[QUOTE=Lee Shore;196095]Ahhh, the glorious future. Unmanned mega box ships carrying thousands of containers packed with defective Chinese crap nudged to their berths by unmanned harbor tugs and unloaded by unmanned gantry cranes, transported by driverless trucks, to be sold in cashierless box stores.
Please remind me: when everything is automated and 90 percent of the population is penniless because there are no jobs left, who will have the money to buy the stuff?[/QUOTE]
Who will have the money to buy??? Pensioners, like you and me.
I think about this often. An entirely new system of distribution of resources will have to be developed, when human labor is no longer required. In the event that robots and AIās remain benevolent and obedient (unlikely), and mega-corps do not enslave or eradicate us all (also unlikely), perhaps we will all earn our resources from a lawful governing body by doing other things such as producing beautiful artwork, perfecting the human human body and genome, and exploring new worlds purely for the excitement/entertainment of it.
[QUOTE=Slick Cam;196098]An entirely new system of distribution of resources will have to be developed, when human labor is no longer required.[/QUOTE]
Iāve heard about the concept of a new system of distribution of resources but very little on specifics. Based on recent trends, I have a somewhat darker view of where this is heading.
I see roving bands of bored unemployed thugs in the cities angrily demanding that more goods be distributed to them for free and destroying property to exercise their freedom of expression if they donāt see immediate results. I see them demanding free drugs to compensate for the boredom and lost sense of purpose that comes with a job. I see them setting up barricades and dragging Obieās pensioners out of their cars and beating the crap out of them while setting their BMWs on fire. I see law enforcement prevented from stopping the mayhem because that would be an infringement on the āprotestersāā human rights.
Iām not sure I want modern medicine to come up with a miracle pill thatās going to keep me alive long enough to witness this rosy Utopian future.
More opinions on the future of ships and shipping: http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/the-ghost-ship-set-to-be-the-future-of-shipping/
10-15 years lead time should be enough to adjust to the new reality, even for those who are young enough to be affected.
For us old farts, we can just hope to live long enough to see the first such ship cross the Atlantic unmanned. (That should get the rocking chairs rocking)
The conclusions are that it is unlikely that there will ever be truly autonomous ships, and drone ships for low value bulk cargos may start being built sometime in the 2030ās. The report further states that dangerous cargos will probably never be carried on unmanned ships.
The conclusions are that it is unlikely that there will ever be truly autonomous ships, and drone ships for low value bulk cargos may start being built sometime in the 2030ās. The report further states that dangerous cargos will probably never be carried on unmanned ships.[/QUOTE]
So a VSAT communication and broadband provider wants to give their two cent worth on the subject of autonomous ships?
They probably know about the communication bit, but not much about the rest of the concept.
Yes, it will take until about 2030 before the first large ship cross the ocean autonomously, but the first autonomous ferries, coasters and other smaller vessels in short sea trade within Scandinavia/NW Europe will be a reality much earlier, maybe by 2022-25 or even earlier.
The first remotely operated ferries crossing fjords in Norway, or operating short routes in Finland may be a reality as early as 2020.
That is what has been predicted by those who are working on the entire concept anyhow, so no ābig newsā here.
I fully agree with your view of things. Especially when I see the coffee cup and the friendly environment. Anyhow, in a peaceful world without war, pirates, air traffic jammers and not so sophisticated poor buggers sailing around there might be a chance for those developments. Reality is, that we are loosing our maritime brains faster than we can produce new ones.
Lots of young man and women going through our hands ended up in the company office and went to higher bidders after some years of gathering valuable knowledge. Who comes next ? The coffee cup guys ?
I am mostly worried about all the new monitoring systems. What will the office do with all the new incoming data? Hopefully not what they do now which is mostly asking dumb questions, jumping to wrong conclusions and bending statistical data to cut spending.
It say multiple people flagged it before it was hidden. So are we gonna be constantly monitored and censored now? This post was not violent, personal or harassing in nature. Is this how itās set up now that a few people donāt like a comment can flag it and it disappears? No open discussion or being called on to explain the meaning of the post? We can just get a handful of like minded people to just go around and flag all opposing views and poof? If so I know dozens of people with accounts I can just start texting them and direct them to flag all the comments I donāt like. Then we can clear all the dissenting opinions and those people in turn will flag whatās left. We will be left with nothing but deep sea diverās cut and paste google searches and I may start flagging those out of boredom.
