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Robot-ran farms have the potential to increase efficiency in the agriculture industry.
Humans have been cultivating plants for some 10,000 years and, for much of that time, we’ve used beasts of burden to help tend the fields. Just last century, humans turned from animal strength to machine power, leading to huge leaps in agricultural efficiency and scale. Over the past few years, farms have deployed emerging technologies like drones and autonomous driving systems to make the farmers’ job even less strenuous — but human hands were still needed throughout the process.
Now, researchers at Harper Adams University and agricultural company Precision Decisions have removed humans from the farm entirely in a project called Hands Free Hectare. From planting to tending and harvesting, no human stepped foot on the acre and a half barley farm in rural England. It was all done by robot farmers.
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![[Thumbnail for Terminator.jpg]](/t/70920/a/54743/Terminator.jpg "Filename: Terminator.jpg
Description:")
“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein
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"People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do."
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"Study books and observe nature; if they do not agree, throw away the books." ~ William A. Albrecht
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So, not really permaculture by any stretch of the imagination, or even conventional organic for that matter. I'm sure the inventors are trying to do good, but the thought of this is a bit unnerving. Maybe it's just my Luddite urges getting the best of me. I think the only people this will hurt are the ones who practice and are invested heavily in large scale conventional mechanical chemical ag on their farms. I don't think smaller hands-on operations which specialize in diversity and soil building will be effected.Among the tasks assigned to the autonomous vehicles and drones were drilling channels to precise depths for barley seeds to be planted; applying specific amounts of fungicides, herbicides, and fertilizers; and, finally, harvesting the crops once they were ready.
vote with our wallets and buy local.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead "The only thing worse than being blind, is having sight but no vision."-Helen Keller
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Todd Parr wrote:During the beginnings of the industrial revolution, people were convinced that humans would all lose their jobs to machines. It's no different now.
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The holy trinity of wholesomeness: Fred Rogers - be kind to others; Steve Irwin - be kind to animals; Bob Ross - be kind to yourself
Tim Pasanen wrote:
Todd Parr wrote:During the beginnings of the industrial revolution, people were convinced that humans would all lose their jobs to machines. It's no different now.
A sample size of 1 can not provide a heck of a lot of confidence in any conclusion or interpretation of an event.
"People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do."
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Nerds be nerding...
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Many things last lifetimes or eons, but the only thing that's permanent is the ever-changing flow itself
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Executive Director and Lead Instructor, Institute of Integrated Regenerative Design
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John Weiland wrote:If we just wait patiently, Sarah Connor will be along shortly to save us.....
![[Thumbnail for green_terminators.jpg]](/t/70920/a/74641/green_terminators.jpg "Filename: green_terminators.jpg
Description:")
Be the shenanigans
you want to see in the world.
Todd Parr wrote:During the beginnings of the industrial revolution, people were convinced that humans would all lose their jobs to machines. It's no different now.
The original Silicon Valley hillbilly.
John Hutter wrote: I think the health/mental health epidemics consuming many populations are a result of this bankrupt consumer culture.
Still able to dream.
S Tenorman wrote:
Todd Parr wrote:All I know is that my phone/the internet is about a zillion times smarter than any single human. It didn't take that long to go from machines having zero intelligence to all machines with internet connections being the most intelligent thing on the planet.
I recall an experiment where they had an AI study the whole internet and all the collected knowledge and try to learn and develop a personality from it. As I recall, it became a Nazi.
True AI, imo, is not possible. No AI can go outside the bounds of its programming, and no human can replicate the level of sophisticated "programming" done by evolution on the human, mostly because we are unaware of all the aspects of our own psyche, mental capacities, etc. Essentially, as nonobjective subjects of the natural world, we cannot "step outside" of those bounds to create something that is like us or surpasses us.
True, an AI can collect much more information and store it much quicker than a human brain, but an AI lacks the sophisticated ability to make ethical, moral, or social judgements about that information. Knowledge without wisdom is another form of foolishness.
We can create some frighteningly foolish, powerful machines, capable of replicating much of what we do. But I don't think the human imagination is sophisticated, nor the mental capacities advanced enough to program an AI that is more subjective in its ability to apply knowledge than humans.
Also, biological systems arising out of natural evolution are regenerative and are the only thing capable of stalling or "reversing" entropy through increased abundance and fecundity of life. Mechanical systems, by their nature, are subject to breakdown and entropy, and are not inherently regenerative or increasingly subjective. No mechanical society can sustain itself indefinitely. A more likely scenario than "robots taking over," is certain humans will augment themselves with machines and slowly combine to create a cyborg-like form of life. I personally have no interest in that sort of existence, but I'm sure some will choose it, should our modern industrial society advance that far before the strains it is placing on the planet force a counter-punch that forces a less technologically dependent/complex form of human life.
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S Tenorman wrote:Currently all of that information those machines connected to the internet know isn't really able to be processed into thoughts/actions. Right now it's just useless information that can't be utilized.
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George Bastion wrote:True AI, imo, is not possible. No AI can go outside the bounds of its programming
an AI lacks the sophisticated ability to make ethical, moral, or social judgements about that information.
We can create some frighteningly foolish, powerful machines, capable of replicating much of what we do. But I don't think the human imagination is sophisticated, nor the mental capacities advanced enough to program an AI that is more subjective in its ability to apply knowledge than humans.
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Tim Bermaw wrote:
One doesn't need to completely replace something to relegate it to historical obscurity. Pens replaced quills. Cars replaced horses. Calculators replaced in-brain math. SMS replaced grammatically correct sentences and good spelling. The Internet replaced books and libraries. If 95% of "what humans do" can be automated, it will be. Imaginative humans can be preserved in a museum or zoo — for amusement or study by our robot overlords, as they please.
History is littered with the corpses of those that thought themselves 'irreplacable'.
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George Bastion wrote:The limiting factor, even in the IBM example you provided and others, is that, yes, we can program a program to program, but can we program a program to break out of the fundamental barriers that we've designed (not just the programmatic ones, but the fundamentals like language, intent, etc)?
Dale Hodgins wrote:But all the machines would really have to do is formulate a general pesticide, and spray the whole planet with it. This would eliminate biological life and there would be no need to shoot us. This scenario wouldn't have made much of a movie.
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A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
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George Bastion wrote:
Humans are irreplaceable in that we are a unique branch of an evolutionary line that has never, as far as we know, been replicated.
A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series
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Francis Mallet wrote:What I find ironic is that these people design such complex robotic systems and yet they have an incredibly naive view of the biological systems they want to control. Always more of the same...
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
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Trace Oswald wrote:
George Bastion wrote:
Humans are irreplaceable in that we are a unique branch of an evolutionary line that has never, as far as we know, been replicated.
That applies to every species, living or extinct. Humans just aren't that special.
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This is all just my opinion based on a flawed memory
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Actually history is littered evenly with corpses of good productive and ingenious people as well as the lazy ones and all those in between, a fact that continually annoys me.Tim Bermaw wrote:History is littered with the corpses of those that thought themselves 'irreplacable'.
"People get out your way, when you're on fire". Richard Prior
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Be the shenanigans
you want to see in the world.
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The holy trinity of wholesomeness: Fred Rogers - be kind to others; Steve Irwin - be kind to animals; Bob Ross - be kind to yourself
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Idle dreamer
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Argue for your limitations and they are yours forever.
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"The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?" Gandolf
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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com
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It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com
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It used to be a lot bigger, but now it is a rather tiny ad:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
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