Why Robots Will and Must Take Our Jobs: Engineering - Essay Example

Why Robots Will and Must Take Our Jobs: Engineering

Introduction

Long ago, engineering became an essential part of human life, whereas in due course, the same as other professional spheres, engineering involved robots. In this respect, Kevin Kelly’s article Better than Human: Why Robots Will and Must Take Our Jobs represents advantages brought to human life by automation of labor-intensive processes, as well as it shows robots’ beneficial nature for people’s further progress both in a professional sphere and rest. The author argues that robots are powerful to transform the world beyond recognition. This aspect is confirmed by their rapid development and acquiring smartness, which is typical for robots of the new generation. Hence, Kelly argues that robot replacement, partial or ultimate, depending on a job’s specifics, is the next phase of human life that will assert itself through robots’ taking human jobs. In fact, the robot takeover will create the new reality driven by advanced technologies, which are beyond understanding right now. With its emphasis on positive changes in every field of people’s activities, Kelly’s article can be applied to engineering. In engineering, robots like Baxter and other smart robots already beneficially perform the tasks of engineers’ assistants, which executed by humans in the past. There is a probability of robots taking people's jobs in engineering, for robots are good due to their effective assistance in mechanical tasks’ performance, in design and planning, and in gathering of comprehensive information alongside with its assessment for creation of many new projects.

Today’s Application of Robots in Engineering

The first area of robots’ effective use in engineering is their application for performance of mechanical tasks. Although there are not so many robots with human reflexes, which are used in engineering, many industrial robots contribute to engineers’ work by their assistance. One of those robots is Baxter. “Baxter’s hands perform repetitive manual tasks, just as factory robots do” (Kelly). Humans work side by side with Baxter and other smart robots, which have taken such a human job as an assistant. This fact confirms Kelly’s argument about the robot takeover: “And once we can cowork with robots right next to us, it’s inevitable that our tasks will bleed together, and soon our old work will become theirs…” (Kelly). Obviously, once robots develop their brain power capabilities able to add to their dexterousness, some of the engineers’ tasks will be fulfilled by them. Clearly, some of the robots’ functions in today’s engineering were initially performed by humans, whereas robots perform them due to their ability to work effectively without efforts usually demanded from people. In the context of their further development and acquiring of human-like dexterousness, robots will be able to bring even greater benefits to mechanical engineering. In this respect, Majidi (2013) argues, “Hybridization of synthetic and biological materials with tissue engineering and synthetic biology represents another emerging trend that will eventually lead to technologies that are more biocompatible and life-like” (10). If to consider design engineering, then it is clear that biocompatible robots’ use is extremely beneficial for engineers’ need to work on new projects’ creation.

The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Design-and-Planning Engineering

Design-and-planning engineering is the next area of engineering that displays the future of the robot takeover, for artificial intelligence already proves its power to bring benefits to engineers’ creation of new projects. Design engineers’ work is significantly simplified due to robots’ assistance to architectural drawings of buildings in terms of availability of necessary systems, such as sewerage, water supply, fire safety, and electrical networks. Robots’ calculation accuracy and spatial intelligence enable engineering’s power to plan and build up safe constructions in the best locations. In addition, a high speed of robots’ calculations adds to their brilliant assistance to the people involved in engineering. Hence, the human-robot cooperation opens new prospects and offers new possibilities for engineering development as a whole. For example, “Researchers and students from the University of Stuttgart employed robots to mould and stitch together the laminated plywood pavilion, which is based on the anatomy of a sea urchin” (Mairs). The robots employed in the project effectively assisted to humans both in calculation tasks and building of the pavilion, which resulted in the prompt project completion. In fact, the creation of the laminated plywood pavilion with the help of robots required several-fold less time than it could take without their involvement (Mairs). This project shows that robots’ application improve engineers’ chances to use their time for the creation of a greater number of new projects in a time usually spent by them on a design of one or at least several projects. In such a manner, robots’ smartness and its application by engineers for improvement and acceleration of engineering process prove the following Kelly’s argument: “…Machines are acquiring smarts” (Kelly). Those smart robots can change the reality of engineering. In this respect, an interview with John Dulchinos, a mechanical engineer, brings evidence of engineers’ need of artificial intelligence for their effective work in the context of more and more complicated structures of objects and new applications for their planning. In particular, Dulchinos claims, “These applications require robots that are smarter, more adaptable to their environment, more able to work alongside people and assist people” (Guizzo). In other words, engineering shows its dependence on robots adaptable for their location both in offices where engineers plan a design of their objects and onsite during the process of constructions’ examination. One way or another, the active use of robots in engineering seems to be a groundbreaking step forward the human race’s progress.

The Future of Robots’ Assistance to People

Currently, robots are used for gathering of comprehensive information and its assessment for creation of new engineering projects. Here, Kelly’s argument about robots’ power to simplify human jobs by assistance can be applied (Kelly). In this regard, engineer Dulchinos emphasizes, “The robot of the future is not a job taker; it’s a job assistant” (Guizzo). So, according to Dulchinos, engineering is a field that benefits from cooperation between humans and robots. However, Dulchinos does not talk about robots’ jobs that can be done by them without human participation. In such a way, the engineer does not support Kelly’s argument about the robot ultimate takeover of some human jobs in the future. Obviously, Dulchinos sees a pivotal role of humans’ participation in engineering, whereas robots provide human engineers with appropriate calculations, measurements, and so on. At the same time, “The robotics experts believed that robots should, but could not, do the jobs of computer software engineers…” (Ju and Takayama 6) However, the chances are high that Kelly’s claim about robots’ being better than human in some jobs will assert itself in engineering (and even software engineering), the same as in other fields. Actually, the history of artificial intelligence’s onrush shows that people were not able to predict the future of robots’ assistance to humans. This fact is mentioned by Kelly in his article: “This is the greatest genius of the robot takeover: With the assistance of robots and computerized intelligence, we already can do things we never imagined doing 150 years ago” (Kelly). For example, the effective application of Baxter and other smart robots proves their ability to perform some of engineer assistants’ tasks better than humans. That is to say, even if other engineers tend to believe in robots’ being assistants in all human jobs (the same as Dulchinos thinks), it is likelihood that engineering will become a field of robots, whereas people will obtain results of robots’ work without significant involvement in the process as it is.

The Groundlessness of People’s Worrying about the Robot Takeover

Although a reality in which robots free engineers to provide them with a possibility to find new alternatives for the human race seems to be the most beneficial one for the future of engineering, someone can worry that robots will take jobs away from humans. Yet, there is no reason to believe that human world will transform into robotic after the robot takeover, for people will continue to work, whereas their jobs will be good and beneficial for their self-realization. This aspect is clearly stated by Kelly: “We aren’t giving ‘good jobs’ to robots. Most of the time we are giving them jobs we could never do” (Kelly). In such a manner, the author clarifies robots’ function for the human race: they make human life easier via bringing benefits by their performing tasks beyond people’s strength for whatever reason. In fact, robots’ use in engineering is caused by their brain power capabilities and their beneficial nature for improvement of engineers’ work in relation to calculation speed, calculation accuracy, perfect projecting and analysis, and others. Being free from the latter, engineers receive more time to concentrate on the process of new design projects’ creation. In this respect, smart robots justify their power to assist humans in their hypotheses’ verification via the gathering of comprehensive information alongside with its evaluation. So, engineers can dedicate their time to further improvement of the outside world with the help of their projects. Robots, in turn, can serve as dependent assistants or independent (in the areas in no need of human involvement). In any case, the robot takeover contributes to human life, not make it robotic, as some individuals can suggest.

Conclusion

Kelly’s argument about the robot takeover finds its confirmation in engineering. In fact, robot replacement already began to penetrate into engineering, which is evident from the cooperation of engineers and robots. The future of engineering is seen in further development of artificial brain power capabilities and their active application in engineers’ work. This information is essential for people’s understanding of the role played by artificial intelligence in the modern world. Moreover, it contributes to the evaluation of the future prospects of engineering, which is one of the professional fields that shape human reality in a direct way. In such a manner, the information provides people with evaluation of benefits brought by robots to engineering. It proves its power to trace the connection between robot replacement and progress of the human race as a whole. Hence, the information can be used for clarification of robots’ functions in the modern world, which show people robots’ beneficial nature and thus refutes potential arguments against robots’ use in engineering.