New Way of Thinking

It has been a while since I last posted, longer than I had wanted. But, GSET has kept me extremely busy every single day, completely filling my schedule from 8 AM to 11 PM, with very little free time. Even though I’m exhausted most days, I am happy. Today is the first day of the third week, and I have found my groove here at GSET, finally. The weekdays are usually the same: get up, rush to get ready, eat breakfast, go to morning elective (3D designing in SolidWorks), eat lunch, go to physics, go to research project meeting, go to evening elective (Shake, Rattle & Roll), eat dinner, go to more research project meetings, sleep, repeat. Each day, I learn new things, and I am forced to think in ways I had not before.

One experience that has particularly stood out to me was one of my Shake, Rattle & Roll (SRR) classes last week. We watched a really thought-provoking video on the effect of advancing technology on jobs; I will provide the link down at the end of this. Then, we had an open discussion on our thoughts of the video, and I was able to hear opinions from both sides. Because our discussion was cut short by our limited time, I thought this blog would give me the perfect opportunity for me to share my thoughts. So, over the course of our 15-minute discussion, I heard many differing opinions; some people believed that robots will and should take over human tasks, while some firmly believed that robots should not take over. While I heard many compelling arguments, I do believe that robots taking over human jobs is perhaps inevitable, but not necessarily a good thing.

As technology becomes more advanced, the possibility of robots replacing humans is only becoming more and more feasible, a scary idea for most. With the recent advancements, robots will be able to replace human jobs in the future, like doctors, construction workers, etc. Already, robots have made strides toward revolutionizing the driving industry with self-driving cars. So, it is becoming harder to deny the impending involvement of machines in our lives. Although a large argument in favor of robots is that they are better equipped to overcome human error, I’d like to make the argument that humans can learn to adapt, while machines would rely on humans to change their code in order to “learn.” But, perhaps the most concerning effect of the rise of robots is a decline in job availability, a very serious consequence in today’s society. Unemployment rates could skyrocket, leaving us with the question: what will come of us? Walking out of my class, I was left with countless questions. What will humans do if there are no jobs? How will this change the economy? How far in the future is this whole situation? I may not know the answers, but I do know I am grateful that GSET is opening my eyes to so many different topics that affect us.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

-Amy