Throughout history, movies like I Robot, Terminator, and Transformers were really popular. Why? The answer is simple: robots. Ever since it was an idea, people have been fascinated by their inhuman intelligence and how helpful they can be towards mankind. As technology has advanced, man has a new best friend and it’s not a dog. But did you ever stop to think that a robot could replace you? 

Amazon has a new and revolutionizing feature called Amazon Go. It’s a store with no checkout required. That’s right! No lines, no waiting. All you have to do is find want you want and leave. Late for a birthday party? Run in, run out.  No lines.  Same on Super Bowl Sunday, Thanksgiving, and the 4th of July.  I don’t know about you, but when I realized that I could buy whatever I wanted (read: buy all the Beanie Babies I can) and not be embarrassed by “the look” that I get from the cashier, I was ecstatic.

The more I imagined how this would make my life so much better, I realized how it would make everyone else’s, (and probably my) life potentially worse. Who doesn’t want an easier existence, right?  But all good things come at a price, and in this case it’s jobs -maybe the one thing you’d hoped for after finishing college. People who haven’t had the option or materials to get an education are usually stuck with dead-end jobs like being a cashier at a grocery store til death do they part. Or maybe you simply are starting out and that’s your first job. Well, kiss all of that goodbye because as you are reading this, a robot is taking your job.

This pattern is occurring throughout the industrialized world. Even poorer, developing nations are facing increasing unemployment as companies build high-tech production facilities, letting millions of inexpensive laborers go.  All of this to save money and make things go as fast as humanly (err…robotly) possible.

Grocery stores aren’t our only worry. The US military has been using remotely-piloted vehicles for over 15 years. As technology advances, the U.S. is already using unmanned vehicles overseas to drop missiles on suspected terrorists. They’ve also created machines that have face recognition and make the decision to eliminate the target on their own. This is revolutionary! Imagine how many people wouldn’t have to be ripped from their friends and families to go to war.
While this seems like a great idea that will make life so much easier for the military, some people think this is morally wrong. And what if the robot makes a mistake and takes an innocent life? Are we really willing to take that chance? A living breathing creature with hopes, dreams, and a future has all of those things smashed by something that isn’t capable of any of those. The solution is to just not do it. Seems good enough, right? And if another country decides to replace men with robots, what will we do? Now they are ten times more powerful than we are. It’s like we don’t even have a say in whether or not humanity advances. Ugh. Well at least if robots take over, then we don’t have to deal with our parents because they’ll probably take that job too.