Running head: THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

Sheniah Campbell
The Robots are Coming
November 3, 2014
Writing in a Digital World

THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

The Robots are Coming

In the beginning, the earth was filled with no electricity, no tools to work the fields or
portable moving objects that control themselves, but one can say that technology has advanced.
As time went on, people invented machines and tools to make the work load easier, so much
easier that it has made Americans lazy. The possibility of a mechanical object doing tedious
work, making coffee or filing paperwork seems like a swell idea, but what would happen to the
janitors, the garbage man, the mail man, the receptionist or even the waiter? Should they lose
their jobs? Technology is inevitable, but without proper precautions, America will enter a crisis
of unemployment with a high demand in programming and software design.
Look around. The new age of technology is booming everywhere. Many Americans
perceive these advances as luxury.
According to reporter Patrick
Thibodeau (2014), drones will be
a standard part of operations in
many industries, used in
agriculture, geographical surveys
and oil and gas pipeline
inspections. At any rate, drones
and robots would be the cause of
replacing a third of all workers by
2025 (Thibodeau, 2014). It will
drastically affect industries such as customer service, health care, transport and home
maintenance, the areas occupying high employment.

THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

Many people work on a day to day basis. They might not be the greatest jobs, but they
put food on the table, generate
money to pay bills and even
help people live comfortable
lives. However, in the near
future, capable humans will
find themselves [being]
unemployable through no
fault of their own (Grey,
2014). The occupations with
the highest number workers
are the fields of transportation, retail, and cashier just to name a few. According to Figure 2,
transportations stands at the top consisting of 3,000,000 plus workers. With the implementation
of the self-driving car, what would happen to truck drivers, taxi drivers or chauffeur? The
occupations with the highest demand are at a great risk, however, they are not the only ones that
are going to be affected by this technological era.
According to Elon University School
of Communications, one of the internet experts
explained that [r]obots and AI will
increasingly replace routine kinds of work
even the complex routines performed by
artisans, factory workers, lawyers, and
accountants. Even those working in blue collar

THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

and administrative positions are not safe. Regardless of what education background people
obtain, they should have the opportunity to work. If not, there will be numerous of people on
social assistance. Aside from that, people are not interested in programming or have the
education and would have little hope of gaining the skills needed to obtain meaningful
employment in the future (Thibodeau, 2014).

THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

References

Elon University School of Communications. (2014). The 2014 survey: impacts of AI and
robotics by 2025. Imagining the InternetHistory and Forecast. Retrieved from
http://www.elon.edu/eweb/imagining/surveys/2014_survey/2025_Internet_AI_Robotics.xhtml
Grey, C.G.P. (2014, August 13). Humans Need Not Apply [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
Thibodeau, P. (2014). One in three jobs will be taken by software or robots by 2025. Retrieved
from http://www.computerworld.com/article/2691607/one-in-three-jobs-will-be-takenby-software-or-robots-by-2025.html