In the pursuit of the perfect world, where everyone will be happy with smart technologies because machines will do all the hard work instead of us, we risk complicating our lives. As you have noticed, robots are already around us. We order food through applications, fly on aircraft with the autopilot system. Our phone knows more about our lives than we can remember, and Facebook recognizes the faces of random passers-by from the photos that we put into the network. We are even operated by robots; children play with drones. There is no problem, that robots already defeat people in chess, the real problem is much broader - the improvement of robots and machine learning algorithms changes the labor market, and in that case many jobs are very likely to be automated and as a consequence, many people will lose their workplaces. Moreover, robots can get out of control and kill people, because they are better than us. All that I have said before are undergrounded, fanciful fears that have no connection with the real situation with smart machines. So, the main question of my essay is: ‘Is there a possibility that robots can completely replace humans?’. Why do I think like that? I have three main arguments.
First, computers are totally under the control of people and there is no chance to lose control of them. Ordinary people are concerned about the growing trend in automation and afraid that robots will rise in rebellion against humanity. But it is a completely baseless fear. Robots are only tools in the hands of humans. We force them to work by giving smart machines the right instructions. The idea that robots will defeat people is incredibly silly right now. Sometimes humanity is very naive in our attempts to be equal with God. We think that our creature – a smart machine is better than God`s creature – human. But robots haven`t their own intelligence, they are deprived of creative thinking, intuition, and feelings. Moreover, every robot is specialized in some small field. So, robots can`t exist without humans` maintain and do their work without exact algorithms, that we also create for them. That`s why it is absurd to think that a piece of iron, that was created by people and works on exact algorithms can plan a rebellion and even more – defeat smart independent, critical thinking humans, created by God.
The second great fear about robots is that smart machines will take over human jobs. Pessimists think that robot engineers, robot actors, and robot lawyers will replace human experts in the near future. Of course, technology will replace many jobs – it has always done so. But such intellectual jobs as journalists, doctors and lawyers will be never replaced by machines, because they can do just simple repeatable work and will never establish trust with a person, be creative and inventive. At the same time, we cannot predict the numbers of new jobs/careers that new technology will create. Even today, there are a huge number of technology jobs that did not exist ten years ago: state-of-the-art programming, data science, web security, marketing and sales. There is no reason to believe that the need for humans to create and manage new technology will decrease.
And third, computers were created to help people and it is their main purpose. Smart machines such as MRI machine and x-ray machine and others help a person with chronic illness to survive. Also, robots can work in dangerous places, for instance, on the depth or explore space and areas of the universe that aren’t practical for human exploration. Every day we face with robots that simplify our lives.
Thus, our fears have no grounds. Robots are our friends. They make our existing easier and create new opportunities to develop. If we continue to think that smart machines are bad and dangerous for humans existing, we just will not differ from the Middle Ages, where all progress was stopped and people lived in permanent fear of death because of the inventing something new.