The Road to a Robot Economy, nay, Robot Society !
The Road to a Robot Economy, nay, Robot Society ! Ganga Prasad G. Rao gprasadrao@hotmail.com www.evernote.com/gprao Was it any wonder, mused Rob, alone at the coffee shop with a frappe and a book, ‘Capitalism and Society’, that capitalism, with its inexorable quest for profits, had across years and decades, responded to the ever-increasing labor wage tab and benefits burden on firms with an inexorable and incremental substitution of capital for labor? Back in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, the first use of tools and instruments enhanced the productivity of the otherwise uneducated labor force. Then came machines - first simple, then large and complex – followed quickly by control and automation. The blue collar work force developed an almost symbiotic relationship with the machines as output expansion, profits growth, enhancement of employment opportunities and higher wages provided Americans with reduced costs, and brought about a revolution in t