A FedEx ad has a little robot being allowed into a place by a human. How prophetic! In the future that guard will be a robot, too. Will and Grundy Counties have brought in lots of warehouses for real estate taxes and unskilled jobs. Within a few years most of those jobs will be robotic.

Rudimentary artificial intelligence (A.I.) can replace most of those jobs now at a cheaper price, at a more reliable rate, and for a 24 hour workday. Most of the rest will be replaced by higher A.I. that is being designed now.

The future of those warehouses is this: an autonomous truck brings the products to the warehouse where it is unpacked, shelved, repackaged per an order, put on an autonomous vehicle, and delivered to the customer. This level of A.I. and the machine to do it are here now or a few years away.

Every time I see an interview with an A.I. or robotic engineer, the number of jobs I foresee a teenager aspiring to do reduces. Robots are learning to be nurses and doctors. A.I. is teaching kids without any human teacher. Truck drivers and garbage collectors can already be replaced. Factories to build houses are now being automated so robots can build and ship pre-fabricated sections to the site. Robots are being designed to do the site work.

Is it possible for a sit down restaurant or a fast food to operate without any human? I can foresee the day when every human occupation could be done better by a robot.

What will happen to the ninety-nine percent needing work to survive? None of the “Star Trek Series” or “The Jetson’s” tells us. Only the “Terminator” gives me insight. We have opened a Pandora’s Box.