Are Robots Going To Have An Apocalypic Effect On Our job prospects?

According to Business Insider UK, ‘Experts predict that robots will take over 30% of our jobs by 2025’, this is across the whole spectrum of occupations so even white collar workers are at risk.  When we think about robots we tend to conjure up images of humanoids like; I robot, Terminator, Replicants and the Droids from Star Wars, but the likelihood of these types robots will steal our pay packets is pretty small. Many industries use robots to carry out mundane tasks that require precision and accuracy, the car industry for instance has used robots in its production line for many years.  Doctors use robotic tools to perform some operations and robots have been used many times to detonate bombs in war torn areas.

Planet Money has configured a test to see if your job could be taken over by a machine – we are not sure how true the results are but you could click on this link and see if your job is under threat.  It seems that if you serve or cook food it is bad luck but if you are into computers and statistics you will be fine for now.  It would appear that you need to be skilled in a job that is not repetitive and requires human judgement or just know how to make  programmable logical controllers, work.  Does this mean that we are all going to evolve into programmers and robot maintenance people until robots develop artificial intelligence and enslave us – didn’t anyone take notice of Skynet?

The iconic film Blade Runner was set in 2019 and Terminator 1997, fortunately fingers crossed the robot Armageddon has not quite reached us – unless the powers that be haven’t told us yet and you were served by a robot the last time you went to McDonalds. Unless of course if you have been to Taiwan, where the staff are already pretending to be robots so they don’t loose their jobs.

All dystopian films have shown us that initially robots assisting us in everyday life is originally a good idea the robots always manage to interpret the algorithm about not endangering human lives as a green light to kill humans to save the human race.  Until this bug gets sorted lets hope that any robots that are used are the type that will happily screw the lid on toothpaste.

Programmable Logic Controllers Can Be Victims OF Cyber Attacks Too!

Cyber attackers have gone a long way since just programming viruses that will wipe your computer or retrieve personal information about you.  We are used to the concept that cyber attackers can intercept mobile phones, company systems and copy your card details what we are not prepared for are attacks on anything incorporating a programmable logic controller.  A programmable logic controller is simply a device that receives a set of commands and acts upon them.  Programmable logic controllers are found in cars, central heating systems, medical equipment, games consoles, factory systems and even e-cigarettes.  Basically anything that you input commands, however simple, involves a programmable logic controller. As we rely on programmable logic controllers more and cyber attackers improve their hacking skills we could be subject to more sinister consequences to attacks.

Skynet

One of the most famous programmable logic controllers has to be the Terminator who was developed by the fictional computer system Skynet.  Skynet was developed for the American military as a ‘global defence network’, and given the command over all the computerised military hardware.  In theory this was because it was assumed that computer systems would stick to set rules and not be prone to human weakness.  Unfortunately they didn’t anticipate that the Skynet system would start learning and develop self awareness so quickly that the operators could no longer control it because it could anticipate their every move.  Left to its own devices and following the rules of the original coding which was to, defend itself against humanity, it attacked Russia causing an apocalyptic counter attack and then captured any survivors to work factories to manufacture cyborgs.  Skynet started its advance by taking control of all net worked computers.

Cyber Attackers

Fortunately (well I hope) we have not reached a point where a huge government computer system has taken over the world like Skynet but we have reached a point where humans can act like cyborgs and destroy and control systems with programmable logic controllers.  Imagine if you had bought a self driving car and it got cyber attacked – you could end up driving around like the Dukes of Hazard and reaching your destination feeling quite scared.  What if cyber attackers decided that the best way to assassinate a politician they didn’t like was by switching off their life support machine while they are ill in hospital.    What about your holiday in Disney Land where you are on the California Screaming Ride and it is cyber attacked?  I dread to think of its consequences.

Just Be Aware!

Cyber attack is so subtle you don’t always know it is happening so please be vigilant and another thing if you see a huge man with a gun speaking with an Austrian accent – RUN  AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!!