The Robotic Nation essay by Marshall Brain is about the slow replacement of human beings in the workplace. Brain talks about how slowly bank tellers and cashiers are being traded in for machines like ATMs, self-checkout lines, and automated gas pumps. He uses Moore's law, which says that CPU usage doubles every eighteen to twenty-four months, to draw a reference to how he belives the advancement of robotics will go. He says that the in the future we will have created robots, computers and other machines with greater intelligence than a human being. He continues in saying that we will have machines with actual thought processes and that soon these things will be operating with the abilities of millions of human beings all in one single compact unit. Part of the reason why robots are appealing is that they will save companies a lot of money because instead of paying say five workers for seven hours of work each they simply buy one robot to do the same job at a one time fee. He predicts that in the near future unemployment will skyrocket as robots replace more and more jobs. Brain says as a result of the integration of robots in the work force the unemploymet rate will succeed 50%, this is twice what the unemplyment rate was during the great depression, the greatest time of difficulty America has faced to date. This increase of unemplyment will lead to massive dependency on government support such as welfare. There will be more need for assistance with everyday simple living expenses as jobs disappear. Today it is difficult enough to survive on the low paying jobs at department stores, fast food etc. and with robot technology soon these jobs will be gone, what will these people do then. These are not just numbers and there will be consequences to this. In conclusion Brian seems to be saying that robots are a bad idea and will forever alter the way people live in a negative way.
Tent Cities -Homelessness in America 