Robots

"There is, of course, the possibility that the use of robots may induce some technological unemployment. But John Maynard Keynes, in his essay on "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren," predicted in 1930 that such unemployment would be "only a temporary phase of maladjustment." He foresaw that, in the end, the new machines would so enhance our productive capacity that mankind would eventually solve the fundamental economic problem of scarcity. Then, Keynes said, people would have to worry only about how to use their leisure. Keynes clearly did not foresee the advent of video games!

Perhaps Keynes took too blithe a view. But the characters in Capek's play, along with the arguments of Smith, Marx and Keynes, all make one fact abundantly clear. The attitude we take toward our metal workers depends very much on our mental framework. Rather than attack robots for making work impossible, why not welcome them for making it unnecessary? Instead of being doomed to engage in endless drudgery, men and women have become increasingly free to cultivate their artistic talents and enjoy more and more of what we call the "finer things in life.""

"...Profit - which Marx called "surplus" and which he believed rightfully belonged to workers - was spent by capitalists to acquire more and more equipment. It would inevitably be used, Marx forecast, to replace labor, so it engendered a growing "reserve army of unemployed" which spelled capitalism's doom. Marx predicted that the exploited, alienated, and unemployed workers would rise up to overthrow the system."

"President Mitterrand of France addressed concerns about technological displacement at an economic summit at Versailles. And Hobart Rowen, economics writer for the Washington Post, has stressed the "need for governments to play a major role in integrating new technology with the working population and society in general."