Remember the Will Smith movie I Robot? Could something like that happen in real life? Will robots take our jobs? Will robots take over the world?
Some experts say 30% of human jobs will be taken by robots by 2025. That’s just 10 years from now. They’re baking cookies in Massachusetts and tending to the sick in California. You may say, “They’re just going to take minimum wage and menial jobs. They’re not coming into my cushy office space.” Don’t be so sure of yourself. These same experts say that by the 2030s, robots will have the same mental, social and emotional capabilities as human beings! So white-collar jobs are on the line, in the same way blue collar and minimum wage jobs are. Careers in journalism, marketing, surgery, and accounting are being threatened by robots and super smart computers. But not everyone is screaming doom and gloom. Other experts say the robot revolution will just kill old jobs and create new ones. Some say this could make the job market better. It’s being called the Second Machine Age, comparing it to the 19th century Industrial Revolution. Then, the job stage shifted from agriculture and farming to industry and factories. Are we witnessing another job stage shift?
Obviously, I wasn’t around during the Industrial Revolution. But I doubt people were freaking out about those machines being smarter than human beings are. I’m sure they were concerned about jobs, but that’s about it. That’s the difference between the Industrial Revolution and the Second Machine Age. We are literally competing with robots and computers for jobs. What’s to stop an employer from saying, “I don’t have to pay that robot very much. That robot makes far less mistakes than John Smith or Jane Jones.” What if companies all over America and around the world do that? I’m not exactly seeing how this will improve the job market when we’re going to be competing against machines. I’m starting to see it in every day life. Instead of going to a store clerk for check-out, I can now go to a kiosk or machine. I’ve heard people say, “Well, the machine doesn’t give me rude service or back talk.” That brings another issue. Has the human race fallen so bad that we would rather have robots serving our needs?