You are not needed to run factories or die in wars.
[i]"The displacement of the human workforce by robots raises broader ethical and sociological issues too.There is a risk, for example, that increased automation will lead to mass unemployment and raise a multitude of social and economic issues that policy makers will have to grapple with. [/i]
The article is based on premises that no longer exist, including the idea that human workers must have rights and should be listened to by governments.
Workers, people, the masses, were only given basic rights and listened to because the wealthy needed them to, increasingly, leave farms, work in factories and die in wars. There was also the fear that the peasants could effectively revolt. As a result the masses were given rights and the vote. Having the vote was meant to placate workers into thinking they had a say but those days are gone.
Today governments do not consult the ignorant masses before deciding what to do. Instead those that vote are managed, manipulated and lied to while governments answer to an increasingly few international elite. An elite who care less and less that people are finally starting to see that governments do not act in the interest of their citizens.
Which is why governments entered into trade deals that required those nations trying to protect workers and the environment to be punished by having to compete directly with nations who care little for human life or the environment.
Remove the no longer valid ideas that masses of people are needed to run the factories, die in wars, could effectively revolt and that governments answer to and act in the best interest of citizens. Only then can we realistically consider the consequences of increasing automation and cheap robots able to compete even when it comes to basic "manual" labour.
Removing the old flawed premises and acknowledging the world we live in results in a better explanation of what has and is occurring and will shed more light on what is to come.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
