Robby Gamble Essays (1075 words) - Automation, Factory, Free Essays

Robby Gamble Essays (1075 words) - Automation, Factory, Free Essays Robby Gamble Professor Kelly EH1102-024 9 March, 2017 Is a robotic takeover upon us? Would you believe me if I told you in the near future 70 percent of the occupations American youth are aspiring to fill will be replaced by automation? As outlandish as this claim may sound, history has proven it to be true. In the early 19 th century the majority of the American workforce was centered around farms . As time progressed and the Industrial Revolution came along, a plethora of new jobs were generated in factories, and based around the machinery produced in theses factories. Thus , many Americans left their jobs on farms and flocked to factories . "Today automation has eliminated all but 1 percent of [farmer's] jobs, replacing them, (and their work animals) with machines (Kelly 299)." This concept is the premise of what Kevin Kelly, an author, founding member, and senior maverick at Wired , discusses in his article "Better than Human: Why Robots Will-and Must- Take Our Jobs". Kelly believes that an automation takeover is unavoi dable, and through this takeover , humans will be further advanced as a species. While I do believe Kelly ' s argument holds truth and validity, I do no t necessarily believe this takeover will be completely beneficial to the human race, the time period in which this takeover supposedly will happen is up for debate . Kelly begins his article by discussing the various methods by which automation and artificial intelligence has and is already being integrated into the American work force. He gives an example of an AI name d B axter. There are three things that separate Baxter from different forms of automation; Baxter has eyes, so he can sense his surroundings making him less hazardous than other machinery; Baxter can be easily programmed, so it does not take a higher level of education to program him , it does not take long to program him , and he will consistently preform whatever task he is assigned; a nd finally, Baxter is less costly than AI that is similar to him . As Kelly moves forward in his argument, he shifts his focus from different forms of automation to the actual relationship humans have with automation. Kelly uses a visual aid to convey the human robotic relationship. His visual aid can be broken down into four quadrants: Jobs today that humans do-but machines will eventually do better, Current jobs that humans can't do but machines can, Robots jobs that we can't even imagine yet, and Jobs that only huma ns will be able to do- at first. His visual aid serves as an excellent method to explain his idea that robots will take over the jobs we currently have, and they will force us to create new jobs. This continuous cycle will allow humans to focus on art, music, and other creative outlets that define the essence of being human. Finally, Kelly closes his argument by giving his readers something similar to the five stages of grief, but it is seven stages long and focus on accepting robots replacing humans in the workplace. While I do support Kelly's claims I do not do so whole heartedly. Kelly fails to i nclude the fact that people from every day citizens to the president of the United States are already arguing that jobs are being shipped across seas and taken over by robots. With that being said, I do not believe it will be easy to further integrate artificial intelligence into the workplace on a large scale swiftly. I truly believe that survival is something that comes natura l l y to humans, so its unlike ly that robots have the potential to wipe humans off the face of the planet, however I do question the human ability to maintain a high level of creativity and innovation. Kelly is very optimistic about this cycle of creation; however, it is hard to determine how long originality will last. An example is found in modern music. Major artists, such as Kanye West, are guilty of sampling music created in previous generations to create new music. While some may argue that looking to the past for inspiration can