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Watching Sarah Connor Chronicles of Terminator 3 makes one shudder at the thought of humanity crushed by the very cyborgs or technology that we have created. That seems impossible in reality. Yet taking a good look at the society we currently live in, it appears we are already on our way to such a future. A future where humanity faces warfare with technology.
First, there is a fascination with cyborg companions. With billions in world population, we are definitely not short of human companionship. Yet, ‘pets’ like Aibo and iDog, in my opinion, just a piece of technology, have been created to give the illusion of real pets and marketed as entertainment and companionship. The popularity of these ‘dogs’ reflects how well artificial companionship are accepted and it does tells us something about society. Japan is one country that have been spending the recent years venturing into exploration and development of robots and androids. In fact, Japan is leading in some of the major projects on Androids where out of the current 94 major projects, 42 are in Japan, followed by 10 in the US, 10 in Korea etc. Ventures into Robotics have been positive yielding results such as ‘Asimo’ that has achieved groundbreaking efforts of being able to run, walk and perform various human tasks. Therefore, it is possible that in near future, Japan’s dream of having robots taking care of its aging population would be fulfilled as we see robots becoming more capable, gaining more abilities, given more responsibilities and even possessing a ‘will’.
However, we do not have to be in the future to experience the social implications of the above phenomena. Nowadays, many manufacturers use machines to sort out and pack their products. Even retail work, which involve human interaction have been taken over by vending machines selling objects from drinks to toys to food to even underwear. Thus, humans have been relieved by machines to do something else. Like a double-edge sword, it could mean that humans have more time to do other things, yet it could also mean unemployment. With the above situation where machines and robots are increasingly relieving humans of their manual work and taking on more responsibilities, would there be a day where all labor is replaced by robots? What would humans do then, what can humans work as then, if they are not needed for labour?
Some countries already have the answer to that. One of them is Singapore that has shifted its workforce from one of labour to knowledge based. According to the Ministry of Manpower, ‘Singapore’s workforce is highly skilled and productive’ and have strong ‘managerial talent’. Does this mean that in order for a human to survive in this kind of world and the future, being highly skilled is crucial? This seems to be the answer. To be highly skilled means having higher education and and education in IT which the Singapore government have been emphasizing. Nowadays, IT classes are even taught as young as in primary schools. There has been increasing number of education instituitions incorporating the use of IT into education, where IT could be a medium for learning or even the subject of education. This appears like a good solution to counter the effects of a world where human labour is being replaced by machines. But what happens to people who are unable to fit into this solution? People who have no access to such an education and have no means of becoming part of the ‘highly skilled and productive’ workforce? Does it mean that they are the ones who would truly be replaced by machines and feel the impact the most?
References
“Asimo” retrieved from <http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/new/> on 26th October 2008.
“World’s Greatest Android Projects” retrieved from <http://www.androidworld.com/prod01.htm> on 26th October 2008.
“More retail jobs being replaced by machine” retrieved from <http://www.mightybargainhunter.com/2007/01/25/more-retail-jobs-being-replaced-by-machines/> on 26th October 2008.
“Ministry of Manpower: Developing a Globally Competitive Workforce” retrieved from <http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/momportal/en/communities/employers/developing_a_competitive.html> on 26th October 2008.
“Population indicators” retrieved from <http://www.singstat.gov.sg/stats/themes/people/popnindicators.pdf> on 20th October 2008.
