Randy Johnson
21st Century Wire
The future is coming and technology is coming with it. Are we adapting to the future or holding on to “the old ways”? Is a future of technology with circuit boards, screens, and machines something that can be weaponized or used to shape and control society… no different than gunpowder, nuclear energy, and marketing?
To many, often considered great minds, technology and artificial intelligence has had an ominous role in science fiction in film and literature. George Orwell, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark, and Philip K. Dick are some of the giants of this genre. Their work has inspired countless Hollywood movies and television programs and can often get someone wondering if life is imitating art, or vice versa. Another option is that nearly everything has an element of design all along.
ANDROID AFFAIR: Big business and robotics (Image Source: WikiCommons)
As far back as the 1927 film Metropolis, robotics, class segregation, industry, and even humanity itself, appear on a collision course. Some might even argue that humanity, technology, and robotics, are already into an integration phase.
Since then we know the not all inclusive list of characters. The Space Odyssey 2001’s HAL 1000, Star Wars’ “human cyborg relations” C-3PO, Blade Runner’s Nexus 6 Replicants, and the infamous Terminator.
HOLLYWOOD REALITY: 1980s science fiction comes to life (Image Source: WikiCommons)
Martin Ford, author of Rise of The Machines, is a highly sought after speaker across the globe. He is often utilized as a consultant, for corporations and industries with regards to robotics. In the 2015 Business Book of The Year, in his acceptance speech Ford stated “Even people that do everything they are supposed to do [to get a good job] may find it difficult to get a foothold in the economy.”
Piling on to the prospects of a bleak future, Wired Magazine states, “Oxford University researchers have estimated that 47 percent of U.S. jobs could be automated within the next two decades. And if even half that number is closer to the mark, workers are in for a rude awakening.”
The impact of robotics in industry and its effects in the workforce has also been reported on here at 21st Century Wire.
It is a foreboding thing to contemplate, but are we being outsourced?
A robot will not call in sick or ask for a wage increase. It will not fight with others—unless programmed to. It will not complain, throw a fit, collect unemployment, leave early, or join the workers union to fight the corporation. Once integrated and a part of industry, it will save money. It will not require an annual review. When it becomes irrelevant to newer technology, it will be replaced.
Getting to a robotic future will even “create new jobs” no doubt. A small industry of technicians and favored class of people who monitor, fix, and improve the technology could hold the coveted jobs for those selected and chosen to deserve them.
Too far away? Not in our lifetime?
Watch the below video of Boston Dynamic’s 5’9” 180 pound Atlas robot interact with its surroundings and perform the labor its makers designed it to do.
READ MORE ON ROBOTS: 21st Century Wire Robot Files
