a robot has tremendous potential to take on an untold number of dangerous and hazardous tasks that would be fatal or unsafe if performed by humans.
However, and it is a big however, since GM is involved, it is certain to be used in auto plants. Both GM and NASA repeatedly have assured us that R2 would not replace humans, only work beside them. But as every autoworker, every worker, knows, such automated technological developments mean they will be used in the production process. This is not a matter of speculation, for workers know from their daily work experience that any time that management finds a way to cut out workers, they will do it.
Robots are certainly not new in auto or other industries. Every time there was a technological development that could increase production, which was usually accompanied by worker layoffs, they were added to the continuing automated productive process.
Where there had been thousands of workers on an auto production line, there are now a handful of workers monitoring computers that control automated machinery that does what workers had done.
But there are limits to what automated production as it now exists can do. R2 represents a huge leap forward in the capabilities of robotic production. This kind of technological breakthrough has tremendous implications.
Unlike human workers, R2 does not go on strike, does not file grievances, does not fight against unsafe conditions, does not call in sick, and does not present any pension or healthcare expense. This is the ideal worker that management dreams of--under total dictatorial control with no opposition.
R2 is the result of years of teamwork by GM and NASA, with the first Robonaut developed ten years ago. The current version weighs 300 pounds and consists of a computerized torso and head, with two arms and two hands. Much more will be known after R2 is deployed.
As it is now, the continuing unemployment crisis is generating forces that will be difficult, if not impossible, to control. The growing anger and fear in the families of the unemployed is certain to erupt, and can move in transformative directions. The introduction of R2s in the productive process would certainly deepen the crisis.
--Andy Phillips
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