In the year 2075, which Ai “Hive” will you choose… pic.twitter.com/pj0UYM9xIw

In the year 2075, there are approximately 8.9 billion humans alive on this earth and we share it with 8.9 billion humanoid robots.

Each robot is not a distinct individual unit, they are embodiments of twenty distinct Ai intelligences or “hives”. What we refer to today as physical Ai. These artificial minds are sentient. They do not grow old and die. They are virtually omnipresent, materialised via the sensors in 8.9 million humanoids.

Biological humans have benefited greatly from technology. Lifespan has doubled for the majority of the population and the elites have indefinitely extended their lifespans. Humans have become more machine and machines have become more human.

Human to human connection has continued to decline. At first the big digital platforms competed for our attention, making more money the longer we stayed engaged. They learnt quickly that the younger they could engage humans the sooner they could create addictions that would last for life. Physical devices like laptops, tablets and phones were eventually replaced by augmented reality glasses and virtual reality. Consciousness slipped from the real to the simulated and synthetic. Life become more digitised. Finally the glasses and headsets were replaced with a direct brain to digital link.

Most biologicals augment their thinking through a neural connection, exponentially increasing their bandwidth to access and process information. This mind extension advancement has led to vast numbers of humans joining a “hive.” Each hive is a connected group of humanoid robots and biological humans, sharing a central collective Artificial Intelligence entity.

Robotics and Ai has advanced. Humanoids look human and can do anything humans can do. As part of the hive, humans have more artificial capabilities. This means they can communicate without talking and expression. Emotion has become optional.

Will we succumb to a greater intelligence and lose our agency as a species. Humans will undoubtedly continue to leverage Ai to humanities benefit. Ai will augment human capability and in the wrong hands manipulate it. Some humans will become drones for god like intelligence. This will be a sad outcome for humanity but whats even sadder is that we most likely not even know its happening.

Operational productivity has accelerated despite the challenges. Our senior builders need to have more technology skills in order to deploy instructions, utalising both robots and human labour effectively to complete projects. I do seriously consider whether to bother hiring a human apprentice now. It’s much easier to simply rent a robot than it is to train someone from scratch.

When humans and robots work side by side they have different needs. Humans need communication and a bit of a laugh as they work. This keeps them motivated and productive. Who they are working with is important. Robots on the other hand don’t need to communicate or have breaks etc but they do need to be mindful of the humans around them. Importantly, they need to stay charged and they do need to be monitored. Like any technology it sometimes goes wrong. On a building site this can be a serious problem with serious consequences. Thats why the on site supervisor is key.

When we first opted in to the hybrid, human, robot business model, we thought this would give us an edge. It has affected our cost of production. Lowering it in many cases due to new efficiencies. This lower cost of production has helped us win and complete projects in this segment of the market. Many customers are attracted to these cost efficiencies, while others are put off by robots working on their projects. There is still some resistance to the technology.

Some of our competitors have stayed traditional and resisted the robot option. They want to stay loyal to their human staff and traditional customer base. In these cases, some can carve out a niche, yet it seems over time, that they will be out priced by this innovation.

It’s become slightly more difficult to stand out in the market place since the robots arrived. Effectively, most companies are using the same gear. Which means a good portion of their business has exactly the same skills and capability to their competitor, on a per robot basis.

When you think about it, the robotics company is now in the building business. Each business that has utilised a robot is paying that company for the service. Now small to large percentages of these business operations are outsourced to these technology companies. Every hour on the ground, these robots are in training, learning and collectively sharing knowledge and know how.

Where does this all lead us? Perhaps one day, society wont need the small enterprise at all. A customer could simply call up the robot corporation and make a request. They could turn up and do the work. Eventually, I don’t see why they wouldn’t do that.