The Machines Are Coming By Zeynep Tufekci

Robots can effect employment in a negative way,as said by the author Kelly “It may be hard to believe… 70 percent of today’s occupation will likewise be replaced by automation...even you will have your job taken away by machines”(Kelly Page.300), this quote comes to show the negative aspect of robots taking over the world in the near

In today’s America, with robots on the rise, many people are feeling as if machines are threatening their jobs, and therefore their income, way of life, and basic stability. This is not an unreasonable fear. In 2013, Carl Frey and Michael Osborne with the University of Oxford predicted at as many as half the jobs in the United States could be automated within the next twenty years (Frey and Osborne). Even in the 1930s, economists such as John Maynard Keynes, the creator of Keynesian economics, predicted that technological developments could create economic climate that allows for a 15-hour work week with plenty of free time for the average American worker by the year 2030 (Thompson). The American workforce is shifting towards this prediction

In a 2012 article, Kevin Kelly the executive editor of Wired, pose the statement "Why Robots Will- and Must- Take Our Jobs." In the article, he states that robots need to take over our jobs because in the future there will be more complex tasks that humans will need. Humans are known to show compassion, unlike robots. In addition, Kelly mentioned "this is not a race against the machines. If we were against them, we lose. This is a race with the machines." (311) On one hand, I agree that we are in a race against them. On the other hand, we are racing against them and not with them.

The article ‘Rise of the Machines’ is Not a Likely Future (2015), Michael Littman addresses the issue and worries that people have with regards to technology. The article attempts to persuade readers to believe that there is no need to fear technology as it is just not possible that they can overtake humanity. Zeynep Tufekci touches on the issue of machines taking over jobs of human, titled “The Machines are Coming (2015)”. She attempts to argue that there is no need to reject or blame technology for taking over jobs at the workplace. Littman’s argument is stronger than Tufekci as he provided logical reasoning due to a well balanced structure with consideration of opposable viewpoints with substantial evidence and effective usage of Pathos to appeal to the reader. Tufecki’s argument is weak due to the lack of evidence and her claim was only brought in at the end of her article which makes it seem very lop-sided.

We think of computers as being incredibly intelligent now, but actually in terms of brain power an average computer today has the intelligence of a mouse. According to Moore’s Law, computing power doubles every 18 months. In other words, it increases at an extreme rate. The rapid pace of change brings fear into the eye of a technophobe and some of today’s most eminent scientists are now warning that the evolution of technology may spell the end of humankind. Even now, the greatest threat to job creation is the increasing reliance on robotics in industrial factories. Jobs that have traditionally provided a living for millions of people are quickly being turned over to a highly efficient and cost-effective robotic

In an age where technology is so advanced that robots replace humans in the workplace, it is no surprise that increasingly fewer Americans are considered full-time employees. While proponents of advancement argue that technology adds a high level job for every low level job it takes away, low class manufacturing jobs will not be the only newly-automated jobs. Due to rapid advancement, computers are projected to be one thousand times more powerful in the 2030s than computers today (McChesney and Nichols, 2016, 246). With these improvements, no human’s job is safe.

The debate over whether robots are helping or hurting the workplace is more heated than ever. Advances in technology are soaring thus making an increase in the use of robots in the workplace more and more commonplace. Some believe the use of robots in the workplace can never totally result in the loss of jobs, but due to the fact that robots have invaded the workplace environment, many people fear this indicates replacement of human jobs. Although advancement in technology of robotics and artificial intelligence may offer precision, productivity, efficiency and flexibility, the loss of human jobs will be devastating to the many people who depend on their jobs to make a living and provide for their families.

In “Better Than Human,” Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick of Wired Magazine, insists that automation will allow us to become more human. When society grants automation the permission to complete the most menial tasks, it will allow individuals trapped in dead-end careers such as fastening bolts onto cars, to search for their true passions which only humans can accomplish. More people will be able to pursue jobs that robots, for now, can not complete with ease. Kelly believes that as artificial intelligence and the creators of it advance, more jobs will be created to fulfill society's growing needs. The simple tasks of assembling new machinery can be completed by the already established automation; while the job of developing software that controls

Can anyone imagine a factory rid of workers and filled with robots? In the course of the next few decades it may be possible and technology replacing the jobs of hardworking people in the U.S. is an all-around controversial topic. Eventually, it will be an epidemic that will need to be resolved in the near future. Even though it may seem impossible, the age of new technology and no humans is coming.

Currently, there are jobs that robots can do better than humans, such as weaving and car manufacturing (Kelly 306). Again, when those machines first came to fruition, they eliminated human jobs, but then created jobs. Additionally, there are jobs that humans simply cannot do without robots such as making computer chips (Kelly 306). Looking toward the future, Kelly concludes that if we collaborate with machines and allow them to take over, we will “let them help us dream up new work that matters” (Kelly 312).

An American futurist Thomas Frey, made a prediction that robots will have taken over two billion jobs worldwide by 2030. (Gillis, p.480) In “The Robot Invasion” by Charlie Gillis, the topic of the article is how robots are becoming more apparent in people’s everyday lives. The author is skeptical about the robots that scientists have been creating to become more like people. As well as, informative of the newest products roboticists have been making, which has been to create robots to do small tasks and have human characteristics. (Gillis, C. p.477-481)

One of the biggest controversies with the advancement of artificial intelligence is the debate on job automation. Many people believe that artificial intelligence will advance to become better than humans and replace humans in most jobs. The opposite belief is that AI will be used to improve the standard of living and will be a tool to support humans, not replace them. Job automation has many benefits such as performing more dangerous jobs and complete tasks that humans do not desire to do. Even though job automation has benefits, there are many people who believe robots will take over the job market and the unemployment rate will skyrocket. There are multiple supporting factors for each side of the job automation debate, but the argument will never be settled until AI is further advanced and utilized.

While that dystopian future may seem rather extreme, a more modest proposal would follow that robots may not be eating babies, but they uncertainly threaten the value of our time within a workplace. Machines, to many companies, are a

In a recent study(pdf), economists Daren Acemoglu of MIT and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University try to quantify how worried we should be about robots. They examine the impact of industrial automation on the US labor market from 1990 to 2007. They conclude that each additional robot reduced employment in a given commuting area by 3-6 workers, and lowered overall wages by 0.25-0.5%. (Kopf)

If you think robots are the kind of thing you hear about in science-fiction movies, think again. Right now, all over the world, robots are performing thousands of tasks. They are probing our solar system for signs of life, building cars at the General Motors plants, assembling Oreo cookies for Nabisco and defusing bombs for the SWAT team. As they grow tougher, more mobile, and more intelligent, today’s robots are doing more and more of the things that humans can’t or don’t want to do and in many cases taking away the need for human labor.