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The world's first robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily
2016 Jan 28, 9:47am 1,473 views 8 comments
by zzyzzx follow (9)
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Shaman
2016 Jan 28, 10:30am
This bodes well for space development. Real solutions for growing food in a cave on a rock in space need to be found to pave the way for the next human expansion. Mars is livable (underground) if we have enough tech to make it happen. Growing food is a major part of that, and hothouse hydroponics is the way it will likely be done. If you think about it, it's a totally foolproof way of creating food, that doesn't depend on weather, rain, insects, or any other factor. You can set it up in a cave and let it make you food. If this method is perfected, there will be no limit to the food a planet can produce. Instead of a quest for arable land, all one needs is energy and a setup. The Sahara could become the breadbasket of Africa.
Ceffer
2016 Jan 28, 10:49am
The RealDolls should moan and mewl gently as they flare their swollen pudenda as they go about their farm labor.
They can also wrap their ankles around their necks and bounce around periodically.
Tenpoundbass
2016 Jan 28, 12:36pm
The first Androids used RealDolls as the platform, because by 2025 they had pretty much perfected the human flesh and anatomically corect body parts with lubrication and other fluid hydrolic systems to keep the processor in the Android Cool. By 2027 RealDolls had to start creating models that didn't have a VJ because they kept getting abducted for personal pleasure reasons. And at a 5.5 million a pop, you want an Android you can send out to do arands and do other tasks that may be outside the home unattended.
Tenpoundbass
2016 Jan 28, 12:45pm
Imagine it's the future you have an android that you can send for arands, and you can see what It sees on a smart phone app. Imagine the horror of some lady seeing her droid get molested and gangbanged.
She would meet it at the door, "just pass the groceries through the door, you've been violated".
And if they really had AI, they would pick up ways to turn tricks to make extra cash for personal mods.
Dan8267
2016 Jan 28, 1:55pm
The world's first robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily
This is the real immigration reform. When farm automation takes off, we'll cease to import cheap labor while continuing to outsource any job that does not require physical presence, which will be an ever diminishing pool.
When robots can replace all labor done by the poor and middle class, the rich will be free to exterminate the lower 99% of the world's population while reaping all the wealth created by STEM workers who designed, built, and programmed the robots. Eventually, the machines will break down even if they are repaired by other machines. When this happens, there will be no STEM workers and no other kind of laborers, only owners. The owners, unable to fix the machines or to do the jobs that the machines once did, will resort to cannibalism to survive. This will end when they run out of people to eat. Humanity will go extinct and all that will be left to tell the universe of our existence are the wretched hulks of dormant machines. Even these will be wiped off the face of the Earth after a few thousand years as vegetation and wildlife engulf them.
But there is hope. Perhaps the disappearance of man will allow the Bonobos to rise as the dominate species on the planet and Earth will become one giant orgy.
The only way to avoid the destruction of mankind, of course, is to adopt a Georgist philosophy in which we all own the means and production of automation. Since the farm owners are now doing nothing, why should our farms be owned by them? Why not automate or outsource the management of the farms and have the wealth production contribute to a guaranteed income for all U.S. citizens? We owe the owner class nothing. They did not make the technology that automated production. STEM workers did.
Heraclitusstudent
2016 Jan 28, 3:31pm
Why not automate or outsource the management of the farms and have the wealth production contribute to a guaranteed income for all U.S. citizens?
You are exactly right. It won't stop with farms. Once most jobs are automated, people will ask while some should get more benefits from it than others.
We will be forced to abandon capitalism.
We don't want to get to a situation where 90% of the population has no revenues while 10% has 100% of the revenues. That wouldn't work.
Understand this folks: the days of capitalism are counted.
This is the real immigration reform.
Yes. Wealth creation will become decoupled from human population. Authorities in western countries will be forced to abandon their scheme of endless migrations boosting their population.
At a time when we are reaching the end of exponential growth, this is the best thing that could possibly happen.
the rich will be free to exterminate the lower 99% of the world's population
For sure, human being will be a bit devalued by AI. We will lose that special something that made every life precious.
I have a this dark vision of swarms of drones in the sky coldly exterminating the human filth that pullulates on this planet by the millions.
Maybe this is an unavoidable consequence. AI or not, human nature doesn't change.
http://www.techinsider.io/spreads-robot-farm-will-open-soon-2016-1
The Japanese lettuce production company Spread believes the farmers of the future will be robots.
So much so that Spread is creating the world's first farm manned entirely by robots. Instead of relying on human farmers, the indoor Vegetable Factory will employ robots that can harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce every day.
Don't expect a bunch of humanoid robots to roam the halls, however; the robots look more like conveyor belts with arms. They'll plant seeds, water plants, and trim lettuce heads after harvest in the Kyoto, Japan farm.
"The use of machines and technology has been improving agriculture in this way throughout human history," J.J. Price, a spokesperson at Spread, tells Tech Insider. "With the introduction of plant factories and their controlled environment, we are now able to provide the ideal environment for the crops."
The Vegetable Factory follows the growing agricultural trend of vertical farming, where farmers grow crops indoors without natural sunlight. Instead, they rely on LED light and grow crops on racks that stack on top of each other.
In addition to increasing production and reducing waste, indoor vertical farming also eliminates runoff from pesticides and herbicides — chemicals used in traditional outdoor farming that can be harmful to the environment.
The new farm, set to open in 2017, will be an upgrade to Spread's existing indoor farm, the Kameoka Plant. That farm currently produces about 21,000 heads of lettuce per day with help from a small staff of humans. Spread's new automation technology will not only produce more lettuce, it will also reduce labor costs by 50%, cut energy use by 30%, and recycle 98% of water needed to grow the crops.
The resulting increase in revenue and resources could cut costs for consumers, Price says.
"Our mission is to help create a sustainable society where future generations will not have to worry about food security and food safety," Price says. "This means that we will have to make it affordable for everyone and begin to grow staple crops and plant protein to make a real difference."
Spread is also developing sensors to provide data about how specific type of crops grow. These sensors would alert human workers if a crop is not growing correctly, allowing them to adjust techniques as necessary.
Farm robots will certainly eliminate some human jobs, but they could also create new and more interesting jobs for people. Spread's human farmers, for example, will be able to concentrate on developing sustainable farming methods and learning how to produce higher quality vegetables.
The Vegetable Factory will open next year, and eventually, Spread hopes to build similar robot farms around the world.
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