The robots are coming! The robots are coming! They’re everywhere. They’re coming for your job, too. You can beat them and here is how.
I read the title of a blog post this morning called, “How to Make Yourself Irreplaceable at Work” and the title intrigued me greatly. I started thinking about how robots could replace pretty much any job and likely will over time. Then, my thoughts went immediately to the Bible and this question came to my mind: What is the difference between a robot and a human?
Both robots and humans:
- have short term memory (RAM)
- have long term memory (hard drive)
- have incredibly high processing speed (processor)
- have the ability to physically move
- have the ability to execute commands from superiors
- and so on
Then I started thinking about how robots were in some ways better:
- they don’t experience pain
- they don’t have to quit at 5pm and will probably work overtime without many complaints
- they don’t eat meat or dairy
- they don’t have costly funeral services
- they don’t require payroll taxes to be deducted (jumpin’ Jehosophat! Our governments are going to need a new tax!)
- etc
However, after a few seconds (I was urinating at the time) I remembered two simple truths:
- Man (yes, I still use ‘man’ when I write because it’s easy and provocative) is made in God’s image (Genesis)
- robots are made in man’s image
Then I thought about the unique attributes of humans that robots could never replicate:
- Humans, like God, can create something out of nothing (it’s called an ‘idea’) whereas robots can only create something out of what humans program in. Even the argument of a robot creating a song, for example, is actually just ‘programmed randomness’.
- Humans have a consciousness which allows them to be aware that they exist
- Humans have the ability to feel.
- Humans have the ability to form an opinion
- Humans have free will
- and more
What are the implications of this?
If a human wishes to remain fully irreplaceable they must needs focus at least some of their energy on improving the areas that are not able to be copied by a tin can.
There you go. I hope that eureka moment knocked you off your bar stool.
So, for me, I write this blog, not because I have time to do it but because I can’t afford *not* to exercise my creative muscles. I stop and hug my daughters not because I have time to do it but because I can’t afford *not* to give love to these precious little creations and experience that moment…
Folks. We gotta build our relationships somehow. The real, human relationships.
Or the robots will take us out.
*And don’t ask me how that black line got on Harper’s face. Must have been the eraser tool on a layer… 🙁
