Automation, automation, and then some more… automation:
- “Are robots going to steal your job? Probably” – Guardian
- “Taco Bell built a bot that will order Crunchwrap Supremes for you” – CNBC
- “McDonalds Responds To Minimum Wage Hikes, Launches McCafe Coffee Kiosk” – ZeroHedge
- “AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs” – Pew Research
- “What Happens to Humans When Machines Do All the Work?” – Good
- Deep Learning
All this brings to mind the question: what does it mean to be human if work is all done for us, even (at best) in some utopian state where the robots take care of us, make our food, do our jobs and just allow us to live and enjoy the pleasures of life? For many this sounds like a dream come true. However, what meaning is left to humans? The result really sounds very depressing.
Adam and Eve, before the fall, were created to work. Work is good, it’s not some result of the fall. It’s a part of our very nature that we desire to produce, create and innovate. This is a result of the fact that we’re made in the image of God, who Himself works, creates and invents.
Even though I work in IT, I’m completely convinced there are many things that technology simply does not do as well as humans. That could certainly change in the future as more jobs become automated using precision techniques to accomplish the task at hand in a more naturally human manner.
But this brings us again back to the fundamental question: what does it mean to be human? Christianity has an answer for that: https://www.monergism.com/topics/anthropology/imago-dei
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