A few years ago I read a book titled "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future" by Martin Ford. The book captured my attention since I had been in the field of robotics for more than 10 years and I was really curious to learn about the effects of the robots that I was developing in the job market. However, when I went through the book I was surprised to see that most of the technologies presented in the book were related to computer software and telecommunication technology; mainly the rise of the Internet and its effect in many sectors such as education and healthcare. According to my experience of robots, whenever we specify a robot we always point to certain types of machines, which were not mentioned that much in this book.
After I finished reading this book, I tried to look for other books that talk about robot technology and its effect on the job market. Many books have the term robot its title. But whenever I go through one of those books, it does not talk that much about the type of robots that I know. I found that there is a mismatch between the robots that we know as engineers and the type of technology that is being presented by the Economist in their books and reports.
If we try to search for the definition of robot we can find many definitions. Despite these differences in defining the robot, all of those definitions describe the robot as a physical device that has some sort of automation. Therefore, a robot, based on those definitions; cannot just be a software program or some apps on the internet. In my previous article “Robot: Between Reality and Fiction”, I wrote about the difference between the robot view from reality and fiction. I discussed the root of the robot term's origin and how the robot was introduced in science fiction movies as a device that can take the humans’ role. And it seems that this is how the term robot has been picked up by economists. Whenever economists write reports about the technological effects on the job market, they use the term robot to describe any technology that can replace the human role. Therefore, it’s clear that the term robot might refer to two different things depending on the person who is present it. One is known by the engineers who are developing this technology and the other is used by the economists who are focusing on the effect of the technology on the job market.
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