While it's not particularly local, the news that Amazon.com has agreed to purchased warehouse robotics manufacturer Kiva Systems for $775 million should be alarming to anyone who fears the inevitable robot uprising. Amazon, which is of course known for its paper-eliminating and small business-destroying products, purchased the Massachusetts-based logistics technology company in order to replace many of the worker bees stuck with menial packing and shipping jobs and generally "improve efficiency" in the warehouses.
To be fair, working in Amazon's massive warehouse facilities looks utterly mind-numbing. There have also been plenty of horror stories about life surrounded by endless stacks of corrugated cardboard in Amazon warehouses, some of which can reportedly get up to a sweltering 110 degrees. So maybe these plucky orange robots will be a welcome addition to those warehouse floors rather than a harbinger of doom. At least until one of them inevitably kills a human by clumsily knocking over a two-story shelf of personal massagers, that is.
