MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Even as Foxconn, Apple’s iPhone manufacturer, continues to build new plants and hire thousands of additional workers to make smartphones, it plans to install more than a million robots within a few years to supplement its work force in China.
Foxconn has not disclosed how many workers will be displaced or when. But its chairman, Terry Gou, has publicly endorsed a growing use of robots. Speaking of his more than one million employees worldwide, he said in January, according to the official Xinhua news agency: “As human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache.”
Comments
Just in case you didn't seethe news about the riot at a Foxconn plant, it really puts that quote you highlighted in a strange context. I've seen more development on the story since, but this is the New York Times from yesterday:
by artappraiser on Tue, 09/25/2012 - 11:43pm
Thanks. From what I am reading, Foxconn sounds like hell.
BTW, that quote is actually from New Wave of Deft Robots Is Changing Global Industry - NYTimes.com, August 18, 2012 but I linked to where I discovered it because the link there leads through to other stories as well.
by EmmaZahn on Tue, 09/25/2012 - 11:59pm