Burgh 1

Clay Burgh

April 13, 2020

W131 Assignment 3

The Possible End of Nine to Fives

A recently popularized theory of a future filled with robots doing our everyday jobs is a

legitimate thing to fear, or to some be excited about. For a long time, people would never fear

the loss of their jobs to a robot, but with technological advancements being made as fast as

they were millions of jobs were lost to efficiency. Robots were being made that could do simple

tasks, but much faster than the average worker. For a long time, it was only the simple tasks,

and as time went on and jobs became more reliant on technology. Now there is a robot for just

about any task you may need done. Although some people may be looking forward to a future

with less work, it may impact society more than some may think. It has already drastically

changed society ultimately resulting in a much lazier perspective on life for many. Many people

fear technology because nobody knows just how far it can go. Advancement are being made

quick in the tech world and a robot that can function exactly like a human is not too far out of

the picture. People fear a future where artificial intelligence can adapt and eventually take

over. There are many positives to integrating technology into the workspace, and we have seen

the many benefits, but there is possible negatives and drawbacks that also need to be

considered when thinking of the future of the human work force.

 Burgh 2

It seems like in todays day everyone is always looking to be the most efficient and are always

looking for new ways to spend less money. Technology has evolved overtime into robots that

can perform these tasks more efficiently than most humans. It started as just a way to help with

simple tasks and has evolved into full companies that just have robots making their products.

An article done by The New-Yorker says, “In the nineteenth century, people who worked on

farms lost their jobs when agricultural processes were mechanized, but they eventually earned

more money working in factories.” (LePore) Artificial intelligence has evolved to a point now

where it can make the same judgment calls that a human can and most of the time, they make

the better decision. The old robots were blue-collar workers, burly and clunky, the machines

that rusted the Rust Belt. But, according to the economist Richard Baldwin, in “The Globotics

Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of Work” (Oxford), the new ones are “white-

collar robots.”

Business owners often like working with robots more because they cannot experience

real world problems such as a car crash on the way to work, or a lack of productivity in an

employee due to emotional issues. In “Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the

American Dream Became Temporary” (Viking), the historian Louis Hyman argues that in the

course of the past century management consultants, taking the wheel, reinvented work by

making employers more like machines, turning work into the kind of thing that robots could do

long before there were any robots able to do it. Technology is much easier to predict and make

a lot less errors. The benefits of robots from a production standpoint is phenomenal. The thing

that robots cannot do though, is provide goodwill and innovation for a company. A robot is

usually designed to do one specific task, not create new innovative ideas to advance the
 Burgh 3

company. A robot is not going to be able to get a good review resulting in more customers.

Often things that bring people into companies is the fact that other people put work into

making the product. People like to support other people and people like items that are more

personalized not just the same carbon copy. What keeps businesses growing is originality and

that can only truly be created by the human mind.

Switching to a fully robotic workforce would have drastic impacts on the economy and

the income of all. Robots have already taken over millions of jobs and have replaced entire

company workforces. “Ever since a study by the University of Oxford predicted that 47 percent

of U.S. jobs are at risk of being replaced by robots and artificial intelligence over the next fifteen

to twenty years, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the future of work,” Andrés

Oppenheimer writes, in “The Robots Are Coming: The Future of Jobs in the Age of Automation”

(Oppenheimer). From a business owner standpoint, the main goal is to make as much money as

possible and robots allow work to be done for cheaper. The initial cost may be more expensive,

but the idea is that over time, not having to pay employees will allow you to spend less money.

Not everyone is bought into this strategy though. Small businesses such as boutiques flourish

and their customers come to them knowing they are going to get something handmade and

personal. People like to know exactly where and how products are made. The thing that bigger

companies that are switching to complete AI production setups do not complexly get is that

people need money to spend money. If everyone switched to this type of production style,

there would not be enough people with jobs making money to buy the products being made.

Robots taking over jobs left many people unemployed and it seems that once this

started happening people just naturally became lazier. Seeing something being able to do a job
 Burgh 4

way faster than you ever could is demoralizing to some. When the unemployment rate was

at an all time high this was due to a lack of available jobs. This created a growing culture of

being comfortable with being unemployed. Even though there are many people who hate their

job, there is an essential need to feel like you are working and providing. Unemployment causes

poverty and many people need jobs just to keep themselves occupied. Crime rate often rises

with the unemployment rate because there is more time for people to cause trouble. Jobs are

important for more reasons than just an income.

The thing that is scariest to me and a lot of other people is that nobody knows the true

max potential of what technology is going to advance to. It may seem dramatic, but a future

where robots take over is not that crazy of a scenario. Many people believe that one day

artificial intelligence will grow to a point where they can think and feel and even reproduce like

a human. This scenario has been published by movies and tv shows and this has provided a

viewpoint for people to fear. It is a thing that engineers, and inventors should think about

before trying to make. Some things are better left un-made when tasks can be done by

someone who needs the money to do the tasks.

The technological advancements we have made as a species have allowed us to make

and produce things faster than we ever imagined. The integration of technology and robots into

the workforce has allowed businesses to produce more faster at a lower cost. There are many

positives to this that we have seen throughout history, but we have also seen robots taking

over large percentages of jobs. There has always been another place for workers to go, but

eventually jobs will run out. The importance of being employed goes far beyond paychecks. It

keeps people out of trouble as well as creates a better mindset. Jobs are an important and
 Burgh 5

essential part of life. Like previously mentioned, There are many positives to integrating

technology into the workspace, and we have seen the many benefits, but there is possible

negatives and drawbacks that also need to be considered when thinking of the future of the

human work force. We need jobs and we need people working.

 Burgh 6

Work cited

BALDWIN, RICHARD. GLOBOTICS UPHEAVAL: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of Work. OXFORD

UNIV PRESS US, 2020.

Hyman, Louis. Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became

Temporary. Viking, 2018.

Lepore, Jill, et al. “Are Robots Competing for Your Job?” The New Yorker,

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/04/are-robots-competing-for-your-job.

Oppenheimer, Andres, and Ezra E. Fitz. The Robots Are Coming!: the Future of Jobs in the Age of

Automation. Vintage Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2019.