Oops This is a Call for Action for the United States of America and the West. We are in the early precipice of a nonlinear transformation in industrial society, but the bedrock the US is standing on is shaky. Automation and robotics is currently undergoing a revolution that will enable full-scale automation of all manufacturing and mission-critical industries. These intelligent robotics systems will be the first ever additional industrial piece that is not supplemental but fully additive– 24/7 labor with higher throughput than any human—, allowing for massive expansion in production capacities past adding another human unit of work. The only country that is positioned to capture this level of automation is currently China, and should China achieve it without the US following suit, the production expansion will be granted only to China, posing an existential threat to the US as it is outcompeted in all capacities. This is the manufacturing playing field that China has dominated for years now. The country has one of the most competitive economies in the world internally, where they will naturally achieve economies of scale and have shown themselves to be one of most skilled in high-volume manufacturing, at the same time their engineering quality has grown to be competitive in several critical industries at the highest level. This has already happened in batteries, solar, and is well underway in EVs. With these economies of scale, they are able to supply large developing markets, like Southeast Asia, Latin America, and others, allowing them to extend their advantage and influence. The impact of this in robotics will be exponential compared to their last strategic industry captures. These will be robotics systems manufacturing more robotics systems, and with each unit produced the cost will be driven down continuously and the quality will improve, only strengthening their production flywheel. This will repeat ad infinitum and as quality inevitably increases it will make it extraordinarily difficult for other countries to compete. Due to the fact that robotics is a general purpose technology, this will have horizontal impacts on all manufacturing sectors and all other currently advantaged industries as well–textiles, electronics, consumer goods, etc. At the moment, the West is caught flatfooted: South Korea and Japan have a birth rate crisis that is throttling their manufacturing capabilities, European industrial sectors are being eaten alive by China and their inability to generate power, and the US is focused on other markets and procuring cheap overseas production, all the while China’s manufacturing capacity has gotten stronger and robotics is catching fire. https://semianalysis.com/2025/03/11/america-is-missing-the-new-labor-economy-robotics-part-1/ A temp implosion in real estate and even demographics can be shook off like a cold as long as Xi is piling on full R&D + espionage into the Civ tech tree. So much lib and con tears in the making, but at least both can take credit pwning each other with the taste of salt made in china. I can already imagine the predictable basic biden b**** response from not reading the entire article.
Devil’s advocate… The world's most advanced chips are made in TWN and SKorea, not China, and the U.S. is doubling down on bringing this manufacturing back home. America remains the top destination for the best engineers, AI researchers, and entrepreneurs. China faces some major structural problems itself - its workforce is shrinking (thanks to the one-child policy), its economy is showing cracks, and it still relies on the West for high-end manufacturing equipment and tools. But… The U.S. needs to NOT drive talent away with its policies (brain drain is happening), screw its own workforce by shrinking it (anti-immigration policies), screw itself by gutting R&D (slashing R&D funding across federal agencies), or screw itself by failing to invest in education (or destorying it for the mass).
NVDA annouced the Blackwell (Generative AI) chip in 2024. In Jan 2025, China revealed that it has a lo-cost alternative to Blackwell. think before you cut n paste false narratives as China doesn't even mfg chips, regenerative AI chips that is
It's really about the math. Couching it in MAGA or progressive terms doesn't really help the situation. Here, we're more ambivalent on the role of automation and "light's-out factories" while assuming it's in sci-fi or near future. Out of hubris, we think we can sit back and pontificate about the ethics of the situation due to our best engineers, researchers, and entreprenuers. As for what "the situation" is, ofc it's whatever sci-fi summer blockbuster movie or streaming show that gave us pause...Maybe some weird or scary dystopian **** Elon or Sam Altman throws out. Semianalysis is very reputable among the semiconductor industry circles. I recommend reading it before commenting further.
war mongers like @Buck Turgidson and @No Worries have no idea. If China wanted Taiwan through war, it would be theirs.
