What can you do better than a robot?

I often talk to people about the future, about automation and the capabilities of robots in today’s and tomorrow’s world. Predictions about the future can overestimate (flying cars) or underestimate (video phones) the eventual reality. I don’t doubt that we could have flying cars if it was something we wanted enough – more research, profit incentive, and consumer demand would undoubtedly lead to some flying car of some sort. But technology is driven by what people are prepared to pay for – mostly new smartphones, tablets, and voice controlled doohickeys.

I’m going to assume that intelligent robots are going to happen. Robots have been mainstays in factories for many years, with increasing automation. We see some very famous robots in action – the Honda robot, ASIMO, is one example. And those robots that play soccer. YouTube is full of videos of research labs with robots that can run, catch, play pingpong.

In the future, if you want to be employable, make sure you choose a career in which you’ll be more valuable than a robot.

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