1. Humans need not apply

Watch the following 15 minute YouTube video titled 'Humans need not apply'. Make sure you have head phones on.

Short answer question.

Do you agree with this movie? Discuss your reflections on the movie and your point of view. You must justify your answer. Minimum 250 words.

The video clip ‘Humans need not apply’ encapsulates the inevitability of automation and its dominance not only in the workforce, but also in our every day lives, and I agree with the premise that robots will eventually take over the workforce due to their superiority in terms of cost, time and accuracy. The video creator states that robots are ‘a tool to produce abundance for little effort’, however this creates an economic problem, which he further discusses. It is predicted that before the end of this century, 70 percent of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation, therefore, strongly impacting the unemployment rate in countries. Apart from the social unrest and disgruntlement that unemployment can produce, high unemployment can have a self-perpetuating negative impact on businesses and the economic health of any country.

The video included the example of Baxter, a revolutionary new workbot from Rethink Robotics. Designed by Rodney Brooks, Baxter is an early example of a new class of industrial robots created to work alongside humans. This innovative machine is unique in three ways. First, it can look around and indicate where it is looking by constantly moving its eyes. It can perceive humans working near it and avoid injuring them using force-feedback technology. Furthermore, anyone can train Baxter. It is not as fast, strong, or precise as other industrial robots, but it is smarter. To train the bot you can simply grab its arms and guide them in the correct motions and sequence, to which Baxter learns the procedure and then repeats it. Moreover, Baxter is cheap when compared with other robots. Priced at $22,000, it’s a lot more economical than the $500,000 total bill of its predecessors. Any user can interact with it directly, immediately, without waiting for experts to mediate—and use it for non-serious, frivolous tasks.

Humans designed and manufactured technology for the sole purpose of efficiency and accuracy, timing and cost, and through the example of ‘Baxter’, this is clearly defined. The ingenuity and effectiveness, as well as the cost of robots is becoming more noticeable in today’s society and due to the increasing prevalence and requirement for the precision and usefulness of such machines, there is a real threat for the workforce in the future.