Thanks to Wikicommons.

It seems we humans are doomed.

Movies and TV would have you believe that robots will destroy us in a reign of destruction.

We’ve already seen this recently in the computer Watson’s victory on Jeopardy against human champions.Computer brains are better than our brains.

Computers and robots are also regarded as the enemy of the blue collar worker. Why have humans build cars when robots do it faster? Right?

Well, Paul Krugman notes that computers threaten more jobs as

any routine task — a category that includes many white-collar, non-manual jobs — is in the firing line.

What makes this news so bad as Krugman notes is that

It’s no longer true that having a college degree guarantees that you’ll get a good job, and it’s becoming less true with each passing decade.

Over at Free Exchange, R.A., questions the gloom and doom noting that

As far as I know, people currently represent 100% of final demand; machines aren’t yet out there purchasing goods for their own consumption. Without people there is no economy

Of course, being a good dismal scientist, the post goes on to note that unemployment is still an issue but it may be the governments, rather than the robots, fault.

So the good news, robots may not be the enemy (until they start to eat us). The bad news, unemployment is still a real issue no matter its cause.