That's funny. Just yesterday I wrote a blog post that mentioned telerobotics [1], as I've become interested in how the global economy has changed since 1990.
The book I was reading that inspired it (which I thoroughly recommend) [2] talked about how telerobotics was going to help break down the last of three constraints on globalisation: moving people.
The other two are: cost of movement of goods (1st modern industrial revolution); and the cost of moving knowledge (the 2nd modern revolution, since 1990).
One of the things argued is that cleaners and dog walkers (for example) can't be moved, so a paradox of high skills economies is that certain low-skill jobs become more valuable.
$20K is getting frighteningly close to start making it more economical to have someone operate such a cleaning machine remotely from a low cost area than hiring a local cleaner. Skilled operators could even (with the help of AI?) operate dozens of these at once. Or they could do the 'easy' stuff, and get a 'proper' local cleaner in once in a while to do the tricky bits or a deep clean.
The book I was reading that inspired it (which I thoroughly recommend) [2] talked about how telerobotics was going to help break down the last of three constraints on globalisation: moving people.
The other two are: cost of movement of goods (1st modern industrial revolution); and the cost of moving knowledge (the 2nd modern revolution, since 1990).
One of the things argued is that cleaners and dog walkers (for example) can't be moved, so a paradox of high skills economies is that certain low-skill jobs become more valuable.
$20K is getting frighteningly close to start making it more economical to have someone operate such a cleaning machine remotely from a low cost area than hiring a local cleaner. Skilled operators could even (with the help of AI?) operate dozens of these at once. Or they could do the 'easy' stuff, and get a 'proper' local cleaner in once in a while to do the tricky bits or a deep clean.
Interesting times.
[1] - https://zwischenzugs.com/2020/07/13/why-do-we-have-dev-rels-...
[2] - https://www.amazon.com/Great-Convergence-Information-Technol...