Does More Technology Create Unemployment example essay topic

Listening to Marshall Brain explain the future as he sees it, it's relatively easy to suspend disbelief and agree how plausible it is that over the next 40 years most of our jobs will be displaced by robots. After all, it only takes a typical round of errands to reveal how far we " ve come already. From automated gas pumps to bank ATMs to self-service checkout lanes at major retailers, service jobs already are being replaced by machines on a scale of obvious magnitude. Fast-forward today's innovations another few decades, and it doesn't require a great leap of faith to envision how advances in image processing, microprocessor speed and human-motion simulation could lead to the automation of most current low-paying jobs. Factor in the historical speed of technological advancement in the modern era, epitomized by Moore's Law of semiconductor power expansion, and it starts to sound like a no-brainer. At least that's how Brain (yes, that is his real name) sees things unrolling.

"We aren't realizing it, but it's only going to accelerate and magnify as we go forward", he said, segueing into a lengthier discussion on why job loss due to robotic displacement will be one of the key economic issues facing future generations. According to Brain's projections, laid out in an essay, "Robotic Nation", humanoid robots will be widely available by the year 2030, and able to replace jobs currently filled by people in areas such as fast-food service, housecleaning and retail. Unless ways are found to compensate for these lost jobs, Brain estimates that more than half of Americans could be unemployed by 2055. Dire, indeed. But Brain, a Raleigh, North Carolina, father of four and founder of HowStuffWorks, is probably not the kind of guy one would expect to see sounding the alarm bells over a futuristic robotic revolution. As a website publisher and author of about a dozen books of the how-it-works genre, Brain's traditional strength has been in explaining the internal workings of things that already exist.

After spending years writing nonfiction, however, Brain sees the switch to futurism and sci-fi as a natural progression. "I guess it's a confluence of reading, of finding out how a lot of different things work and having that all loaded in my head", he said. Cobbling together bits about how things work provided Brain enough inspiration to attempt his first novel, which will be released free in serial form online starting Aug. 15. The story begins on a prophetic note: "Depending on how you want to think about it, it was funny or inevitable or symbolic that the robotic takeover did not start at MIT, NASA, Microsoft or Ford.

It started at a Burger-G restaurant in Cary, NC on May 17, 2015". The extended plot revolves around a society in which robots are able to fill most of the jobs that exist in the economy. To complement the novel, Brain also is publishing a series of futuristic essays extrapolating on ideas presented in the story. On a more capitalistic note, he's also filed for a patent to cover an automated system for managing humans and machines in the retail and fast-food businesses. In the essay series, the first installment begins with a discussion of a routine trip with his kids to the local McDonald's. While there, Brain tests out a new electronic food-ordering kiosk and he ponders how in the future, most fast-food work will be done by machines.

Food-ordering kiosks are just the beginning. Already, McDonald's is testing an automated burger-cooking process that threatens to make patty flippers obsolete. By 2015, Brain estimates, about 5 million jobs in the retail sector will be lost to automation. But many techies who discussed Brain's essay on the geek site Slashdot found Brain's projections less than convincing.

One contradiction in the logic noted by a poster was that in order for humanoid robots to become widely deployed, people have to purchase them. But if everyone is unemployed, there will be no one to buy the robots. Another poster said that although it's common for futuristic fear-mongering to accompany the introduction of new technologies, people do manage to find new jobs to replace those that have been automated. Brain himself, though, isn't convinced this will happen. For those who take solace in the fact that robots may at least open up opportunities in the field of robot repair, for example, he offers a more troubling alternative vision: "When a robot needs repair, another robot will bundle it onto a pallet.

A robotic forklift will place the pallet on a truck. The truck will drive to a repair facility. The facility will repair the robot with highly automated systems that require no human intervention or supervision. Human beings will not be repairing robots -- robots will".

Criteria A: Identification and description of the issue. "I think therefore I am" said Descartes a famous french philosopher whose quote is now the base of an article's purpose that show us a computer that actually has a personalized artificial intelligence that it will be ready to answer questions or even think for us, but not only new computers have arise but robots that are ready to overlap the humans productivity as some can be surprised through this quote: "Human beings will not be repairing robots -- robots will" (Glasner, 2003). This might mean more productivity, more direct answers or more free time. But as there are probable advantages this would end by loosing the human control over works and it might create a problem where it wouldnt exist if you are taking care of your own electronic work like mails, data bases, and input / output of data or even worst: the production of the goods. One of the article name is "It thinks therefore it is" referring to the future personalized computer, if we see all of this through bussiness and employment we might find out that the advantages are more in quantity but the disadvantage have bigger social impacts.

What this means is that having this intelligent computer would loose the need of people working on certain areas making the problem of unemployment bigger and starting a new chain of reaction, problems making other problems and so on until there would be more disadvantages than advantages "From automated gas pumps to bank ATMs to self-service checkout lanes at major retailers, service jobs already are being replaced by machines on a scale of obvious magnitude". (Glasner, 2003) As it can be inferred from this information many people will loose theyre jobs because there are a lot of persons which jobs are to capture and store data on a company and this is one of more types of works that can be lost by this and future technology, like an article name is: Does more technology create unemployment? And How will robots still your job talk about the problems that technology has brought to society and it supports the main problem it will be exposed through this essay. Criteria B: IT Background Around the 1920's the term robot appeared on a novel made by a european writer and since those times the mankind has been interested on this term but it wasnt until the 1990's that the first real concept of robot appeared, on the early evolution of this technology they were programmed movement until they came to the concept of artificial intelligence. A lot of persons are award that new technology is destroying different kinds of works and this is also the case of this new concept of computers that will destroy and benefit the problem of unemployment. From the focus of bussiness and employment new technology has deployed problems on this area combined with benefits that on a long term it will bring a unemployment rate to grow even on global powers such as the United States and England.

When computers appeared they were machines that helped rise productivity but as they grew on technology people lost theyre jobs because a machine substituted them. Robots and computers with AI will help on some things but affect on other as it has been emphasised through this essay. Criteria C: Analyzing the social impact Imagine a society that demands more working areas and a bussiness who get rid of them, this can be the perfect example of the future if the so call "synthesized machines" (2003) get a touch not only on government but to the whole populations as the new focus of this product is guided. "But each of these efforts requires a different type of reasoning. And programs still stink at switching from one mode to another". (Shachtman, 2003) this is one of the reasons an article gives that technology hasnt took over a lot of different working areas but as this intelligent machines appear this flaw will diss apear with some other "intelligent" programs that exist. "we don't just stick it into a database.

It's got to jive with what we know already. Or we " ve got (to) adjust our previous understanding". (2003) This is what it can be seen as the most probable flaw of the program that will help destroy thousands of jobs and increase productivity for a while until somethings a computer cant think for a brain as it can be inferred from Margins article. "Such notions as "water is wet" and "fire is hot" have proved elusive quarry for AI researchers. Minsky accused researchers of giving up on the immense challenge of building a fully autonomous, thinking machine". (Baard, 2003) What might affect a bussiness at first instance is that the computer as Baard try to say it doesnt think in common sense like a human and this might affect in an economical way.

So a short list of the social problems or impacts might be increased unemployment rates, economical repercussions, loss of personal contact and other small problems it might come from the software errors because no software will ever replace the human mind. Criteria D: Solutions arising the issue One of the most marked problems would be the unemployment that has been attacked by the technology and with this great advance of a actually working and applicable AI will destroy even more working areas and will unchain a chain of reactions of creating intelligent robots that will later finish with more jobs increasing the unemployment rates to the roof. Some solutions we can find to this problem would be: 1. As technology advances trying to find new working areas to replace the ones that are disappearing from the society, society can create new areas of employments to have some works that cant be taken away by the machines some examples would be machine supervisors, maintainance's employees for the computer, etc. This will help fight the unemployment rates that technology keeps raising them. 2.

Limit the areas where this computers can actually be operating and this will limit the unemployment rates that can "go through the roof" as the famous quote says. By limiting the operating areas I mean trying to have a law that prohibits the excessive or exclusive use of this thinking computer for people to have jobs and also keeping the unemployment rates low. Mar by. R, 2003, Does More Technology Create Unemployment? , web Clemson University, 2003...

Noah Shachtman, 2003, AI Depends on Your Point of View, web wired, 2003... Mark Baard, 2003, AI Founder Blasts Modern Research, web wired, 2003... D elio, M, 2003, It Thinks Therefore it Is, web wired, 2003... Glasner, J, 2003, How robots will still your job, web wired, 2003.