Would life be better if robots did all the work? (Research)

After reading below information I hope you get all information about would life be better if robots did all the work? Since the early 1960s, when robotic arms began to replace car employees on the production line, robots have been looming large over the future of employment.

More robots, according to optimists, would boost productivity and economic growth, whereas pessimists worry that automation will eliminate employment opportunities for large segments of the labor force.

Each has a valid point, but another angle on this trend seems to be here to stay. What if both sides are correct? What if jobs are completely obsolete as robots perform more of the labor humans once did and did it much more effectively than humanity ever did? What if the robots produce more than everyone requires in the end?

One of the more intriguing scenarios envisioned in a recent Pew Research research on the relationship between robots and jobs is the redefinition of work itself.

Undoubtedly, the idea of a robot-powered, post-scarcity future with required mass leisure seems far-fetched and, even then, an extreme situation. It frequently appears more difficult for humans to ensure that everyone has enough in the present than it was for them to produce enough in the first place.

However, many people might have much more free time if the future is anything like Star Trek rather than Blade Runner. In that event, robots won’t only be stealing our jobs but also pushing us to face a significant existential question: what would we do if we weren’t required to work any longer?

The solution is a quantitative and qualitative exercise in defining what distinguishes natural intelligence from artificial intelligence, a description that appears to be getting more specific. Ultimately, we might realize that a roboticized world without jobs is even worse than it seems.

Would life be better if robots did all the work?

Let’s flip this question around and ask, “What would you do if you did no work?” rather than “What would people do if robots did all the work?” The solution is obvious; some people will gain weight, use drugs, and pass away at age 50, while others will excel at fishing or playing the guitar. The great normalization has always been the workplace! Throw all dangerous quirks of people into a 40–50 hour workweek job where they must now sleep on schedule, wake up on time, eat on time, be productive, clean their clothes, etc. If you take that away, people with less-than-healthy minds will swiftly rot. Oh, and it won’t be a utopia any more than automation has improved things now, leading to fewer jobs, lower pay, more monopolies, and less influence on the populace.

What Happens to Society When Robots Replace Workers?

By replacing human muscle, the technologies of the past raised the value of human labor, accelerating economic growth. Future technologies that replace man’s senses and brain will hasten this process but at the danger of producing millions of people who cannot contribute economically and further harming the middle class, which is already in decline.

Although estimates of the overall rates of technical advancement are never exact, it is reasonable to assume that progress was slower in the past.

The historian Henry Adams estimated that between 1840 and 1900, power output quadrupled every ten years or a compounded rate of advancement of around 7 percent per year. He did this by measuring technological progress by the amount of power produced from coal. The actual amount was probably far lower.

For instance, the world record for rail speed was 60 miles per hour in 1848. A century later, commercial aircraft could carry people at speeds close to 600 mph, representing only a 2 percent annual advancement.

Progress nowadays, however, happens quickly. Think about the statistics for computer memory’s information storage density. These densities rose by a factor of five million between 1960 and 2003, sometimes at a pace of 60 percent annually.

Meanwhile, by Moore’s Law, semiconductor technology has been advancing at a 40% pace for over 50 years. These development rates are important for developing intelligent devices, including robots, cars, and drones, which will quickly take over the global economy and dramatically reduce the value of human labor.

Because of this, we’ll soon be faced with hordes of people without economic worth. The biggest issue for free market economies in this century will be figuring out how to deal with the effects of this evolution.

Consider Foxconn, the largest contract manufacturer in the world, if you have any doubts about the advancement of worker-replacing technology. In China, it has more than a million employees.

The company installed 10,000 Foxbots, or robots, in 2011. The corporation is currently installing them at a pace of 30,000 per year. Robots are employed to complete repetitive tasks, including spraying, welding, and assembly. Each robot costs roughly $20,000.

The CEO of Foxconn, Terry Gou, stated during his annual meeting on June 26, 2013, “We have over one million workers. We’ll hire one million robot laborers in the future. Naturally, the business will refrain from recruiting the subsequent million human workers.

Consider what a Foxbat may soon be capable of if Moore’s Law holds and performance increases continue at 40% annually. Five hundred units of the $22,000 Baxter robot, which recently received a software upgrade, are made annually.

In a few years, a 10,000-unit Baxter that is far smarter may be made for less than $5,000. Even the lowest-paid employees in the least developed nations might not be able to compete at that price.

Undoubtedly, workers have always been displaced as technology advances. However, it has also accelerated the creation of new work prospects for people. Given that the Internet of Things removes the human element from so many decisions and transactions, things could turn out to be very different this time.

We are living in the “Second Economy,” as economist Brian Arthur referred to the economic sector where computers only do business with other computers. It is simply the “virtual economy,” and one of its primary outcomes is the replacement of workers with clever machines driven by sophisticated computer code.

This vibrant Second Economy teems with upbeat businesspeople and has already given birth to a new generation of billionaires. The Second Economy, which is currently booming, will likely be the main driver of economic growth in the ensuing decades.

And now for much more alarming information: According to Arthur, this Second Economy could reach $7.6 trillion in size in 2025, just over ten years from now, which would be the size of the original “first” economy in 1995.

If the Second Economy does grow at that rate, it will eventually displace the jobs of about 100 million workers. To put that formation into viewpoint, consider that there are currently 146 million employed civilian laborers worldwide.

New jobs created in the Second Economy will replace a sizable portion of those that were lost. Not all of them, though. Up to 40 million citizens with no economic worth in the United States alone may have been left behind. There will be significant dislocations.

Assume that, in the present, the Second Economy’s robots and intelligent machines can only complete tasks that an individual with an IQ of 100, or middle intellect, would be able to complete. Consider that those machines’ technology advances at the present rate.

Let’s assume that this rate of technical advancement increases these machines’ IQ by 1.5 points a year. These machines will outsmart 90% of Americans in terms of intelligence by 2025. Another 50 million jobs would be within reach of intelligent robots thanks to the 15-point rise in IQ over ten years.

The first of those 115-point IQ gadgets is already here. The expertise of highly trained MDs is no longer required in some situations. The Sedasys device from Johnson & Johnson, which administers propofol to sedate patients without needing an anesthesiologist, received FDA approval in 2013.

Learn: Future of technology in 10 years

Computer-aided diagnosis is a new area in radiology (CADx). Additionally, a recent study by the Royal Society demonstrated that computers outperformed radiologists almost by a factor of 10 when consistently identifying radiolucency (the appearance of dark images).

Although politicians, economists, and scientists may argue over these specific numbers, doing so would miss the bigger picture. Work value is already significantly impacted by machine intelligence, and for large swaths of the population, human value is increasingly being established by the price of similar machine intelligence.

When even a genius like Henry Adams was having trouble keeping up with a 7 percent rate of progress, the problem today is maintaining progress rates of 40 to 60 percent.

Better training is the overly basic policy response. However, with this rate of advancement, reforming the educational system will always be too little, too late. Similar to artificially raising the minimum wage, doing so will merely hasten the day of reckoning by funding the development of machines that can perform human jobs.

David Brooks suggests that the government “double down upon human capital, from early education programs to community colleges and beyond,” “lower its generosity to individuals who are not working but raise its support for those who are,” and explore converting to a progressive consumption tax, and more.

However, even if his program were aggressively and successfully implemented, it might only be able to maintain a 40% rate of progress for a short period.

While Brooks’ recommendations only serve to expand government and increase command and control. And considering how slow the current government structure is, It’s hard to imagine how it could handle the constant flux in conditions.

Ultimately, we require a new, personalized, cultural perspective on the meaning of labor and the point of existence. Otherwise, as humans always do, someone will come up with a solution, though it might not be the one for which we started this technological revolution.

Will robots help make life better?

Robots can enhance our quality of life and make the world better, not by displacing people but by efficiently collaborating with them. Robotics has the potential to boost the economy and enhance our quality of life, according to researchers at MIT Sloan and CSAIL.

What if robots were able to perform human tasks?

In the next five years, 85 million jobs will be lost worldwide due to robotics and automation, Based to a 2020 World Economic Forum research. However, it also stated that the technologies would result in 97 million new jobs, most of which would require higher levels of education and ability.

What if robots could do the work of humans?

Robots produce work that is more precise and of higher quality. Robots are more accurate and rarely make mistakes than humans. They can create more in a shorter period. They can work continuously without pauses or taking time off for holidays.

Will robots replace humans one day?

Robots won’t replace humans, but they will help us become smarter and more effective. Over 77% of those surveyed think artificial intelligence (AI) would considerably speed up decision-making and increase worker productivity within the next 15 years.

Summary:

In a nutshell would life be better if robots did all the work? I believe that all of the jobs are already being done by robots. Robots at Amazon warehouses carry the goods to the customer rather than the customer to the goods. The military uses drones in place of sending in personnel.

Several businesses are working to make automated cars a reality now rather than in the distant future. Regarding the internet, algorithms determine what you see and when you see it. Fast food industry behemoths are thinking of automating the ordering process due to concerns over salary increases.

Robotics and technology are already all around us, and so far, there hasn’t been any impending collapse. I don’t mind an Amazon robot discovering products rather than my spending a whole day in a hot warehouse doing the same thing. Since the robot wouldn’t be standing where it doesn’t want to be in the first place, I would also be okay with ordering meals from one.

Sources:

1. Wired: When Robots Take All the Work, What’ll Be Left for Us to Do? (Guide)
2. HBR: What Happens to Society When Robots Replace Workers?
3. historian Henry Adams: Wikipedia about him