this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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I do industrial automation for a living, and I just want to point out that automating things that exist purely in the digital domain is far easier than automating things like ship breaking.
Cant imagine how it even could be automated without advanced robotics. Those ships are freakin HUGE! Maybe a collection of robotic snakes with cutting lazers attached to their heads and some little scuttle bots to pick up the pieces the snakes knock off? Just cut the whole thing into 1' disks or maybe hexagons is better
Just make a huge version of those supermarket bread slicer machines and feed the ships through it.
Definitely not terrifying
Not that you're saying otherwise, however isn't that even more of a reason more developers and resources should be allocated toward automating complex and risky physical processes?
Honestly, I don't see how you would do it without general AI, which is something that will be solved in the digital domain first anyway.
They still manually build ships right now what makes you think they could automate taking one apart
Firstly, much of shipbuilding is automated. They use robots to paint them and apply anti-fouling coatings. They also use loads and loads of automated machinery to create the steel parts that make up most of the ship. Do you think some dudes are forging rivets, beams, and pipes by hand? No, those are made by machines that make zillions of them.
Secondly, nearly every ship--even ships that seem generic like big container ships--is a custom, one-off thing. They're all bespoke (for the most part), being engineered for specific purposes, routes, and they even have "upgrades" for companies that pay extra (e.g. nicer quarters, extra antenna masts, more and special equipment mounting options, etc).
Automation requires very high precision/consistency in the parts you want to work on. I seriously doubt that after many years of wear, tear, and impromptu repairs, those ships would be anywhere near consistent enough.