An increasing number of workers fear their jobs will be replaced by robots….and they will be. Robots don’t get bored, need vacations, have kids to be driven to football practice or sick family members, and make less careless errors. We will more than likely see fewer humans hired for such jobs as food preparers and servers, data entry, assembly, retail workers, clerks, transportation, astronauts, rescue workers, caregivers, drivers, legal and medical and pharmaceutical assistants, and more.
While this can seem depressing to many folks, remember that any time in American history there was a major invention, thousands of new jobs cropped up in as a result. Not too long after the turn of the last century, those in the horse and buggy industry had an opportunity to become part of the automobile industry when it was born; many railroad workers entered the airline industry shortly thereafter, and later on those in the radio business got to learn the television world, and so on. In actuality, we’ve been experiencing a phasing in of more machines and phasing out of humans over the past few decades: ATMs, self-service lines, virtual assistants, online shopping, and more. And with every loss there is a gain.
Smart people will look for how they can retrain, reinvent, envision an emerging need, or be a part of the myriad of ancillary businesses that robotics will create: design, engineering, testing, parts manufacturing, packaging of those parts, training, service and repair, management, and more. Further, arts and entertainment, sports, the food and beverage industry, travel, investments, and luxury products/services may flourish with the savings of time and money. Remember, robots can absorb many human tasks, but what they do not possess (yet) is imagination. Creativity. Self-expression. The human touch.
Imagine a world where robots handle a great many drudgeries and time-consuming tasks, and humans are free to live more stress-free, connecting on a deeper level with the gift of more time, freer to follow their dreams and visions. What if people were free to be and do what they truly want vs. what is “safe” or “secure”? There will still be doctors and lawyers and teachers and creative artists and parents and counselors and leaders. And they may operate at a much higher frequency.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein
Best of Health,
Dr. Nancy Irwin