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MySpaceLegend t1_iy8a2nv wrote

Reply to comment by Reasonable_Basil5546 in How will the space economy alter society? by Gari_305

Off world manufacturing would probably be 100% automated, no people involved

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EmbarassedFox t1_iy8arf8 wrote

Who would repair the automated systems? Repair robots would also need to be repaired, at times.

People would likely be cheaper.

Edit: there is also the question of speed. Sending a message to mars at lightspeed takes about 8 minutes. That's 8 minutes of sending a "error" message, plus another 8 of sending a "reset" back, in the simplest of cases, meaning 16 minutes of lost revenue. On-site personnel is a quicker response.

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Johnny_Glib t1_iy8f7re wrote

Repair robots will repair each other.

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MrZwink t1_iy9o4ir wrote

Yes this will be it. And when the repair robot can't solve it. There wil probably be some fall back to a human with remote access.

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MySpaceLegend t1_iy8eqhi wrote

I'd imagine AIs would do all the management on-site. Repairs would be done by maintenence drones and bots. All humans need to do is send annual production quota and finished products are sent to earth orbit to be picked up. We're not talking near-near future here though. In maybe 80 years?

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Uvtha- t1_iy9d5tm wrote

They likely wouldn't ever break in a meaningful way. Thing generally break because of imperfect human design and oversight. The eventual AI that will be developed will likely be much more capable of designing and maintaining the tools needed to do the space labor. It would be monitoring everything 24/7 and fixing problems (with advanced AI designed robotics) before they happen. It all depends on how quickly AI develops, but human labor is not going to be a big part of the sci fi future. In fact humans may not be a big part of it at all.

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