A year ago when I talked to truck drivers they said ‘there’s no way a robot could do my job.’ This year they say, ‘We need to make robot trucks illegal’.
Andrew Yang – 2020 US Presidential Candidate
Last year, I was working on a suspense book, that had a smart killer toaster. Too cheeky. Well, read on.
I needed an IOT thing such as an office product or a killer toaster that could be hacked, cause a fire, and kill the occupants. Refrigerator was too big and couldn’t figure out how to make it into a killing machine. We know that smart reefers have smart tags to measure spoilage rates, what food to order automatically, and what food to toss due to its spoilage date. The toaster was a better choice because it could be accessible, hacked, short circuited, and cause a fire.
The bad news! Bots are coming sooner than expected. Intelligent machines will take over repetitive jobs within 5 years – a lot sooner than anyone predicted. Not good!
Homes, offices, buildings, and factories already full of smart machines (robots) are able to communicate with each other on their own. And this is not stopping. Tiny computers and systems will be embedded in objects such as the smart toaster, our clothes, or smart refrigerator. While, we have smart factories with robotic welders and pick/place robots. Smart buildings can automatically adjust the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning to individual rooms based on the number of VUCANs in the room. This is called the Internet of Things (IOT) or Internet of Everything.
The smart world will impact everything. Autonomous vehicles will be able to drive VUCANs in personal vehicles and deliver products. Autonomous pilots will fly cargo planes and a few years later commercial aircraft. What about passengers? Well, the online pilot much like trucks and a physician will provide the requisite peace of mind (think risk assurance) that a human is in charge
Work Lesson Earned: COVID changed everything. This is survival time for companies. Companies have to survive, innovate, invent, and compete. In much the same way, VUCANs will need to keep up and develop complementary, competitive skills.