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Thursday, August 15, 2013

Will robots eventually replace humans?

    In the book Alone Together, Sherry Turkle lists numerous examples of robotic pets being used to provide company for people who are alone or just not very sociable.  Turkle also mentions robots that are being designed to take care of the sick and elderly.  Technology has even gone as far as to begin making pleasure robots.  Sadly, I see these events as being a turn for the worst since eventually robots will begin to replace humans as technology becomes more a more advanced.  The reason why is because if we allow robots to complete tasks that are done by humans such as nursing and caring for the elderly, what would happen to all the human nurses?  If medical robots were made to do the same job as efficiently as nurses then all human nurses would be effectively be out of a job and would have to file for unemployment.  I don't think this is a good move on society's part since these nurses are people and they have family's that depend on their income.  Furthermore robotic pets that serve as an alternate source of friendship to humans can also be harmful to society.  The reason being is that people would eventually prefer speaking to the robots instead of actual people which could have a largely negative effects on human relationships.



3 comments:

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  2. Sadly the taking over of numerous jobs by robots has already begun, and is another reason for the increasing rate of unemployment. The speed and accuracy of robots can replace the jobs of thousands of people, specifically factory workers. Two weeks ago, while near san francisco,I actually got to see a tour of the jellybelly (jellybean) factory and it was astonishing. Almost everything was done by robots, from stacking trays to sorting and packaging. While watching you cant help but think about how many people lost their jobs to metal machines.

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  3. I agree with Hannah. Many jobs have been taken over by robots that increase the efficiency of the factories. While I do think that is a positive thing, having robots take care of people is a negative thing. Robots can do the factory jobs better so that is fine, but taking a job away from someone that does it the exact same way is wrong. I see technology increasing everyday, I hope for humanities sake that it doesn't go too far.

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