Drake1

Andrew Drake
Ms. Moore
English 101
11/20/15
Were Losing the Race to the Machine, and why thats great!
Imagine a world were pointless labor has been abolished. Were people are no longer
enslaved by corporations to work long hours for meaningless wages. People have been freed
from menial labor to focus on culture and leisure. People no long have a fear of economic failure
as they live in a society with such abundance, that even the most lavish luxury good is available
to the masses. This is one possible route that could happen to us as automation more and more
often replaces human labor. It is also the most likely course as the western world moves into the
era of automated labor.
The automation of labor is terrifying to some people, as they fear the changes that come
with it. However there is little that can be done to stop the coming changes. The sheer economics
of the situation demand it. If one firm replaces all of its soft, squishy human employees with
more efficient and productive machines then all of them would be forced to do so to remain
competitive in the marketplace. For example Firm, A can produce ten units of a good at the cost
of ten units of cost with ten employees. Now say that Firm A, replaces nine of those human
employees with a single machine that can do all their work. Ignore the large initial investment
the overhead of the company drops drastically. They can now produce the ten units of goods at a
much lower cost of 4 units of cost. This allows Firm A to produce a much higher profit and to
pass the savings on to the consumer. The lower costs of Firm As good raises the demand for that
good, the other Firms in the Market must follow suit or force being out produced by Firm A. This

Drake2

will practically make humans unemployable in this market as there is little labor that they can
provide that would justify their expenses to the firms in this market.
Now that weve discussed the economics of the situation now imagine the social reasons
why the automation revolution will occur. Take into account the nature of human life, we strive
for a comfortable existence, in which we reach for our hopes and dreams. In every age of man,
we have been witness to both the wit, grit, laziness and terrible cruelty of man. In both the
strong-headed stubbornness and the competent and gifted we see a string of common
motivations. The desire for knowledge, wealth, or out of sheer curiosity. Our curiosity being one
of the strongest motivations that exists, the automation of labor would at last give man at large
the ability to pursue its curiosity without end. It frees us from our coil to labor and the need to
provide. It allows us to be inspired and to make our dreams manifest. How many books would
we have written, poems designed, masterpieces painted, languages learned or philosophies
debated if it were not for the need to preform labor. As Kelly writes
When robots and automation do our most basic work, making it relatively easy for us to
be fed, clothed and sheltered, then we are free to ask, What are humans for? (Kelly,
309).
This forms the crux this avenue of thinking. When we are no longer required to toil in the fields
to feed ourselves, we can find what makes us happy.
And perhaps the best reason that we should be replaced in the workforce by machines is
that theyre simple better at us when it comes to preforming labor. This is also perhaps the most
terrifying aspect of automation as well. Machines are well tasked to the mundane repetition that
is required in the manufacture of many goods. Machines can endlessly repeat the same motion or
sets of actions that are tedious or even physically harmful to humans. This has been a fact since

Drake3

the earliest of machines. Take for example the creation of cloth, as Kelly mentions, it is possible
that with a great deal of effort and time that humans can make cloth. However mechanized looms
have completely replaced human labor being able to create much more loth, with far fewer
imperfections than humans, on the cheap (Kelly, 306). It can be further assumed that tasks that
are too complex for machines to preform now have yet to have the necessary breakthroughs. It
started with cloth and then move to cars, soon they will move to houses and highways. Little in
terms of labor is safe from this fact, if we can do it, they can do it better and if they cant they
will soon be able to.
There is the opinion that such a degree of automation would cause the intellectual decay
of individuals. For example, Carr, states we would lose out attention spans and that he already
suffers from a lack of focus. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages.
I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. (Carr, 314) I put forth that
we would be more focused. No longer would we be fettered by the one third of our day that had
to be occupied by labor. The worries of the workplace would no longer exist. We would be able
to focus on the activities that make us fulfilled and that would allow to be more focused. We
would be more able and skilled in the things that we can derive our fulfillment from. Thompson
states, Todays digital tools help us see more, retrain more, communicated more. At their worst
they leave us prey to the manipulation of the tool makers. (Thompson, 350). With this support
man-kind must simple learn to use the tools effectively.
In conclusion it's important to mention the inevitability of the automation revolution. It's
not a pipe dream that are stuck in some dreamers head. There are some very functional
prototypes that are already being put to work in more dangerous or experimental fields. It is
simply a matter of time till it comes. It's important to begin to think of the transition that comes

Drake4

with the drastic shift in economic system from a scarcity economy and a post-scarcity economy.
If the most important players move wisely and deftly they could secure the future of mankind for
millennium to come.

Drake5

Works Cited
Kelly, Kevin. "Better Than Human: Why Robots Will-And-Must Take Our Jobs."Wired. 24
Dec. 2012: n. pag. Rpt. in They Say / I say. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstien, and
Russel Durst.3rd ed. London / New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. 299-312.
Print.

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008:
n. page. Rpt. in They Say / I Say. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstien, and Russel Durst.
3rd ed. London/ New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. 313-28. Print.

Thompson, Clive. Rise of the Centaurs Smarter than You Think: How Technology Is Changing
Our Minds for the Better 2013: n. page. Rpt. They Say / I say. Gerald Graff, Cathy
Brikenstien and Russel Durst. 3rd ed. London/ New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2015. 340-360. Print.