Technology And Human Labor

Over the last twenty years of human history, technology has exponentially progressed in every field imaginable, whether it is mathematics or medicine, technology has started to become ingrained to our daily life. The surprising part about technology is that just a decade ago, computers became affordable for families to own. Now in modern times, access to computers has never been more important. To further add on, according to census.gov,”83.8 percent of U.S households reported computer ownership”. Moreover, cell phones are also increasingly being used, primarily in children, as 64 percent of kids aged 10-14, already possess a phone. These statistics show that technology is already prevalent in this U.S, but, when will the time come when it

replaces us? such as stealing our jobs. Unfortunately, this change is already starting to occur. Not only do we have to worry about jobs being replaced, but also ourselves. In fact, as technological advances gradually become common, the though of a computer just as logical and intellectual as a human is not an idea very far away from reality. So, are we at risk of being replaced by technology? Humans are at risk of being replaced by technology because they are started to take over human labor, and they are increasingly reaching the point of human intelligence.
Humans are at risk of being replaced by technology because they are starting to take over human labor.

Even now, machines are being tested to perform human activity. According to bgr.com,”The bank of England believes that machines might take over 80 million American, and 15 million British jobs over the next ten to twenty years. Hence, almost half of the work force will soon be operated by machines. To add on, nbcnews.com has listed potential jobs that will be controlled by machines, one example is a pharmiscist. The article states,”The UCSF medical center recently launched automated robots at two pharmacies. The pharmacy, in the last year have prepared 350,000 doses of medicine, none of which were made with any error”. Therefore, the quotation shows an example of when robots were used in a pharmacy to research the outcome of machines replacing human labor, which was a success. The results show that out of the 350,000 doses of median compiled by the machine, there was no error. Both citations explain who humans are being replaced by technological innovation because they have a higher success are than

humans.
Another way humans are at risk of being replaced by technology is that they are gradually reaching human intelligence.

As machines gain new types of knowledge, they will slowly become as intelligent as humans. According to www.theguardian.com, google has developed algorithms designed to create thoughts, and this could lead to computers with common sense, in the near future. A professor called Geoff Hinton, was hired to develop machines that could understand logic, natural conversation, and even flirtation. Hinton claims that in the future, people will consider machines as friends, and become attached to them. This information provides us with insight on how there will be a time in which, technology will delineate human speech and experience. Stated in “The skills of Human interaction will bemuse more valuable in the future”,” AlphaGo’s victory over Go champion Lee Se-dol reportedly shocked artificial intelligence experts”. AlphaGo is a computer program developed by Google to play the board game Go, and recently, AlphaGo beat the Go champion Lee Se-dol in his own game. This explains that machines of already reached the point of beating humans in games, showing their superiority. These situations show that machines have already reached the point of being superior to humans in some ways, and it is only a matter of time until they are superior to us in every

way.
The opposition may claim that humans are not at risk of being replaced by technology because machines can not be emotional, a distinct trait of humans, and they can not possess creative intelligence. The points the opposition may claim are false, for a variety of reasons. The opposition states that technology can not feel emotion, but, according to motherboard.org, there is a type of science called affective computing, and most recently computers were used at North Carolina State University to tell if students were feeling frustrated, bored, and etc. The software was accurately able to identify the emotions the student was feeling at the time. This study shows that machines will one day be able to identify with the same “conscious” humans have developed. The second claim made by the opposition is that technology can not possess creative intelligence. This point is incorrect because, according to research described in “The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms”(by Margaret Boden), it is discussed that creativity is just an unpredictable combination of ideas, meaning that we can easily model computers to become more creative. These two citations explain how the opposition’s points are incorrect, deeming their argument invalid.
For the human civilization, technology has made great advances. It has automated tasks with less work for humans, such as manufacturing and data entry. It has also enabled previously unknown levels of optimization and efficiency. Technology will continuously learn to improve, but the time may arrive in which it will become unstoppable. We will need to fully depend on technology at all times, increasing the risk of us being replaced by technology. But, there is still time to show technology that we are in control, and continue our advancements in every way possible.