Submitted by Pug124635 t3_11cgxzd in singularity
So I was reading the article and he says “If robots can build a house on land you already own from natural resources mined and refined onsite, using solar power, the cost of building that house is close to the cost to rent the robots. And if those robots are made by other robots, the cost to rent them will be much less than it was when humans made them.”
Well I work in housebuilding and this just makes no sense to me. I can’t understand what he means by using natural resources mined and refined on-site. How are you suppose to just get concrete, mdf board and wood etc mined and refined cheaply on site? 90% of sites are fields?
And it’s not necessary the labour that kills the cost of housing. It’s a lot cheaper as you can negotiate pricing as you offer the contractors more work as opposed to a one off job. It’s actually all the utilities, Roads and sewers that make the price so much.
So I was wondering if anyone else can expand on my points and explain what I’m missing?
DukkyDrake t1_ja39rli wrote
>How are you suppose to just get concrete, mdf board and wood etc mined and refined cheaply on site? 90% of sites are fields?
Although the chemical synthesis of concrete & wood is possible, I'm guessing he's probably referring to alternative synthetic materials superior to traditional building materials. That's the direction you would want to go if energy and labor was super cheap.
Exactly how things are done now isn't the only way to do them. There are much better materials possible via materials & chemical engineering, but they're thoroughly uneconomical due to energy/labor costs.
I don't agree with his assessment, unless he's talking about the scale of land ownership he has in the sticks.