Elon Musk Says There Could Be 1 Billion Androids Walking The Earth In 20 Years
Paul Gilham. Getty Images.SOURCE - Musk took to X, formerly Twitter, to concur with the prediction made by David Holz, the founder of artificial intelligence (AI) research lab Midjourney. Holz said in a post last week that “we should be expecting a billion humanoid robots on earth in the 2040s and a hundred billion (mostly alien) robots throughout the solar system in the 2060s.”
Musk replied, “Probably something like that, provided the foundations of civilization are stable.”
At an event in October 2022, Musk said that he hopes to eventually make millions of the Optimus robots, which would carry an estimated $20,000 price tag per unit – though the robot was limited in its capabilities and Musk said after it walked on stage that he wouldn’t ask it to do more complicated tasks because he “didn’t want it to fall on its face.”
Elon Musk wants to get in the business of building these android people so he's never going to shit on the idea. However, I don't want a billion robot people walking around. A billion of anything is a lot. There are 8.1 billion people on Earth. If you add a billion androids, that means over 10% of everyone you encounter will be a robot person. It is already way too crowded and traffic sucks. Imagine mixing in all of these robots running errands or who knows what?
Actually, what will these androids be doing? Why would we need so many? I'll be in my 60's by the 2040's so it's going to have less impact on me than someone who is in their 20's currently reading this. It's probably a safe bet that these androids will be taking jobs from people. How will that affect the economy in 20 years when people don't just lost their jobs but their entire livelihood?
PhonlamaiPhoto. Getty Images.Is this picture the future of Barstool blogging? Reags, Karim and Greenie might welcome our new overlords and fit right in but what about John Rich wanting to post hot girl GIF's in the middle of his blogs for no real reason? Will T-9000 approve of that? If we get shit now for not blogging enough, imagine trying to keep up with these robots?
Anytime you see a lofty idea, it's OK to pump the brakes and ask why? I'm sure some people will say these droids will do jobs that no one wants but I think that's bullshit. There are many jobs that people don't want but do need. I took a couple years off after high school and worked at a McDonald's. I didn't like the job but I had no other skills and needed that job. Hell, you get a skinny, odd-looking robot that knows a lot about baseball and my job here is instantly at risk.
You know these greedy companies are going to choose androids over humans every chance they get. You don't need to pay for benefits for a robot. They can't quit and never get sick. They don't need weekends either. You put a billion of these things out there and you're going to have a billion humans unemployed.
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Maybe I'm too stupid or too old to understand why this would be a good idea but I am officially against the idea of robots. I also don't want to have a billion of anything running around with Elon Musk's sense of humor. Let that sink in.