Within the next decade, robots will be everyday appliances in homes, the workforce of factories, the means by which a substantial portion of medical care will be delivered, and a new basis for wealth for those who benefit.
One example is that Foxcomm, the company that manufactures Apple iPhones and iPads is replacing 1.2 million workers with one million industrial robots. The cost of operating an industrial robot is about 30 cents/hour! Robot’s don’t take vacations, require health insurance and sick leave, make complaints, and will work long hours seven days a week.
In medical facilities, you often will be looking at a five-foot tall robot with a screen for a face that allows your doctor to see you and you to see your doctor. Medical robots will take your blood pressure, have the ability to look into your ears, and an ultrasound imaging system, among other capabilities.
With over 300,000 hospitals worldwide – only one of the uses of robots, we are apt to see a population of robots larger than that many nations, which already number over 20 million. Manufacturing factories, which in the US alone number 336,000 are populated with robots working tirelessly and will increasingly so.
Robots will carry out tasks and do things that are unsafe for people, do work that is impossible for people, and do things that it is uneconomical to employ humans to do. You can imagine robots doing such things as defusing bombs, being used in agriculture doing back-breaking work, and helping the aged function independently.
How does your future and your livelihood relate to this? First, you can become a robot technician, repairing and maintaining robots. While many robots can be expected to repair of themselves and other robots, we can expect humans to be needed. On sites like careerbuilder.com, you can find listings of jobs now available.
Robots will make our lives easier – as long as we find a way to earn a sustainable livelihood. For example. the more robots there are, there will be more technicians to maintain them. Robot repair technicians install, service, troubleshoot, maintain, and repair robots and automated production systems. The number of engineers who specialize in robots will grow. Following is an excerpt from the Robot Report:
More than 14,000 jobs were advertised online requiring knowledge or use of robotics in the U.S., according to WANTED Analytics™, a source of real-time business intelligence.
… The most commonly advertised job titles requiring use or knowledge of robotics: Maintenance Technician, Controls Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Physician Urology, Registered Nurse, Electrical Engineer, Software Engineer and Urologist.
Robots are only one sector of the economy that will grow explosively in the next two decades. Other blogs in this series describe other livelihoods we anticipate being viable for creating a sustainable livelihood.
For an initial free consultation to explore this or another sustainable livelihood that bests suits your personality and your community, contact us.
[maxbutton id=”1″]
Comments on the substance of the blogs are welcome. If you have other questions, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.