Kevin Kelly's Better Than Human

In the essay “Better than Human” Kevin Kelly states his thesis hat robots will someday replace humans in the work place. Kelly starts by explaining how the Industrial Revolution has changed the way manual labor is performed as a result of automation; replacing humans with machines. Kelly says that the increasing demand for automation, artificial intelligence has given machines the ability to manage tasks from “manual labor to knowledge work.” (300) Kelly then says that robots will begin to replace blue and white collar jobs such as, assembly, heavy lifting, analytical, and medical applications. Kelly explains the innovative breakthrough named Baxter, a robot typically made for industrial applications

The article ‘Rise of the Machines’ is Not a Likely Future (2015), Michael Littman addresses the issue and worries that people have with regards to technology. The article attempts to persuade readers to believe that there is no need to fear technology as it is just not possible that they can overtake humanity. Zeynep Tufekci touches on the issue of machines taking over jobs of human, titled “The Machines are Coming (2015)”. She attempts to argue that there is no need to reject or blame technology for taking over jobs at the workplace. Littman’s argument is stronger than Tufekci as he provided logical reasoning due to a well balanced structure with consideration of opposable viewpoints with substantial evidence and effective usage of Pathos to appeal to the reader. Tufecki’s argument is weak due to the lack of evidence and her claim was only brought in at the end of her article which makes it seem very lop-sided.

The rivalry between humans and machines has been present since the beginning og the the world. Trying to make the world easier for humans has been one of the life goals for society in order to crate a better world; however, those people don’t know that as society progresses the worse it is to introduce automated machines, Intelligent machines are a threat for society because it will increase unemployment and poverty.

We think of computers as being incredibly intelligent now, but actually in terms of brain power an average computer today has the intelligence of a mouse. According to Moore’s Law, computing power doubles every 18 months. In other words, it increases at an extreme rate. The rapid pace of change brings fear into the eye of a technophobe and some of today’s most eminent scientists are now warning that the evolution of technology may spell the end of humankind. Even now, the greatest threat to job creation is the increasing reliance on robotics in industrial factories. Jobs that have traditionally provided a living for millions of people are quickly being turned over to a highly efficient and cost-effective robotic

In an age where technology is so advanced that robots replace humans in the workplace, it is no surprise that increasingly fewer Americans are considered full-time employees. While proponents of advancement argue that technology adds a high level job for every low level job it takes away, low class manufacturing jobs will not be the only newly-automated jobs. Due to rapid advancement, computers are projected to be one thousand times more powerful in the 2030s than computers today (McChesney and Nichols, 2016, 246). With these improvements, no human’s job is safe.

The debate over whether robots are helping or hurting the workplace is more heated than ever. Advances in technology are soaring thus making an increase in the use of robots in the workplace more and more commonplace. Some believe the use of robots in the workplace can never totally result in the loss of jobs, but due to the fact that robots have invaded the workplace environment, many people fear this indicates replacement of human jobs. Although advancement in technology of robotics and artificial intelligence may offer precision, productivity, efficiency and flexibility, the loss of human jobs will be devastating to the many people who depend on their jobs to make a living and provide for their families.

In “Better Than Human,” Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick of Wired Magazine, insists that automation will allow us to become more human. When society grants automation the permission to complete the most menial tasks, it will allow individuals trapped in dead-end careers such as fastening bolts onto cars, to search for their true passions which only humans can accomplish. More people will be able to pursue jobs that robots, for now, can not complete with ease. Kelly believes that as artificial intelligence and the creators of it advance, more jobs will be created to fulfill society's growing needs. The simple tasks of assembling new machinery can be completed by the already established automation; while the job of developing software that controls

Can anyone imagine a factory rid of workers and filled with robots? In the course of the next few decades it may be possible and technology replacing the jobs of hardworking people in the U.S. is an all-around controversial topic. Eventually, it will be an epidemic that will need to be resolved in the near future. Even though it may seem impossible, the age of new technology and no humans is coming.

We have already seen a decrease in jobs due to automation. Since 2000, the United States has lost 5 million factory jobs, while from 2006 to 2013, manufacturing grew by 17.6% (roughly 2.2% a year). 88% of those jobs were lost due to “productivity growth,” cites a study by Ball State University. The study also found that all sectors grew in terms of productivity by at least 32% from 1998 to 2012 when adjusted for inflation, with computer and electronic products rising 829%. In fact, the researchers found: “If 2000-levels of productivity are applied to 2010-levels of production, the U.S. would have required 20.9 million manufacturing workers instead of the 12.1 million actually employed.” In summary, due to companies’ expenditures in automation and software, the output per U.S. manufacturing worker has doubled over the past two decades. Indeed, “the real robotics revolution is ready to begin,” according to the Boston Consulting Group, who predict “the share of tasks that are performed by robots will rise from a global average of around 10% across all manufacturing industries

In this article, Kelly uses convincing arguments, logic and reasoning to show that when humans and robots work together it can increase work production and better our society. Kelly

Some science fiction authors have predicted horrible futures due to AI and robots taking over jobs and later humanity, but many writers like Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson (authors of The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies) dismiss this idea as one unlikely extreme. McAfee and Brynjolfsson describe in their book the nature of machines and manual labor as complements and how their slow delving into becoming economic substitutes as objectively good rather than negative. Businesses naturally do risk cutting automated jobs, but such a move would open an entire new field of jobs for humans to fix and build machines. In turn, businesses like RobotWorx argue that they can make more profit, increase wages for the quality of work from their skilled workers, and remain at the competitive level expected in the modern economic market (more extensive list can be found in their website here). Naturally, such statements beg the question that our economy would not crash because it would naturally adapt and shift due to the moves as it has when such inventions like the assembly line and textile mills came to invention.

In a recent study(pdf), economists Daren Acemoglu of MIT and Pascual Restrepo of Boston University try to quantify how worried we should be about robots. They examine the impact of industrial automation on the US labor market from 1990 to 2007. They conclude that each additional robot reduced employment in a given commuting area by 3-6 workers, and lowered overall wages by 0.25-0.5%. (Kopf)

Over time our lives seem to have become more and more integrated with our technology. Some may say that this is a very bad thing because this change may result in the loss of jobs for millions of people. Jobs such as, cashiers, bankers, legal assistants, and maybe even taxi drivers. The future may appear bleak at first, but the truth of the matter is that robots taking over our simple and automatable jobs just mean that our jobs can evolve with the technology. A very similar thing happened during the industrial revolution when technologies were developed that massively increased the efficiency and yield of farming. This in turn led to a vast increase of food in the country which led to a lesser need for everyone to be a farmer. With a massive amount of food, former farm workers, and advanced technology, a business of mass production and manufacturing began. The loss of jobs due to technology led to a

Technology will continue to be more productive than humans as they are programmed to never stop working and humans tend to do more pauses when they are working. Thompson happens to work for The Atlantic where he writes about economics, labor markets, and the media. Another study shows that the “International Federation of Robotics, overall paid employment has risen”which increases the productivity (Syed, R. & Qureshi, M, 2014). In Brazil, China, Republic of Korea, Germany, and USA has found increasing amounts of employment from robots overtaking menial and jobs that people can’t endure during the day due to lack of work hours. While the USA is jumping on the bandwagon of the trend of adding robots to workplaces, it is known to have only half as many robots as Germany. Stated in the Saf Health Work article it says,“this allows such an increase in production”. In return, it is more of a benefit to the company in the perspective of getting the work that needs to be done finished. Similarly, Japan’s population is always growing and this gives them a higher demand for robots to help out in hospitals and health clinics to make it run efficiently and effectively. The Saf Health Work article researches articles based off

If you think robots are the kind of thing you hear about in science-fiction movies, think again. Right now, all over the world, robots are performing thousands of tasks. They are probing our solar system for signs of life, building cars at the General Motors plants, assembling Oreo cookies for Nabisco and defusing bombs for the SWAT team. As they grow tougher, more mobile, and more intelligent, today’s robots are doing more and more of the things that humans can’t or don’t want to do and in many cases taking away the need for human labor.