Robots threaten to make our lives easier, and that could be a bad thing

Will the robot revolution be hell on Earth?

The robot revolution is here and they're coming for you. A new report finds that robots will take half of all jobs within the next three decades, leaving billions of people without work to do. The dilemma we face requires we quickly answer profound ontological questions, yet nobody is talking about the issue.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - While most people fuss over the Grammy Awards, the next presidential election and other momentary concerns, a massive revolution is taking place under our noses. It's a serious change with literally billions of lives in the balance, yet everyone seems oblivious.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming so sophisticated that robots can already see, hear, and perform with greater precision, many tasks that were once the domain of human experts. Entire factories in China are already being retooled for the next generation of robots. The time to grapple with the question of what to do with ourselves is at hand.

According to Moshe Vardi, who delivered a report to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, "We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task." Vardi predicts that nearly half of all jobs will be lost to robots within the next 30 years.

In addition, it has been strongly suggested that the loss in jobs and purchasing power since 1980 is largely the result of automation. The only reason our standard of living has kept pace is because we're now more productive than ever.

Thirty years is a short time, and we've already seen what dramatic changes can take place. Just three decades ago, the mainstream world did not have internet, cellphones, or even very many desktop computers. Many documents were still typed. The compact disc and cordless phone were new technology and they joined the VCR as standard technology in the home. The laptop computer didn't quite exist and few homes even had PCs.

A generation later, that period in history sounds like the Stone Age. Every device mentioned above has been replaced by the smartphone. The entire body of human knowledge in the world can be accessed instantly. What difference will the next 30 years bring?

The biggest question is if the future will be an utopia or a dystopian hell. The answer comes down to politics.

In the past, such economic revolutions have displaced workers only to create new jobs for them elsewhere. The first Industrial Revolution displaced people from farms, but they became cheap labor in the cities for the first factories. The steam engine displaced workers in mills and other small manufactories, but created the railroads which led to millions of new jobs. The computer replaced many workers, but created the entire tech industry.

However, the next revolution is about replacing humans with machines. Even the machines themselves will be serviced by other machines, eliminating the need for human technicians.

The best defense against being replaced is diversity of talent. A person who can do many things will have a natural advantage over a robot that has a single purpose. However, people who simply perform one task, or have a limited skill set are likely to be replaced. Jobs that do not require much creativity or abstract thought will be replaced first.

So what happens next?

The robot revolution will make us more productive than ever. But who will get the fruits of that productivity? If that benefit is reserved to the owners of the robots alone, then the people will be left behind without jobs or much income. This could be a very dangerous time, especially for the poor.

Alternatively, governments may heavily tax those who benefit from robotic labor and redistribute those benefits to the people. This would allow people to live leisurely lives without much need for work.

But is that a worthy goal? Experts worry that if humans have no work to do, it could create a lot of social chaos. The outcome could be dystopian in its own way. Humans evolved as social creatures, and we need to work to be healthy. No healthy person can lay off work for an extended period of time and remain well. It's unnatural for us to be lazy. It could be that we find new outlets for our hands, but this is in the realm of imagination.

What's certain now is the revolution has arrived. Within the next several years, we will hear of more and more layoffs due to robots and AI. We will have to decide what to do with our displaced workers. A world of hunger and pain or a world of untold leisure could await us.

And both could be hell.