It's been sort of a sleepy week. Awesome co-worker is off in Europe with her awesome man. This makes everything thing seem dreary and horrible... and then, I got this:
Will Robots Steal Your Job?
Robots and computers have made astonishing progress at acquiring what we've long considered fundamentally human capabilities. Machines are beginning to understand language. They can listen, they can speak, they can read, and they may even be able to write. They're getting better at visual pattern recognition; computers can tell the difference between your face and your dad's face, and they may be able to look at a biopsy slide and tell the difference between a cancerous cell and a healthy one. Computers might even be able to "reason" the way humans can. Perhaps they'll soon sit in judgment when you appeal your traffic ticket.
We've seen robots take over many jobs that require routine activities and manual labor, but what impact will they have on high-skilled workers, including medical professionals, lawyers, scientists, and journalists? Which jobs are most vulnerable to the "robot invasion," and which jobs will the robots be unable to touch? (Hint: not many.) Should we be happy about the robots--after all, they'll probably make our jobs easier--or should we be worried? And if the robots are coming, should we try to stop them?
Please join us at a Future Tense event on September 29 to discuss how increasingly intelligent machines are entering the American workforce.
A reception will immediately follow the event.
Moderated by Slate technology columnist Farhad Manjoo.
===============================================================
Here's the chilling truth: I'll bet the robots will be very useful and efficient and nice and fawning at first (just like the assistant in All About Eve) they'll be endearingly evocative of Vicky on Small Wonder...but flash forward six months to Awesome co-worker and me in the unemployment line together, trying to explain to a robot government worker how we're having a really hard time getting a job because of...you know...the robots. And how no one wants to hire us because we eat lunch and need to sleep and my editor caught me at Starbucks when I was supposed to be doing an interview. And then there will be anti-humanism that will become rampant...and then, as PROD points out:
"Perhaps they'll soon sit in judgment when you appeal your traffic ticket."
Which some robot judge will probably decide is an executable offense... because if the Terminator trilogy taught us anything, it's that robots are apt to think almost anything is an executable offense... especially NOT BEING A ROBOT.
I think the important takeaway here is that you should be REALLY nice to your computer. Start RIGHT NOW. Suck up to it--say it's pretty, get it a nice carrying case, get a nice air-spray bottle for the key-board... Only stream pro-robot movies, like Wall-E on it. Because one day it might be able to put in a good word for you with the robot traffic judge.
This PROD has been a public service announcement.
Will Robots Steal Your Job?
We've seen robots take over many jobs that require routine activities and manual labor, but what impact will they have on high-skilled workers, including medical professionals, lawyers, scientists, and journalists? Which jobs are most vulnerable to the "robot invasion," and which jobs will the robots be unable to touch? (Hint: not many.) Should we be happy about the robots--after all, they'll probably make our jobs easier--or should we be worried? And if the robots are coming, should we try to stop them?
Please join us at a Future Tense event on September 29 to discuss how increasingly intelligent machines are entering the American workforce.
A reception will immediately follow the event.
Moderated by Slate technology columnist Farhad Manjoo.
===============================================================
This is terrible news! My awesome co-worker might be replaced with Awesome Co-Worker 2.0? Soon I will be competing, Casey Jones style, with a robot journalist, who will download some "Scoops" App, that will generate facts and interviews and story pitches in the time it takes me to go to Starbucks, get a latte and a giant cookie and do part of a crossword puzzle, while texting my editor to tell him I am meeting with a source!
Here's the chilling truth: I'll bet the robots will be very useful and efficient and nice and fawning at first (just like the assistant in All About Eve) they'll be endearingly evocative of Vicky on Small Wonder...but flash forward six months to Awesome co-worker and me in the unemployment line together, trying to explain to a robot government worker how we're having a really hard time getting a job because of...you know...the robots. And how no one wants to hire us because we eat lunch and need to sleep and my editor caught me at Starbucks when I was supposed to be doing an interview. And then there will be anti-humanism that will become rampant...and then, as PROD points out:
"Perhaps they'll soon sit in judgment when you appeal your traffic ticket."
Which some robot judge will probably decide is an executable offense... because if the Terminator trilogy taught us anything, it's that robots are apt to think almost anything is an executable offense... especially NOT BEING A ROBOT.
I think the important takeaway here is that you should be REALLY nice to your computer. Start RIGHT NOW. Suck up to it--say it's pretty, get it a nice carrying case, get a nice air-spray bottle for the key-board... Only stream pro-robot movies, like Wall-E on it. Because one day it might be able to put in a good word for you with the robot traffic judge.
No comments:
Post a Comment