When I was a kid, I was told that one day fast food jobs and other minimum wage jobs would be replaced by robots, taking jobs from humans. Were they right?
There’s a hospital in San Francisco that has me going paging Dr. Robot. There’s a robot named Tug who travels around University of California’s San Francisco hospital. Tug delivers medicine, clean linens, and meals to patients. Tug also cleans up patients’ trash, dirty sheets and medical waste. Tug travels up to 12 miles a day without needing any recharging. Tug also has company. By March 1, 2015, there will be 24 other medical robots, the largest fleet in any hospital in the world. Each Tug has a name, many after a fruit, some are named ‘Tuggy McFresh’ and ‘Little Tuggy’. Patients at this hospital can order Tug service on their devices. They deliver food from the kitchen to bedside. They deliver medicine from the hospital lab to bedside. They navigate their way through the hospital’s WiFi system. It uses waves to open doors and even board elevators. Did I mention Tug can carry 12 food trays at once? I’ve visited my fair share of hospitals, and I’ve never seen a human hospital staff worker do that.
Here’s the other thing: everyone seems to have respect for these robots. People are so quick to get out of their way. I think people have more respect for these machines than they do their fellow human being. That’s the awesome, but scary thing about Tug and other working robots. Many of us have seen movies and TV shows where robots turn on humans and obliterate them. If it ever comes to that, it will be way more subtle. They’ll just take jobs. Any employer can say, “Well, the robots are cheaper and do a better job and don’t cause as much headache.” Is this where we’re heading? Or am I just paranoid?