Rhino's Ramblings - The Joys Of Automation

By Robert Thomas - Opinion/Commentary

It was one of the biggest controversies which dogged Council discussion for 14 months and that is curb side solid waste collection.

Meeting after meeting the fuel and other savings were dominated by changing the place you put your trash.

For many people with limited mobility getting the Green trash bin from its convenient storage location to the front curb and back was a major problem. It is one major reason for opposition to the City's GPS proven money saving plan.

Even though the City may well describe it as just a natural reaction to change.

Well if the City ever decides to launch curbside collection again the mobility argument might well be moot as a US firm Rezzi is working on a motorized attachment called Smartcan.

Basically what Smartcan is a motorized garbage can attachment you program with your Smartphone which will automatically wheel your green trash bin to the curb.

Not only will the trashcan follow the pre-programmed route it also has the ability to have the garbage schedule loaded into its memory and then automatically take the trash to the street on collection days even if you forget.

Now how is that for efficiency?

As for me all I can say is can you imagine the possibilities of such a device?

It’s all part of something called smart home technology where we all live in a modern world and our homes do all of the work and the guesswork for us.

The tedious stuff which we all hate to do – such as adjusting the thermostat, turning lights off and on and even ordering our groceries as we run out will be done all so automatically.

Now before you laugh at Smartcan the technological innovation is being developed using the same type of smart car technology we are all hearing about. The virtual end of the need for taxi drivers as all cars can be automated – laugh well it’s already being tested in Dubai.

Boring repetitive jobs are being replaced.

Automation is also set to go even further as the Wells Fargo Bank predicts up to 10 percent of banking employees in the coming years will be replaced due to artificial intelligence and the automation it can bring. The big thinking jobs in banking can be replaced by a computer program.

It’s already happening to some extent with ATMs and on-line banking. As employees are let go and banks close more branches. Everything is all safe and secure by the power if the Internet.

Just do not tell that to my neighbour down the street as he lost just over $2,500 last Winter because the criminals hacked his computer with the latest virus the day before a security update was released to fix the problem.

It’s sort of like the banks have a fix in for you.

But what about this Smartcan technology and how much labour it will save? What will you possibly do with all of that leisure time it affords you?

Well it took five seconds of thinking but if a person can program their garbage can couldn't the same robotic contraption be used for other things?

Like maybe wheeling your garbage can down the street and knocking over that neighbour nobody likes garbage can?

But then wouldn't the neighbour retaliate by wheeling out his own automated trash bin complete with an automated chainsaw? That would be payback at its finest.

Then to retaliate perhaps you might well automate that aging Segway - with a dusty old 486 computer and 32 MB of RAM as a guidance system - hanging up someplace in the garage and then to Wagner's classic ‘Ride of the Valkyrie” spill your neighbour's trash.

“I love the sound of my neighbour's trash can falling over at 4 am in the morning. It sounds like victory,” you may one day triumphantly proclaim to the touch screen and cashless ordering dohickey screen thing at McDonalds.

This all the while your crotchety old neighbour finally figures out how to override the controls of his automated car - by having a fwo year old toddler Google it for him on an iPad Pro while livestreaming the latest episode of Baby Shark - and surreptitiously knocks over your trash can.

General Patton would have wholeheartedly endorsed such a tactical maneuver.

Automation can be fun and help break up the boredom we will all be living through in the not so distant future.

Just think about it. The price of automation might well mean a better life, without those tedious chores and escalating neighbourhood robotic brawls as we all sit in our automated massage reclining chairs – bought online at WalMart of course – and then use an app to have the City come and clean up the mess.