More Robots; More Help

Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.

 

Dave Blanchard and others are asking if the robots are here to help humans or take their jobs.

Jury's out.

Executives surveyed state that their, by far, greatest concern is finding talent—the thing that keeps them up at night. The degree? Some 80+%. A companion survey indicated that a comparable number were getting hired, a staggering shortfall. Anecdotal tales indicate a similar investment in acquiring and retaining quality people.

The conclusion is inescapable. Spend on getting and keeping talent. Hiring the folks you want and getting in a solid eight hours ought to take care of themselves.

Meanwhile, the machines are taking the place of people don't, won't, or can't do robotic repetitive work. Migrant workers are laboring in the fields, and are picking fruit and vegetables. Breaking news: Thousands are being invested in machinery designed to pick apples, breaking the back of the Washington State industry.

So, depending on application, robots are here to help and to take our jobs. It's ironic that humans are needed to train them in empathy, and communications.  

They'll take the jobs away, and we'll help them do it.