I'll give you a couple of examples:
Amazon. in their storehouses, where they used to hire so many employees, now there are these quite smart robots doing their jobs instead. I mean, this is a very great deal for the company: robots work 24 hours a day without complaining, they don't have to deal with hiring people, they don't have to deal with workers wanting to sue them, and they don't have to pay salaries. I personally think that this is a great idea and I agree with the use of technology to make things better, but what happens with the workers? We'll talk about that in a bit.
Amazon again. Right this moment in San Francisco, they are starting to test something called "Amazon Prime Air". Its a system that delivers your purchase to your house through drones. Very shortly, they'll be flying all United States for delivers instead of a person, like it is right now. Of course, once other companies realize the benefits in this, they're gonna start doing the same sooner or later. Well, I wonder whats gonna happen with the delivery people.
Apple. Many know the problems that this company has faced for having people in China working over hours every time that they have a launching date. Everyone also knows that almost everything is Made in China, precisely because of the massive population, the wages are ridiculously low. What an advantage for companies from other countries who wouldn't have half their profits if they had to hire people in their own countries. Anyways, not so long ago I saw Apple's Mac Pro advertisement video. I believe its their only product Made in Usa, but it doesn't mean that they have hired loads of employees. They do have their scientists and engineers of course, but mostly the Mac Pro is made by robots. Again, humans are substituted. I know that its pretty amazing what they can do, and nowadays there's an incredible amount of industries that work basically with machines, but I have the feeling that if Apple is starting to do this with one product, whats gonna stop them to do so with all of them? Its still ok, but what happens when all other companies just start replacing people with robots? Nowadays there are only a few companies that could afford this, but technology becomes more affordable with time. So where does that leave us?
Just like these companies I mentioned, many others are starting or have already started the same path. In fact, on a daily basis we can see this happening around us. We might not see robots, but we do see machines doing the job that a human used to do. Like when you pay in the parking lot, for example. This machine can perfectly do what a person could: receive money, take your ticket, etc. There must be hundreds of other examples like this one. Every day we become more and more perfectly replaceable.
It's difficult to tell if one agrees with it. I, for example, like technology. Not in a "i'm obsessed with it way", just in a "i like it"way. I think its wonderful the things that humans have created in so little time. If it wasn't because of technology, we wouldn't be able to travel from one place to another in a matter of hours, or I wouldn't be sitting writing on this laptop. I'm not even saying that I don't want things to progress, its just I cant help but being against the fact that, apart from the fact that some countries are only overcoming the recession, which created loads of unemployment, now we have to face with industries also firing employers over some machine. Yes, its confortable and a great deal for the people with companies, but doesn't it mess with the order of things? It's frightening to even think where this could go. And yes, some unemployed must have marched to another company, but soon enough they'll be replaced as well. Some other lucky ones, maybe started their own business or even found a better job, but thats only a few. Some people will make it, and others wont.
Someone recently told me what he thought about this and left me thinking. His believe is that companies are using robots in order for the employees to be motivated to become engineers or aim higher. Ok, I think thats cool. But on the other hand, what happens if these thousands of people start becoming engineers? Companies can only hire a few, not hundreds. Also, people who study more are supposed to get better wages. Or at least thats how its supposed to work, right? Ok, but what happens if the demand of engineers in the world is too high? The wages lower, of course. And what would you have to do to be better than those other thousands? You have to pay masters or phds or whatever, and we all know that they can be pretty expensive. And that only to gain a shitty wage? I mean, we already live in a competitive world where what I just talked about is already happening, and its only getting worse. It's a bloody jungle out there.
Fortunately, some countries are taking these matters at hand implementing laws in which its ilegal to have a certain percentage or amount of robots. I call that human rights, and all countries should start doing the same before its too late.
Anyways, here I leave you something to think about and would love to hear your say in it.
ps: I'll leave you here some of the videos so you see what I'm talking about
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