Then you should really be afraid of job-stealing robots:
Their developers say it will be several years before robots that are designed to be part of everyday lives take their place helping the sick, rescuing disaster victims and entertaining families.
Hear that nurses, EMTs and (um) Homey?
The Japan Robot Association, a trade group, expects the Japanese market for next-generation robots to reach $14 billion by 2010 and more than $37 billion by 2025.
There may still be time to stop the robot invasion, before they reach full strength:
But all the robots on display were test models, and several had obvious glitches. Cooper, a mechanical portrait artist developed by a candy maker, draws the faces of visitors on large cookies with a laser pen. It has a program that translates images from a digital camera into line-drawing instructions, but sometimes the robot delivered only a mishmash of scribbles.
Stupid robot. Here’s the whole article (via Sploid). For more on the coming war against the robots, see this article of mine. And if you’re still not lathered up go watch I, Robot and remember this prediction:
[Gartner analyst Frances] Karamouzis says more IT jobs in the West are at risk of disappearing because of automation and productivity gains than from offshore outsourcing. The effect of those factors on IT job displacement will, by 2015, be six times greater than the impact of offshoring.”
This survey seems to offer some evidence that Americans fear foreigners more than robots. When asked about the long-term effects of “new technology, competition from foreign countries, and downsizing” a plurality (43 percent) said the effect would be good. But when asked about the effect of trade agreements between the U.S. and other nations, a majority (54 percent) said they cost American jobs. The lesson for corporate PR departments: less outsourcing, more robots.
