Invasion of the robots
In the not-too-distant future, 50% of all jobs in America and Britain will disappear. What does this mean for us?
Do you remember the film Wall-E? The Disney/Pixar classic gave us a glimpse of a near future where human beings are waited upon by a servant underclass of robots. This makes people so lazy that they get too fat to move around on their own. All jobs, except those involving leadership, are taken over by robots. Furthermore, society seemingly functions without any form of currency.
This may be something we will have to debate at some point in the future, and perhaps that future is not too distant.
The Bank of England believes that in the next 10 to 20 years, robots will take over 50 per cent of all jobs in America and Britain. Some 95 million jobs will become redundant as automation becomes the industry standard. The bank estimates that administrative, clerical, and production-related jobs will be the first to go, though humans will always hold the advantage of adaptability over robots.
A recent Oxford study found that loan officers, receptionists, paralegals, salespeople, drivers, security guards, fast food cooks, and bartenders will find their jobs under threat as robots begin to dominate the job market.
So what does that mean for us? After all, Malaysia does have access to the technology of the first world. Sooner or later, our employers will realise that while getting a robot is expensive, it will probably be easier to manage and retain than a human being. Additionally, maintaining and servicing a robot will probably be cheaper in the long run than keeping a human employee.
The robotics revolution will begin with baby steps here, and then proceed at full sprint as employers realise they have to catch up with the rest of the world. That leaves us with the moral dilemma of what to do with our people.
In a future powered by robotics, the idea of work becomes vague. There will be few uniquely human skills with the advent of specialised robots, and many of us will eventually be threatened by unemployment. Webbmedia Group founder Amy Webb speculated that even marketers, journalists and lawyers would soon be replaced.
This revolution will be a completely different beast from the industrial revolution, where it was merely demanded that workers raise their skill levels. In this revolution, robots will simply replace workers and do their work more efficiently. There will be no boom for jobs as would usually occur with large-scale industrialisation.
A robot with the right software could probably even outperform the leader of any nation in administrative tasks as there would be no ego or politics standing in the way.
So, ahead of us lie several paths. On one path we, like the people of Wall-E, discard capitalism as we know it and live in a pampered state, which could result in our turning into blobs. On another path, we cling desperately to the capitalist ship even as an unfed and angry underclass is driven to the streets by a lack of jobs, possibly sparking a violent revolt. On yet another path, we have a restructuring of society into a sort of Utopia, where man’s sole purpose is to improve his mind and his culture.
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What most futurists see, however, is a Blade Runner type of future, with sharp societal divisions and an unease with robotics.