Robot ships

This Wired piece (which reads a bit like a PR statement from Rolls Royce) tells us that

autonomous systems [i.e. personless] are going to make their way into large vessels in the near future, and VTT and Rolls-Royce are already working on the first round of systems, which initially include remote controls that can be commanded from the bridge or on land.

“In terms of the technology required, operating a container vessel by remote control is already a real possibility,” VTT says in a release. “However, before fully unmanned vessels can be launched on seas, widespread public approval is also required.”

This fantasy -of a sterile industrial space- without humanity reminds me of Frederic Jameson’s reading of Capital: 

Capital is not a book about politics and not even a book about labor: it is a book about unemployment.

The reserve army of the unemployed and the robot – are they the highest stage of capitalism?

(h/t to Daniel Lowe for alerting me to this item)