The robots are coming. Part 2

I am not talking about the Terminator Robots rising up and exterminating humanity. That's a long way off and probably not hard to prevent. What I am talking about is the fundamental changes that robots will bring to the way our society functions. For thousands of years humans have had a very simple yet effective way of doing things. We trade for goods and services. I do something for you and you give me something in return. Its a simple and effective system. But robots could bring it all crashing down around us.

It is perhaps a sad fact but most humans are employed doing what can only be described as drudgery. Sure lots of people are brain surgeons or rocket scientists but they are the exception not the rule. Most of us spend our days toiling at jobs that really don't require a great deal of brain power. And it is just such jobs that the robots are going to take from us first.

Lets take a look at just a few of the jobs that are going to disappear in the next 10 to 30 years.

Taxi Driver - 300,000
Truck Driver - 3.5 Million
Infantry Soldier - 500,000
Bus Driver - 500,000
Factory Line Worker - 10 Million
Fast Food Workers - 3.5 Million
Grocery Store Workers - 1.3 Million
Bank Tellers - 600,000

Add in all the other jobs that Robots can do like cutting your grass and washing your floor and you may have 50 Million jobs lost in North America in the next 50 years. Some experts believe within 100 years we could have nearly 100% unemployment. How we deal with this change will be a huge challenge. If we handle it right it could be a golden moment for Humanity. We will be free of drudgery and danger in the workplace. We will be free to be artists and philosophers. Or if we mess up the transition it could bring massive unemployment, starvation and death. Time will tell.

The Robots Are Coming Part 1

Robots will change everything

When we think of Prepping we tend to think of disasters like floods or pandemics, however another part of prepping we often overlook is what I call societal changes. Societal changes are unexpected events or developments that fundamentally change the way humans do things. A few examples from history would include the invention of writing. The use of fire. The invention of farming. The industrial revolution. The list goes on....

Now you are probably saying to yourself that the events I have listed are positive things and you would probably be right. However big changes, even positive changes, often bring great pain in the short term. I am not old enough to remember the discovery of fire but human nature being what it is you can bet the people that had fire used it to gain advantage over those who did not. Any history book will tell you of the pain the industrial revolution brought to millions who had to adjust to life in a new world.

So why the history lesson?? Many experts beleve that humanity is right on the edge of a big change. A change that will rank with the big events of human history. An event that is going to change the very nature of how we live our lives and run our civilization. The robots are coming.

Actually the Robots are already here. As I sit here writing this Blog post my robot vacuum is happily scooting around my feet as it cleans the dirt from my floor. Soon my floor washing robot will start up and do the kitchen floor.  And right now an engineer is riding his self driving car as he weaves in and out of highway traffic.

So what does it all mean? And why as a prepper should I care? Stay tuned for part 2.