Technology has been developing at an amazing rate. Stop for a minute, and think how much your life has changed over the past decade alone. We now literally rely on pieces of technology that didn’t even exist back then, to do everyday tasks.

 When was the last time you used a map to plan out a driving route? When was the last time you used the yellow pages to find contact information? When was the last time you sent a letter to someone in another country?

 How we search for information, or plan our daily tasks has certainly improved with the access to new technology like smartphones, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and of course the Internet. However, in the immortal words of Rocky Balboa “Life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows”, and that technology comes at a price; not only in form of a currency.

 The same technology that is responsible for gadgets that make our lives much easier and pleasant, are causing a lot of problems to some people who are becoming redundant, simply because it is a lot cheaper for a machine to do the job.

 Machines don’t have to eat, they don’t have families to support, they don’t need medical insurance, and they don’t file complaints. In an era where ethics and values are becoming scarce, the scarcity applies to jobs like meter readers, and postmen. Most business owners are more worried about profits, than the welfare of their employees, and will adopt technologies to replace human labour as soon as they have access to it. The rest of business owners who do have morals and care about the people they employ, are not able to compete, and are forced to do the same.

 This automation of services is not new though, and there are many arguments claiming it is not a problem. As some jobs become redundant, more jobs will always be available, and this has been true up to the end of the 20^th century; but the rate in which jobs are becoming automated has never been higher. A recent study by researchers at MIT predicts 47% of jobs in the U.S. are going to become automated in the next 20 years.

 The study estimates that people in the transportation and logistics sectors, as well as office and administrative support workers are at most risk. If you stop and think about it though, it only makes sense that many other sectors are going to go under a radical computerisation. Soon enough we are going to have the ability to upload information directly into our brains; who is going to need teachers then? Who is going to need schools and universities at all when you can pay an “x” amount of money and become an engineer?

 Machines are taking over human jobs. That is a fact and is already happening. How long will it be before we have the first mass protests against automation? How long before this topic gets mass media attention and people start to freak out?

 Is your job safe? Or will a machine replace you in the next few years?