Not long ago we were surprised to hear a group of emergency room nurses expressing fear that their jobs would be taken away by robots.
“Surely not?”
“Oh, yeah,” one responded. “Here’s most of what we do.” She held out her hands as though they carried a tray and lifted the tray into position for the imaginary surgeon. She lowered her hands and repeated the gesture.
Yes, a robot could do that.
A new report suggests that 47% of American jobs could be done by machines with good programming and feedback. That includes not only manufacturing and printing jobs, but also the service jobs that people are now trying hard to raise to more lucrative levels.
Basically, any motion that motion control can control… well, it’s beginning to sound like how much wood could a woodchuck chuck, but you get the point. If a job doesn’t require higher brain functions, there’s no reason not to leave it up to a servo motor and drive.
The nurses felt that the solution to their problem would be to outlaw automation. We’re inclined to think that the solution is to give the nurses more responsibility and training. If a machine can do it, let the machine do it.
Machines — even machines like Indramat and Rexroth motion control that can provide an error code — can’t fix themselves. Call us when you need that kind of service. We’re 100% human, guaranteed.