{"id":904,"date":"2022-10-14T10:41:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T10:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/?p=904"},"modified":"2022-10-14T13:56:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T13:56:57","slug":"should-we-be-afraid-of-robots-do-they-steal-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/should-we-be-afraid-of-robots-do-they-steal-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Should we be afraid of robots? Do they steal jobs?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <strong>first law<\/strong> of robotics enunciated by <strong>Asimov <\/strong>says <em>&#8216;A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm&#8217;<\/em>. Then, we&#8217;ll be able to <strong>sleep soundly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Robots here are intended as machines, and as such are to be used in accordance with all the manufacturer&#8217;s instructions and good application practice. I would like taking this opportunity to urge and sensitise all operators in the sector <strong>never to underestimate <\/strong>robots and automatic machines in general, they perform their tasks undaunted and when humans get addicted and <strong>overconfident <\/strong>in their operations, some unwanted event, even serious, can happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Letting down one&#8217;s guard or failing to give proper importance to safety is the way to increase the risk of accidents. Consistently adhere to <strong>good rules<\/strong> of application and never switch off <strong>safeties<\/strong>, even temporarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the title wants to <strong>explore <\/strong>a various area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Do robots really <strong>steal jobs<\/strong> from humans?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Will robots <strong>replace Homo sapiens<\/strong> in whole or in part?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Can robots be <strong>trusted<\/strong>?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is commonplace that the advent of machines will <strong>ruin <\/strong>people&#8217;s <strong>workplaces<\/strong>, but is this really the case?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In classic <strong>industrial <\/strong>applications, a robot working twenty-four hours a day <strong>replaces <\/strong>the work of at least <strong>three people<\/strong>, so would it not be better to limit its applications?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From a first and perhaps <strong>superficial <\/strong>analysis it seems so but let us make some <strong>considerations <\/strong>around the world of applied robotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Robot-and-Human-Hand.jpg\" alt=\"Robot-and-Human-Hand-robotics24\" class=\"wp-image-906\" width=\"572\" height=\"380\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Robots continue to transform the world of work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the <strong>industrial revolution<\/strong>, say &#8216;Charlie Chaplin&#8217; for short, machines, and therefore later robots, have been <strong>used in place of human<\/strong> beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But to do <strong>what<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Robots have been used to move <strong>weights<\/strong>, work in <strong>extreme <\/strong>temperatures, applied in <strong>dangerous <\/strong>and <strong>health-damaging<\/strong> conditions, all those jobs that are <strong>not <\/strong>exactly <strong>virtuous <\/strong>for humans.<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Robot-job-takeover-unemployment.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>second step<\/strong> in the application of robots has seen the solution of more <strong>precise <\/strong>operations, the adoption of vision systems or <strong>advanced sensors<\/strong> to solve problems difficult for a human being. It is also true that while machines are replacing us in less edifying jobs, <strong>new <\/strong>professional <strong>figures<\/strong>, specialised technical figures at the service of the robot world, are being <strong>created <\/strong>at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, it is <strong>true<\/strong>, far fewer people are needed to repair robots than are replaced by them. If we step <strong>outside <\/strong>the <strong>industrial <\/strong>world, we see that robots can literally <strong>increase <\/strong>our <strong>quality <\/strong>of life or even enable applications otherwise inhibited by direct human intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of <strong>space exploration<\/strong>, we all agree that it is better to send a rover to Mars before sending an astronaut there. These projects would <strong>cost too much <\/strong>in terms of <strong>human lives<\/strong> before reaching a useful result. Again, new professional figures have arisen to deal with these issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/images\/detailed\/2\/Robot-hospital.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"572\" height=\"381\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the <strong>medical <\/strong>field, robots are used for their <strong>precision <\/strong>and repetitiveness, it is undeniable that our quality of life can benefit greatly from these technologies. The world&#8217;s population, in all its complexity, is constantly increasing and at the same time the average <strong>life expectancy<\/strong> has doubled in the last hundred years in several countries. This has been possible thanks to traditional medicine and increasingly <strong>sophisticated machines <\/strong>used to treat various diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pet robots<\/strong> or &#8216;Home Robots&#8217; will be increasingly applied to <strong>care <\/strong>for the elderly and lonely. These robots can regularly <strong>scan <\/strong>the lives of people in need, <strong>serve <\/strong>medicine, <strong>analyse <\/strong>a person&#8217;s habits, monitor basic values using biometric sensors and <strong>alert <\/strong>the doctor or a trusted individual when something seems suspicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Nanorobots <\/strong>can be used to <strong>explore<\/strong> the inside of our bodies in a <strong>non-invasive<\/strong> way and accurately report on the situation of <strong>internal <\/strong>tissues and <strong>organs<\/strong>, even it will be possible in the future to carry out micro-operations with externally piloted micro-robots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to <strong>micronise <\/strong>robots so <strong>much <\/strong>that they can perform operations at the molecular or <strong>atomic level<\/strong>. The applications of robotics in the <strong>service of human <\/strong>lives are indeed numerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Will robots make us immortal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The age-old dream of us <strong>mortals <\/strong>to become immortal. Will having the ability to heal every disease and even conquer death be <strong>possible <\/strong>in the <strong>future<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/woman-prosthetic-robot-arm.jpg\" alt=\"woman prosthetic robot arm\" class=\"wp-image-950\" width=\"570\" height=\"380\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At the moment all <strong>organic <\/strong>beings have an <strong>expiry date<\/strong>, for some plants several hundred years and for humans hardly more than a hundred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I really like, and here I borrow it, the clever <strong>definition <\/strong>that <em>Yuval Noah Harari<\/em> gives us in his book &#8216;<em>Sapiens<\/em>&#8216; where the evolution of our species will lead to &#8216;<strong>amortality<\/strong>&#8216;. To be amortal means to be <strong>able to recover<\/strong> from all diseases, to be able to <strong>restore <\/strong>diseased or ruined cells with new (biological) <strong>cells<\/strong>, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All this will be possible thanks to the <strong>progress of medicine<\/strong> and biology with the significant help of robotics applied in these fields. But if we <strong>continue replacing<\/strong> parts of the natural body with robotic products, <strong>will humans disappear<\/strong> to make way for intelligent machines?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apparently, the risk really does exist, the possible disappearance of Homo sapiens in favour of <strong>super-intelligent robots<\/strong> is not just for visionaries, post-humanism as portrayed in many science fiction and <strong>biotechnology <\/strong>stories is still the product of the human mind and the resulting actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only voluntary <strong>self-destruction<\/strong> can take us in this direction. In anticipation of amortality, robots are already helping us to lead a regular life even in the presence of more or less serious illnesses, from the simple <strong>pacemaker <\/strong>to the articulated robotic limbs used as <strong>prostheses<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If in industry robots have <strong>changed <\/strong>the way we <strong>work<\/strong>, so in other fields robotics has improved the way we deal with critical situations, concretely <strong>increasing<\/strong> the <strong>quality <\/strong>of our existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Robots, indispensable helpers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It is <strong>plausible <\/strong>to be afraid of so much power and also to be <strong>anxious <\/strong>about the developments that the science of the <strong>near future<\/strong> may bring us. For now, let us be content with today&#8217;s robots that replace us in the heaviest and most <strong>dangerous jobs<\/strong>, automata solve problems related to repetitive and precision work, leaving us human beings with <strong>more creative<\/strong> works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The world of <strong>work has changed<\/strong>, as has the way in which Sapiens conduct their existence on this planet and why not, in the near future, in an extra-terrestrial life. <strong>Robots <\/strong>that are exploring space in a way that humans would not know how to do, are and will <strong>continue to provide<\/strong> us with increasingly valuable <strong>information <\/strong>so that we can find new worlds on which to start a <strong>new life<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, to us earthlings it <strong>seems <\/strong>like a very <strong>distant <\/strong>time, but we know everything ends and is exhausted by more or less natural processes. The <strong>survival <\/strong>of our species is <strong>not without robots<\/strong>, they play now and will increasingly play a fundamental role in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is normal to be <strong>afraid <\/strong>of such a disruptive <strong>technology<\/strong>, we aren&#8217;t always able to <strong>understand <\/strong>totally its <strong>future <\/strong>developments, in fact I guarantee you, <strong>even insiders<\/strong> have not yet found or even imagined all the <strong>potential <\/strong>applications of <strong>robotics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:24% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"681\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Federico-Pistono-Robotis-will-steal-your-job-681x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Federico Pistono Robotis will steal your job\" class=\"wp-image-919 size-full\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p><em>Federico Pistono<\/em>, futurist, entrepreneur and psychonaut, a character I appreciate very much and often follow, calls it the &#8216;<strong>Luddite Fallacy<\/strong>&#8216; in his book &#8216;<em>Robots will steal your job, but that&#8217;s OK<\/em>&#8216;, which I recommend reading to those who want to delve deeper into the subject.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By means of the Luddite Fallacy, Pistono shows how the <strong>fears <\/strong>of the late 19th century, of <strong>losing positions<\/strong> due to the advent of automated machinery, have proven to be <strong>unfounded<\/strong>. In the last century, machines and robots have <strong>spread <\/strong>exponentially, <strong>creating <\/strong>far <strong>more value<\/strong> added than jobs lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Work has transformed. Even a historian can <strong>confirm <\/strong>that for the days of the Iron Age, as new <strong>knowledge <\/strong>was <strong>learned<\/strong>, work changed, as did the ways of making objects, of producing food and necessities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Did it <strong>change <\/strong>for the <strong>better<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This of course is <strong>difficult <\/strong>to say, many <strong>parameters <\/strong>are subjective and, therefore, not easly measurable, but if we look at some basic values like life expectancy and global population, we can say a <strong>significant improvement<\/strong> has been achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-medium-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>We should <strong>not <\/strong>be afraid of robots.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us however consider that <strong>robots <\/strong>are &#8216;only&#8217; machines today made mainly of <strong>metals <\/strong>and semiconductors, <strong>tomorrow <\/strong>there will probably also be <strong>organic <\/strong>or &#8216;quantum&#8217; robots capable of performing many tasks, but <strong>human <\/strong>intellect is and always will be, <strong>responsible <\/strong>for what <strong>robotic intelligence<\/strong> will do and become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Title image credits: <a class=\"has-small-font-size\" style=\"color:#666!important\" href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Robot-job-takeover-unemployment.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow sponsored\">Qniksefat<\/a>, <a class=\"has-small-font-size\" style=\"color:#666!important\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a> via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first law of robotics enunciated by Asimov says &#8216;A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm&#8217;. Then, we&#8217;ll be able to sleep soundly. Robots here are intended as machines, and as such are to be used in accordance with all the manufacturer&#8217;s instructions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":961,"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robotics24.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}