The robots are coming, and they want your job.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Reports suggest that by the year 2030,
00:07 800 million jobs will be lost to automation.
00:12 Will yours be one of them?
00:14 We used to be afraid that robots would rise to power
00:17 and make us their slaves.
00:19 Now it looks like we have more realistic things to worry about.
00:24 How would our economy survive if there were no jobs left for us to perform?
00:28 Would we be living in a relaxing world with no worries?
00:32 Or would our entire society start to crumble?
00:36 This is WHAT IF, and here's what would happen if machines took over.
00:42 We've seen jobs lost to automation before, but this time it'll be different.
00:47 Because it won't just be low-wage, low-skill jobs being replaced.
00:51 Middle-income positions such as medical technicians,
00:54 chefs, office workers, security guards, and inspectors
00:59 could also go to the machines.
01:02 How do we make sure that we don't become obsolete?
01:08 Imagine a world where we can send robots to do our most dangerous jobs.
01:12 Where automation could eliminate the possibility of human error
01:16 from high-stakes situations.
01:18 And where we could delegate our most tedious tasks to our artificial counterparts.
01:24 It's not hard to see the potential benefits that would come along with a machine-based workforce.
01:30 If robots took over our jobs, wouldn't we just be left to enjoy all the fun parts of life?
01:35 Well, as nice as that may sound, it's not very realistic.
01:39 For one thing, there are some jobs that robots will probably never be able to replace.
01:45 But before we get into those, let's take a more realistic look
01:49 at how things would be if a good portion of jobs didn't exist anymore.
01:54 Picture this.
01:55 You walk into work one morning and find that a robot has been brought on
01:59 to complete all the repetitive aspects of your job,
02:02 freeing you up to focus on the more rewarding ones.
02:05 It seems pretty awesome at first, but it would probably lead to lower wages for your profession,
02:11 seeing that robots are now doing all the hard work.
02:14 It would also create more competition in your field, because,
02:17 aided by automatic technology, more people would be able to do your job.
02:22 And as the costs of automation for these middle-class positions started to fall,
02:26 employers would be inclined to stop employing humans altogether.
02:30 That would lead to some pretty significant problems.
02:33 First off, with all these paid positions being eliminated,
02:36 the government would start losing out on a ton of taxes.
02:40 And they'd need to scramble to find a way to prevent the middle class from completely disappearing.
02:46 Big corporations who had the money to buy robots could use them to earn even more money,
02:51 while everyone who had their jobs replaced by robots would be left to struggle in poverty.
02:57 But it doesn't all have to be that bleak.
02:59 As we said earlier, not every job could be replaced by automation.
03:03 A lot of our basic human qualities are hard to code.
03:07 So jobs that require social skills, creativity, nurturing, teaching,
03:14 negotiating, or selling will probably always be safe.
03:18 And working together with machines doesn't necessarily have to spell economic turmoil.
03:23 We could implement taxes for companies that use robotic labor,
03:27 make sure that definitively human capabilities are highly valued,
03:31 and continuously update our education and training institutions
03:35 to prepare people for jobs in this new era.
03:38 It isn't going to be easy, but getting the most out of this robot-human relationship
03:42 would definitely be worth it.
03:44 We just have to make sure we don't get them angry, or else...
03:48 (explosion)
03:51 But that's a topic for another WHAT IF.
03:54 (music)