What will we do when bots take over?

15 February 2016 - 08:44 By The Daily Telegraph

Robots will have taken over most jobs within 30 years, leaving humanity facing its "biggest challenge ever" - to find meaning in life when work is no longer necessary.Moshe Vardi, of Rice University in the US, claims that the work of many middle-class professionals will be outsourced to machines within the next few decades, leaving them with more leisure time than they have ever known.Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC, Vardi said the rise of robots could lead to unemployment of more than 50%."We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task," said Vardi, a professor of computational engineering."Robots are doing more and more jobs that people used to do. Pharmacists, prison guards, deboning chicken, bar tending; we're able to mechanise more and more jobs."I believe that society needs to confront this question before it is upon us: if machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?"The question I want to put forward is: 'Does the technology we are developing ultimately benefit mankind?'"A typical answer is that, if machines do all our work, we will be free to pursue leisure activities," Vardi said."I do not find this a promising future because I do not find the prospect of a leisure-only life appealing. That seems to me a Dystopia. I believe that work is essential to human wellbeing."Humanity is about to face perhaps its greatest challenge ever, which is finding meaning in life after the end of 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' epoch."We need to rise to the occasion and meet this challenge before human labour becomes obsolete."If machines can do all the work, or even half of the jobs that we used to do, what will be left for people to do?" ..

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