People used to hunt and gather to survive, however, being smart and lazy, they invent various tools to make work easier. In the present day, in agriculture, there is almost no one needed to make food. For thousands of years, people are inventing tools to ease labor in all spheres of life. Mechanical muscles are more strong and reliable than humans, and the replacement of people by mechanisms in physical work allows society to specialize in intellectual work, develop economics and raise the standards of living.
The modern level of robotic automation is immeasurably high, and the new kind of general-purpose robots is already created. Baxter is a robot that does not have a set of specific commands to execute; it has vision and can repeat any process after a human (“Humans need not apply,” 2014). Self-riding cars that do not need any human assistance are designed to be better than humans and decrease the number of road accidents. Mechanical minds are cost-effective, fast, and accurate. In the near future robots may replace people doing low-skill jobs, like cashiers in supermarkets and baristas.
As economics is interested entirely in profits, mechanical minds may replace people, like horses were replaced by mechanical muscles in the past. Not only low-skill workers but intellectual and creative professionals may be gradually substituted by bots as well. Bots, artificial programs, are currently able to teach themselves, they do not make human mistakes, accurately analyze large amounts of information in a short time, or write music. They may substitute such significant professions as lawyers and doctors.
People have experienced technological revolutions in the past, however, the modern robot revolution will result in the extinguishment of many jobs performed by people. Progress is inevitable, and society should focus on the problem of a significant number of unemployed people in the future.
Reference
CGP Grey. (2014). Humans need not apply [Video file]. Web.