Robotic Nation summery

Matthew Machado 10/30/09

In the article “Robotic Nation,” Marshall Brain argues that machines are going to replace human beings in every field of employment in the future. Marshall begins his article by describing McDonald’s, and the old routine that he and his kids use to take when they went there every weekend. He writes “Our normal routine is to walk into McDonald’s, stand in line, order, stand around waiting for the order, sit down, eat and play”. But then he writes “On Sunday, this decades-old routine changed forever”. Marshall writes that McDonald’s has a new system were you can order your food from kiosks in the play area. He focuses a lot on the kiosks. Marshall and his kids ordered food through a computer screen, and he noted that the kiosk machine only took paper money, not credit cards.

Marshall writes that after they sat down at the table with a plastic number it only took 2 minutes for the waitress to deliver their food and his change. Marshall’s opinion of this new system is a positive one, though he believes that it would be better if the machines took credit cards. However, Marshall states that this new system is only the beginning of some thing that we don’t understand. He describes this beginning as “the tip of an iceberg”. He believes that “this iceberg is going to change the American economy in ways that are very hard to imagine”.

Marshall describes this iceberg by listing 4 different but similar computer operated systems that he came into contact with through out the day. He writes “I got money in the morning from the ATM, I bought gas from an automated pump, I bought groceries at BJ’s (a warehouse club) using an extremely well-designed self-service check out line, and I bought some stuff for the house at Home Depot using their not-as-well-designed-as-BJ’s self-service check out line”. Marshall writes that even though these new automated systems are a dream come true for customers, they are a living nightmare for American workers. These new systems eliminate the need for human employment and will leave many Americans unemployed. Marshall says that this will cause major economic problems over the next several decades.

Marshall insists that all these technological improvements will start a robotic revolution. He says that robots, like the ones we see in science fiction movies like star wars, will become real, and this will happen much sooner then we could ever imagine. Marshall then writes that the automated systems we see today are just the beginning. He states that soon robots will be made in human form and will take over millions of jobs. He then states that by 2025, the first machines that could see, hear, move and manipulate objects at the same level as a human would be making their way from research labs into the marketplace.

Marshall writes that a humanoid robot can fit easily into any environment. He states that “a humanoid robot could ride an escalator, climb stairs, drive a car, and so on without any trouble”. He then states that by 2055 robots will have taken over every workplace and there will be no turning back. He keeps talking about future dates and things that most people would think is impossible. So basically Marshall Brain is trying to warn us about how technology is controlling our lives, and if we don’t do something about it will lead to a disaster in our employment future.