Current robots are only able to replace people in very limited circumstances. And people don’t want to work in factories. They want more comfortable jobs. That is what happens when standards of living and education rise. All people everywhere aspire to better lives.
Rodney Brooks- Robot Engineer
Quick robot joke? A textile mill has been automated. The mill only has two employees: a man and a dog. The man is there to feed the dog. The dog is there to keep the man away from the machines. This joke in various forms is repeated in terms of the impact of automation and robotics on almost all types of work.[i] Like all jokes, there’s a grain of truth and even revelation in it.
Robot memes: Bots are coming. They’ve landed. They’re impacting all work. Bots will take over repetitive work. They may take or at least change your job. This has been a fear based meme since the Terminator movies.
To blunt robot and Terminator stereotypes, personal robots look laughably friendly to increase our acceptance of them and sound approachable. Think of Alexa and Siri bots. We’re pretty much used to their voices and what they can do. Robots may help our kids solve math problems. Cobots can work with us on critical decision making. Home bots can clean our homes. Factory bots can lift heavy objects and do our dangerous work. Bots can motor you around as you get older. Killer bots can fight our wars.
The tech friendly believe that robots will end repetitive work and create opportunities for creative work. There will be time to provide an individualized services such as school tutoring or working with the homeless. Work will be disrupted and give us more free time, but with fewer workers.
Work Lesson Earned: McKinsey Global Institute estimates that up to a third of the American workforce will have to switch to new occupations, not jobs, by 2030. Why? Tech disruption.
The reality is no one really knows what the robotic future will look like. Dystopia? Utopia? What I do know is that companies, governments, society, and VUCANs are not ready for the coming changes.
[i] .’Making it in America’, The Atlantic, January February, 2012.