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Robots – Conversation Lesson

Kristin: AJ, do you remember when you had called me but you didn’t leave a message so my cell phone just showed missed call and then, I don’t know, it was a couple hours later, my phone texted you, like just on its own.

AJ: Yeah, yeah.

Kristin: Saying to call me later.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, I got a text saying, “Missed your call, call me later.” So I did, I think…

Kristin: And I wasn’t even home because I didn’t text you to call me.

AJ: Yeah, and then later we figured out that you didn’t send that text that somehow your phone automatically sent that text to me like, I don’t know, programmed into your phone somehow.

Kristin: Yeah, I never figured it out. It was the strangest thing.

AJ: Yeah, the computers are starting to think for themselves.

Kristin: I know, that’s what I was thinking.

AJ: It reminds me, too, y’know, just in the newspaper in San Francisco, it was front page, this article that Uber, the car…y’know the…whatever it’s called, car-driving taxi service…

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: They are starting now, already, to test self-driving cars. They’re going to start it in one city. So, y’know, we keep reading articles about this and I always imagine oh, it’s years and years away. Well, they’re going to start doing it right now.

Kristin: Yeah, I know. You mentioned it to me the other day and I couldn’t believe like that that’s happening in our lifetime actually.

AJ: Yeah, it’s happening very quickly, I think, y’know? Because I’ve been reading for a few years now about, I know Google, Apple, I know some of the Japanese car companies are all developing this technology, but the articles I’ve read always make it sound like it’s kind of far away.

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: But then, apparently not because, y’know, Uber cars, I think it’s Pittsburgh…they’re going to have, I don’t know how many, they’re testing, y’know, several self-driving cars. They’re going to have a human in the car, just as backup…

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: …in case something happens, but the car’s going to do everything.

Kristin: You know, I took Uber the other day to meet you guys at Angkor Borei and my driver brought it up, out of the blue. I had just had the conversation with you and she brought it up in the car and she was really quite funny. Instead of sounding concerned, like wow, this is happening and this means, y’know, no job for me…

AJ: Yeah.

Kristin: …she actually was like, “I wouldn’t want to get in a car that’s self-driving. What if it goes off a bridge?” I thought similar thoughts, like, I don’t know how safe I would feel getting into a car that’s just automatically driving. There’s no one in there to control it if it malfunctions or something goes wrong.

AJ: Yeah, I mean I think that’s one of those things, like with most technology, y’know, the beginning of the technology are the danger points.

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: Because now, the truth is, most planes fly themselves. Big planes, when you take a long flight anywhere, y’know, I’ve read this and actually I know a pilot who told me this, that the pilots usually take off and land.

Kristin: Those are the most critical times.

AJ: Right, but the rest of the time, it’s on autopilot. The computer is flying the plane most of the flight and I’m sure eventually, in fact, I know I’ve had a pilot tell me that the computer could probably take off and land, too.

Kristin: Hmmm.

AJ: They just don’t do it know because, y’know, they feel like it’s still, y’know, not safe enough or maybe it’s just a confidence thing. But, y’know, eventually I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole flight is done by the computer.

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: And so I’m, y’know, I’m guessing that it’s the same thing with the cars. There’s probably more to deal with for the computer for a car, right? Because in the plane, it’s more controlled.

Kristin: Right. You’re just staying…you’re just cruising along…

AJ: Yeah, but…

Kristin: …at a certain altitude.

AJ: Right, a car, some person could jump out in front of you suddenly and all kinds of things can happen unexpectedly.

Kristin: Right.

AJ: But anyway…we’ll see. It’s going to happen. I’m for sure, I think, in the next decade we’re going to start seeing it. First, it will start with like Uber, Lyft, taxis, I bet and expand from there. I’m sure in our lifetime, as long as, y’know, knock on wood, we live a nice long life we’re going to probably have our own little self-driving cars eventually. But in a broader way, y’know, really robotics and computers, they’re…they’re taking over whole industries now. Y’know, manufacturing now is done by robot. In many industries, it’s almost completely robotic and that is, y’know, expanding so, y’know, the number of jobs, for example, available in manufacturing are going down, down, down, down. And, y’know, the machines are replacing many of these jobs.

Kristin: God, that’s so scary.

AJ: I know, it’s a little bit like a sci-fi movie, right?

Kristin: Yeah, it is, it really is. What…you were telling me just a minute ago about, or a little while ago about some guy…

AJ: Oh, yeah. I can’t remember his name. There’s a guy who writes about technology. Ah, I can’t remember his name. But this guy anyway, he’s predicting that, y’know, within our lifetimes again, so, y’know, let’s say within the next 40 years that computers will become smarter than humans and that at that point, humans and computers will basically merge, y’know, that we’ll…that we’ll start putting, like cyborgs basically. That we’re going to start putting machines and robotics into our bodies. So like, y’know, if you’ve got a bad heart they’ll put in a robotic heart. You got a bad liver? You get a robotic liver and like little by little your body gets replaced by machine parts and then eventually, he predicts, that they’ll be able to do this with your thoughts, memories, until basically the human race becomes robotic and computerized.

Kristin: Yeah, you were talking about…well, this new race, it would be like a new race being formed.

AJ: Yeah.

Kristin: Being able to, people being able to download information like a computer.

AJ: Exactly. Now, so this guy, he’s a, y’know, he thinks it’s all positive because he thinks it will make us immortal.

Kristin: Ugh.

AJ: Y’know, we’ll be immortal and we’ll go off into space as robots.

Kristin: That’s so unnatural.

AJ: But there’s something, yeah, creepy about it.

Kristin: It is creepy, yeah.

AJ: It’s an extreme view. A lot of people refute that and say that, that there are many reasons, scientifically, that it’s not going to happen and certainly not going to happen in that time frame. But, y’know, on a more practical level, we can certainly see economically in so many jobs that computers and robots are replacing or will replace more and more and more jobs. And it is something, especially I think

for younger people, people who are, y’know, in their 30s or younger especially, they need to keep this in mind and you don’t want to go into a field that is going to become completely robotic.

Kristin: So I wonder what fields that would be? Maybe something like massage.

AJ: Mm-hm.

Kristin: Y’know, yes, even a machine could do that, could massage someone, but people still probably would want something like human touch.

AJ: Yeah, in fact there’s a phrase, business writers talk about this, high-touch industries, high-touch jobs, and it is things that are very human.

Kristin: Yeah. That a computer or robot could not replace.

AJ: Exactly right. So that area, for sure. I think, in fact, y’know, a lot of business writers talk about this and predict that as many aspects of life become so technological and therefore kind of cold…

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: …people crave more and more of that high touch.

Kristin: Yes.

AJ: So there is a job or economic opportunity there to provide more high-touch services and things like that.

Kristin: Yeah, that makes sense.

AJ: So that’s one area. I guess the other area is to learn how to work with robots and computers in your job or industry, become someone who knows how to use those tools powerfully because those are the people who will keep their jobs…

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: …whereas people who resist it will be eventually gone.

Kristin: I’ve seen too many movies though where they…robots…like futuristic movies where they take over then.

AJ: I know, right? It’s a little scary. Whether they take over and, y’know, like put us all in prison or kill us or something, or whether they just take all our jobs. But we think about it. See, this is the, I can’t remember who wrote about this but if our economy was structured differently, if we didn’t have the power elite controlling everything, it should be a good thing. If we had robots doing most of the work, that should mean that we then would be freed to have all this free time to explore in art, in music, astronomy, science.

Kristin: Yeah, I never thought about that.

AJ: Right, to go off and explore the stars, to do all these incredible human things…

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: …and let the robots do all the crap work.

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: But, the reality is though that because of our economic system, we don’t benefit from it. Only the people at the top who own the robots, they get super rich and the rest of us are out of jobs and have miserable lives.

Kristin: Right.

AJ: So if, I guess if society was structured differently, maybe it could be great. We’ll see.