Hi all,
The last day of summer pushes for philosophizing. Still, so far the year has been anything but pleasant.
Table of Contents
Who will work?
The world is moving somewhere else. Instead of real production and real professions, people are increasingly dreaming of earning millions without doing anything, that is, wanting to be influencers, streamers, bloggers.
I don’t know why, but it always seemed to me that such fermentations are typical for the USA and well-fed countries of Europe. But it turns out that exactly the same trends are characteristic of China. Local youth call it the term “lying flat”, that is, “lie down on the bottom.” The Chinese no longer want to work for a bowl of rice, work on a 996 schedule (from 9 am to 9 pm 6 days a week), they no longer like the so-called “wolf culture” (high internal competition – it is thanks to such a culture, for example, the same Huawei and Xiaomi have achieved success!). Chinese university graduates are in no rush to find work, and even small-town peasant youths are reluctant to collect iPhones and commit suicide by jumping off the top floor of a Foxconn dorm following a 12-hour shift.
Their parents worked tirelessly in the hope of breaking out of poverty and creating a great country. And Chinese youth express such seditious ideas as the desire to live for themselves, choosing simple jobs with measured schedules.
And if such sentiments continue to gain momentum, then we will face consequences worse than the coronavirus and the current economic crisis. Capitalism will lose its most valuable resource – cheap and numerous labor force. There are not enough Vietnamese for everyone. And the Indians and Africans, despite all the efforts of the Chinese, show a complete unwillingness to work even for the sake of their bright future, not to mention making us happy with cheap phones. So, in India they still cannot master the production of new iPhones. And the Africans say that they are doing well in the current present.
All this stimulates the transition from manual labor to robotic. Companies around the world are increasing their purchases of industrial robots. For example, in the United States, for the third year in a row, there has been an increase in the supply of robots by 20%. The first quarter of 2022 has become a record one even more so. The number of orders for industrial robots increased by an average of 56%. And the growth is in all sectors. The most active growth is in metallurgy, but agricultural and FMCG companies are not lagging behind. And specialized exhibitions, for example, the latest Automate 2022 in Detroit, collect full houses.
Perhaps the main question that worries is what people will do when robots come to replace them. And I did not find a clear answer to this question. All experts answer sideways. For example, they say that robots will not take away work, but only take away the one that people do not want to do. Or that people will have more time to do exceptionally interesting work (what is it?).
Others report that the number of those who will be engaged in maintenance of robots will grow. Well, the most advanced futurologists argue that the growth in the number of robots will lead to a change in the economic paradigm and a transition to life on an unconditional income. And then people will be able to reveal their potential. In fact, greenhouse conditions for unlocking the potential need a maximum of 1% of people who, by the way, will unlock the potential even without unconditional income. The rest of humanity will lie on sofas, overeating, drinking and becoming dumb.
In my opinion, at a certain stage, we will face the fact that the states will begin to regulate the sphere, forcing companies to slow down robotization. Let the robots better collect iPhones or calculate the sales plan, but hire a person so that he has at least some income. What do you think, dear readers?
Hello, where is your power outlet?
Technology evolves every year. However, the problem of long-lasting batteries still remains unsolved.
Of course, new technologies appear in batteries. Batteries withstand more and more recharge cycles, less often suffer from once typical problems (such as overcharging, active degradation during constant operation from the network, or death due to deep discharge). And in general, batteries have become much more convenient to use. For example, sorry for the tautology, remember the “memory effect” of nickel-cadmium batteries? Batteries must be fully discharged before charging. Lithium-ion batteries in this regard are much more comfortable: you can recharge at any time.
However, time passes, and batteries with a fundamentally different level of capacity and power have not appeared on the market.
Instead, manufacturers achieve battery life improvements by optimizing other technologies. So, 1 W panels for laptops appeared on the market, OLED screens that are more economical than conventional IPS, there is still energy-efficient memory, processors and chipsets.
New MacBooks break records of autonomy, but not thanks to batteries. The battery capacity remains the same. For everything, thanks to the transition to ARM chipsets.
If we take an ordinary laptop with a discrete graphics card, then in 2022, as well as 15-20 years ago, the laptop will need to be connected to an outlet in order to give maximum performance. And the battery life under normal load (for example, when starting a game) will be exactly the same as at the beginning of the century – 1-2 hours maximum.
The situation is similar with smartphones. For at least 15 years we have been living in a world in which you need to charge your smartphone every day. However, I’m not saying that manufacturers do not try to make sure that buyers do not get bored. For example, some release smartphones that require charging by lunchtime.
Obviously, the situation will not change in the near future. Please note that we hear less and less regarding new battery technologies, but every couple of months we are shown a new fast charge.
Some smartphones now come with 150W chargers. And iQoo (this is also a brand of BBK Electronics, which owns Oppo, OnePlus, Vivo, realme) releases the iQoo 10 Pro smartphone with a 200W adapter. From 0% to 100%, the smartphone charges in 10 minutes. Xiaomi is only publishing news so far, promising that its 200W charger will do the job in 8 minutes.
Here, of course, in fairness it must be said that it is not only regarding the power of the adapter. First of all, such power became available due to changes in the design of batteries. Batteries are split into several, using multiple contacts for simultaneous charging, using graphene, inserting temperature sensors and dedicated processors that have one function – to control the correct charging.
To some extent, this, of course, is magic when a smartphone charges from 0% to 100% in 10-15 minutes. If the battery is at 30%, then charging generally looks like this: plugged in the wire, went to the kitchen for a glass of water, returned, and the smartphone is already 97% charged. And manufacturers say that in the next few years we will approach the threshold of 1 minute. And charging will look just like pouring a glass of water from a bottle, that is, wow! – and you’re done.
All this, of course, is good and wonderful, but it implies that you only need to live near a power outlet and on a trip, going into a cafe, the first thing to ask is: “Where is your power outlet here?”.
But perhaps there is hope. In electric vehicles, unlike typical ICE cars, there are far fewer points of effort for engineers. Instead of optimizing pistons, cylinders, fuel system, engineers will face the issue of optimizing batteries.
By the way, there are already first fruits. For example, Samsung SDI (by the way, one of the leaders in the car battery market) reported this year that it had come up with and implemented a way to increase battery capacity by 10% while maintaining its current size. And, according to rumors, Samsung Electronics (it is already a manufacturer of smartphones and other electronics) has already converted one of the production lines at the plant in Cheonan, which produces batteries for smartphones.
So it is likely that electric vehicles will be the driver of battery development in the coming years.
Lost in Play
I rarely write regarding games, but I decided to talk regarding this one. Since this seems to be the first time that my girlfriend is happy to participate.
According to the genre, Lost in Play is a typical quest. You find yourself on the level, you need to solve several riddles of various types in order to move on. By the way, this is an important point: riddles are not repeated, everyone is different – there are also search for patterns, and attentiveness, and mathematics with logic, there are parodies of checkers, chess, card games, etc. You won’t get bored.
The game evokes sympathy for the art and presentation of the story. The plot is simple. The brother and sister played and went far from home, now they need to return. But thanks to children’s imagination, their road turns into a wild adventure with dragons, goblins and more. All this is complemented by good humor and a good soundtrack.
Initially, I even decided that the game was childish. But, perhaps, some riddles are such that not every child will figure it out. However, it will definitely be interesting to watch. There is also a positive point in the fact that there are no dialogues in the game – all the characters communicate with each other in abracadabra, which you understand by intonations and pictures.
However, there is always an unlimited number of hints.
Thanks to the art and the abundance of screensavers, the game is perceived as a cartoon. So it is quite possible to recommend for family leisure. And especially for those who love board games.
Conclusion
All last week in Moscow there was a persistent smell of burning. We left for Saturday-Sunday outside the city, left the window in the room open (only the mosquito net is stretched). It was a big mistake. The entire window sill and desktop were covered with black dust. The damp cloth with which he undertook to wipe turned black instantly, as did the rag following washing the floors.
It is curious that on the official website of Mosecomonitoring, for all the time, the positive green color, signaling air quality, has never changed at least to yellow. While on private websites and in weather applications on smartphones, all of Moscow was painted in a dark brown color. But, as a representative of the Hydrometeorological Center said, “the smell of smoke is a discomfort, it is not a danger.”
The world media eagerly publish photos regarding the drought, which has swept not only Europe, but also China and the United States. In California, people are forced to abandon the classic green lawns in front of the house; in China, people walk along the beds of shallow rivers, which caused a decrease in the capacity of hydroelectric power plants, which, in turn, led to a shortage of electricity. The main illustration of what is happening was the shutdown of the illumination of the embankment in Shanghai. However, a more significant consequence is the suspension of factories. Reduced the productivity of Volkswagen and Foxconn factories in Sichuan province.
The world has not yet recovered from the pandemic, and in China the coronavirus has not formally ended at all, so new problems are layered on old ones.
All this, as usual, will lead to another rise in prices and acceleration of the already rampant inflation.
Of course, I would like to believe that what is happening is just anomalies that always happen from time to time. Sometimes it’s hot, sometimes it’s cold.
For example, in 1709 there was an incredible winter when all of Europe froze – from Scandinavia to Italy. The port of Marseille, in the south of France, was covered with ice, the temperature was kept at -20 degrees.
So suddenly and now it’s still just an anomaly. Because because of the news of recent months and the smog that covered Moscow, I, perhaps for the first time, very vividly imagined a world in which clean water and air will be the most valuable resources. It may sound cowardly, but I want to believe that when this happens, we will already be long and comfortably dead.
