They don’t necessarily look like we thought they would, but the robots are already among us. They give us directions when we’re driving. By 2015, Governor Deval Patrick recently announced, they will collect all tolls in Massachusetts. Apple’s personal assistant, Siri, might as well be an early prototype for protocol droids like C-3PO of “Star Wars.” The drones America’s sending into battle could be precursors to the robot army that rises up against humankind.
As robots get smarter and more competent, will we benefit? Robot wars aside, economists, at least, have assumed the answer is yes. The less menial work humans need to do, the more we can focus on the creative and flexible work that humans excel at—jobs that involve talking, listening, selling, inventing, choosing, designing. Most textbook economic models economists learn in school assume that when new-fangled machines drive growth, everyone ultimately benefits.
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The reality is that we've moved from a global business economy that's consumption driven (make more good stuff and hire) to one that's ROI driven (show me how I'm going to cut heads via this investment). So, you're either working for a company that delivers productivity enhancing products, you're being replaced by those products, or you're serving them a latte. The scary part of this is that innovative, productivity enhancing technologies will soon be coming largely from outside the US. Fundamentally that means that other nations that invest in their companies' developments will be producing products that eliminate jobs. A real double whammy.