The Quick Answer is Yes
That shouldn't scare, but excite. Humanity has been evolving its way through technological advancements since memory. Medical advancements, cerebral advancements, physical advancements, mechanical advancements, etc. Are all tied to the technological advancement underlying their success. We relieve our society of stressors through technology. This may have created additional stressors in specific cases. Ultimately, these outliers are corrected overtime.
Technology brought us from the wheel to the automated driver. We have all been able to envision this future. It wasn't difficult to imagine a car that could drive itself from point A to point B without human intervention.
The Onset
In 2000, the US government used unmanned ground vehicles that could successfully traverse difficult terrain, able to avoid small hazards. It was from there that the roads became coded.
We were adverse to the idea of relinquishing our lives to that of a machine. The statistics show safety in favor of automation over manual.
"Your favor, over your hands"
is a hard obstacle for the normal mind to comprehend, let alone overcome. We do, and we will more in time.
As we evolve, our technology will follow suit, eventually surpassing our own evolution. Providing more a guide then add-on. Imagine a world where (think utopian) most, if not all remedial tasks have been usurped by mechanical means. Humans have to wake and learn. Purpose would be solely based on preference. Humans will work to maintain the machines that devour our daily stressors. Employment will be necessary, though a certain level of knowledge will be necessary for upkeep. Leaving us to advance humanities baseline.
Flippy ROAR (a robot)
I wanted to set the stage for "Flippy ROAR"! Recently the fast-food chain White Castle decided to take the evolutionary step of implementing Flippy ROAR into its cooking line.
Image: Miso Robotics
Flippy ROAR is the next iteration of Flippy, which was a standing robot with flip capabilities. The ROAR aspect is "Robot-on-a-rail." Thus allowing it to preform more tasks more efficiently.
Some may look at this situation with disdain, viewing the robot as a job-taker. Remember, we all can see the future to a point, and the automation is inevitable. How do we get there responsibly? Through trial and error, as we always have.
For example, an estimation of revenue gained through automating this section of the kitchen should be calculated into a college fund to support the employees that would lose employment. Very easily White Castle could cover those expenses for a short while, until the labor replaced is no longer a human endeavor.
Jobs will be created, through the maintenance and assembly of these robots. That is until those jobs become automated as well. Since, they will be.
The Human Reaction
Humans are inherently skeptic of new. Deniers of change, only evolving the societal group-think through generational change-over. Age plays our stubborn strings. A person grows up being mesmerized by technological advancements, but life builds around the tech that person has decided to implement. As tech evolves, it leaves older humans behind on the knowledge end. The new minds will take us further. Time and time again.
I read an article on the Flippy ROAR and got excited for the innovation, and honestly the peace of mind in the cleanliness sense. The comments were that of robotic overlords on the verge of annihilation. The robot in question can flip burgers and grab deep fryer handles. Let's embrace the change.
