Creativity rules: By 2050, robots can do a lot more work than we originally perceived.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if I had my own robot-me? I might even call it F-Bot (or FE-Bot). Maybe it can go to meetings in my place, do my chores, answer my emails (and maybe even phone calls), talk to clients, etc. This way, I have more time to do my own stuff, like going to gym, do more ballroom dancing, ride my bike, go sight-seeing in SF (yes, I live in SF, but there are so many places I still have not seen yet), read more books and articles on creative-thinking, etc. The key is, I have to be more creative and work along-side my robot and make it better.

 

This is no secret. Since the beginning of time, humans always looked for ways to automate their life. Even prehistoric hunters were creating and designing tools to make their life easier. About 200 years ago, about 70 percent of the workforce lived on farms. Today, automation has eliminated all but 1 percent, replacing them and their animals with machines. Those farmers are now manning the machines in factories that churn out farm equipment, cars, toys and other industrial products.

 

It maybe hard to believe, but by the end of the century, 70 percent of today’s occupation is also automated. Speedy robots have already penetrated the assembly lines, soon they will replace the workers in warehouses. Pharmacies will feature a single pill-dispensing robot, while the pharmacist focus on patient consulting. House and office cleaning soon will be replaced by late-night robots.

 

All the while, robots will also migrate into the white-collar work. It doesn’t matter if you are a doctor, lawyer, architect, reporter or even programmer. Robot takeover will be epic. I believe the people who will come on top, are designers, engineers, managers, doctors, lawyers who could work efficiently along-side the robots. Reading an article on “Wired” magazine, we will go to through the following seven stages of Robot Replacement:

 

• 1. A robot cannot possibly do the tasks I do
• 2. OK, it can do a lot of them, but it can’t do everything I do.
• 3. OK, it can do everything, except when it breaks down.
• 4. OK, it can operate flawlessly on routine stuff, but I need to train it on new stuff.
• 5. OK, it can do my old boring job. Obviously, humans are not meant to do that.
• 6. Nice, the robot is doing my old boring job. My new job rocks.
• 7. Glad the robot cannot do my new job yet.