Drone Takeover (1 Viewer)

kevlray

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A lot of reasons a drone could be cost effective. It does eliminate an truck's expense (insurance, fuel, driver). Really handy if someone lives down a winding road high up in the mountains.
 

The_Doc_Man

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A whole new class of occupation: Drone pilot.

Which leads to the question of whether the pilots have to be FAA certified for operating an aircraft in a residential area. Yet another case where our laws are again behind our reality. Proof of a fast-moving society.

The other thing I wonder about is whether folks will start shooting at delivery drones just to harvest them. The loonie tunes of the world are pretty much capable of shooting at other legit drones like news camera and government mapping drones anyway.

However, Adam, I don't see this as ridiculous. I see it as desperation caused by lack of people willing to be "human delivery drones." My step-son is a UPS driver. To prevent him from catching flack, his name will not appear here. The conditions he must endure are horrendous.

During the pandemic, package delivery drivers have been declared "essential personnel" so they don't get the choice to stay home due to the novel corona virus. Then, when massive storms hit the area, they are expected to deliver anyway despite seriously inclement weather. According to my step-son, truck maintenance is an issue because, of course, a truck down for maintenance is not making deliveries. Their tires frequently go "bald" and become traction hazards. Then, many of them have poorly ventilated trucks. UPS vehicles have been measured to reach over 140 degrees F in summer and their open nature makes it difficult for them to hold any heat in winter. The other services (FedEx, WorldWide, etc.) have different but not unrelated issues regarding driver conditions.

Now add to that the new service, Amazon Prime, and you have increased demand for drivers but not an increased supply of qualified drivers. You need special licenses for commercial carriers, so Joe Schmuckatelli off the street cannot just walk in and say "I want to be a delivery driver." My step-son also is finding that as he matures (euphemism for "gets older and more decrepit"), it gets harder and harder to make deliveries. Then, a recent trend is that people are more and more getting packages delivered which means more tonnage to be hand-carried or hand-truck carried from truck to door. People are shipping heavier items.

Net result: This is an adaptation in response to a shortage of delivery drivers and, for that matter, a shortage of trucks that represent a massive investment in delivery fleets. It is not ridiculous. It is an act of desperation.
 

neuroman9999

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hmmmm....very true! but keep in mind, that if people keep obsessing about ""cost effectiveness"", eventually capitalism will die. but then again, they really have no choice because the machine only works one way. =(
 

neuroman9999

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Net result: This is an adaptation in response to a shortage of delivery drivers and, for that matter, a shortage of trucks that represent a massive investment in delivery fleets. It is not ridiculous. It is an act of desperation.
and there is a shortage of drivers, WHY? is it because the corporate machine has moved so fast, that the rest of the world could not possibly catch up, and thus we have a massive number of people scattered throughout the world who have no job skills? It seems to me that America took capitalism into foreign countries so damn fast, they forgot to train the citizens of those countries first! oops!
 

The_Doc_Man

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People HAVE to obsess over cost effectiveness. That which makes no profit will not survive. If you allow the analogy, a corporation (which is a fictional legal person for certain situations) survives only if it has enough to sustain it. And that sustainment must come from profitability. Otherwise, that legal person will starve to death. If we convert that legal fiction to a real person, let me ask you this question: If you don't have enough to eat, what are YOU going to do? Answer: Either you will work harder or find another line of work or you will spend less on non-essentials or your body will waste away to nothing as you starve to death. The corporate equivalent is that you will find new ways to make money or you will start having to lay off your employees, who are analogous to your muscles.

Adam, your obsession against capitalism is what makes you blind to the realities. You don't understand it or you wouldn't make such inane comments. You talk about how "dumb" so many capitalists are. OK, you might be right, but that is a "so what?" moment. People strive for betterment. Some people start businesses. According to the Harvard Business Review (in a VERY old article) over 80% of all new companies fail within 5 years. Many fail within 1 year. Survival of the fittest applies to corporate America as much as it applies to the animal kingdom. It is DEFINITELY "eat or be eaten."

I can remember a couple of decades ago when Teradata bought a company called ShareBase, but then NCR bought Teradata, but then AT&T bought NCR. Within a ridiculously short time. I also remember when a company called Rexnord went on a buying spree that included buying out the company I worked for at the time. Then a year later, Banner Industries bought Rexnord. Adam, you lack perspective. Corporate capitalism and human hunger are strongly analogous. You are criticizing corporate activity but that means you are REALLY criticizing human attempts to survive in a different way than they would use in a back-to-nature situation.
 

neuroman9999

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Adam, your obsession against capitalism is what makes you blind to the realities. You don't understand it or you wouldn't make such inane comments. You talk about how "dumb" so many capitalists are. OK, you might be right, but that is a "so what?" moment. People strive for betterment. Some people start businesses. According to the Harvard Business Review (in a VERY old article) over 80% of all new companies fail within 5 years. Many fail within 1 year. Survival of the fittest applies to corporate America as much as it applies to the animal kingdom. It is DEFINITELY "eat or be eaten."
OK Richard, I will let you win on this one. and trust me, I understand your position, business peoples' positions and every other person simply trying to survive on this Earth. I know that this whole thing HAS to continue. I'm NOT against it. When I bash capitalism, it is simply come from a religious perspective. and you are not a believer in Christ and the truth that he preached, and thus you probably will never have a damn clue what I'm talking about. The man died and rose again for a REASON. and do you know what that reason is? Apparently you do not. Let me help....the reason IS because humans naturally have no faith and are insecure about living on Earth with nothing, even though food was naturally given to them. So, over thousands of years now, system after system has been developed to control the population and help humans feel secure with themselves by providing them with shelter, money, wealth, etc, etc, and whatever the hell else they think they need to feel comfortable.

And now the system happens to be capitalism. There's nothing wrong with. But once again, I'll beat this into your brain....the death happened for the sole purpose of allowing people to be reconciled because no matter what system human beings put in place for themselves, eventually it fails because it is not perfect. Do you get it or not? ;)

and please, don't respond to this with a damn lecture about how I'm delving into a fantasy world. I've already got those previous lectures from you bookmarked in firefox.
 

The_Doc_Man

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the reason IS because humans naturally have no faith and are insecure about living on Earth with nothing

Thank you for confirming what I have said so many times. People had nothing so made up something to make them feel good. We are on this particular iteration because the other pantheons before the time of Jesus didn't work either. The funny thing is that you have gods that you worship but they seem to ignore you - like Dagon or Ahuramazda or Osiris or Odin or Jove or Zeus... And when they don't show up to actually DO something, eventually you give them up as useless and find a replacement. At least our politicians actually DO something even it isn't always what we wanted at that moment. But then, we replace them every 2 to 6 years. Takes longer with religion.

We talked about the cycles of nature and the cycles of politics. It would seem that religion is on a longer cycle.
 

neuroman9999

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Since I'm a nicer guy this time around in my presence here, I'm not going to discuss this with you ever again. I can't fix the lost. So let us delve into other topics, because this one is a serious waste of freakin time for us both.
 

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