This reading made me think about how big a role robots play in my daily life. Every day, I spend at least 2 hours on my computer, and sometimes another hour playing Xbox or watching Netflix. Because of how entertaining these pieces of technology can be, we dedicate large segments of our life to pushing buttons and looking at a screen. But what this reading highlighted is the fact that machines don't have any emotional connection back to the user. The feeling only goes one way. If I'm playing a game and my Xbox overheats and breaks, the Xbox isn't going to say anything that makes me feel better...it's dead. Or if I am typing a paper for class and I spill water on my computer and it freezes, I am going to end up typing that whole paper over again. Machines have their flaws as well as humans do, but they don't have to apologize, or take any responsibility.
This idea is even more relevant when discussing how robots are being designed to do jobs that were once done by humans. Earlier this year, Bill Gates said that people don;t realize how many jobs will soon be replaced by software bots. This prediction may seem exciting to some people, but what about those who struggle to support themselves, working a minimum wage job. Sometime near in the future, McDonald's will probably have robots making and serving food. Jobs will be taken away from the people that need them the most. Additionally, what happens when we start giving robots high risk jobs like construction, and they malfunction. We wouldn't know what is wrong with the building until it starts to collapse.
The advancement of technology is creating new, simple solutions to all kinds of problems. Solutions that require less and less human interaction. Just because a robot can do something faster, does that really mean they should be doing it? With the emergence of robots in our culture, we may start to see a decline in the value of humans to maintaining society.
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