Robots Are Coming for Your Future — Outlive Them | Edmond Douglass | TEDxBoston

Robotics Industry & Dexterity - Looper Robotics believes robotics will be the biggest industry in human history, with dexterity being the bottleneck [2][3] - The industry is studying and codifying dexterity learned from people using smart gloves to capture hand movements and senses [4] - This data is used to teach robot hands practical skills, transferring human dexterity to robots [5] Applications & Potential - Today, these gloves teach robots to grasp and assemble, potentially reducing workplace injuries and tackling food insecurity [6] - Tomorrow, they could guide robotic surgeons in rural hospitals or disaster zones and restore touch through prosthetic hands [6] - In 10 years, fleets of machines could share dexterity, rebuilding cities, repairing underwater cables, or exploring dangerous environments [7] Labor Market & Automation - The United States has 380,000 unfilled jobs in manufacturing, with a potential shortfall of up to 3 million workers within a decade [7] - Demographics and math are forcing the largest automation wave in modern American history [9] - Robotics can shrink inequality if built with intention, but could also displace millions of workers and concentrate power [9][10] Economic & Geopolitical Implications - Labor is becoming a commodity once more, like "the next oil," with repeatable physical and cognitive work becoming measurable and programmable [11][12] - The nations and firms that control this new commodity will have significant leverage [12] - The US needs to rewire itself to use AI at scale, seeing it as a lubricant to make systems run better, not just perfecting models [15] Policy & Strategy - An actionable idea would be a robot tax index to automation intensity, rechanneling gains into training and safety [14] - The US has no shot at winning the AI race without robotics, as AI's value is in what it touches [14][15] - Robotics is synonymous with the manufacturing of labor and should be scaled to create infrastructure that extracts value from AI [16]