Thursday, May 24, 2012

Will Human Workers Become Obsolete?

I've believe for a long while now that pharmacists will soon be replaced by technology and lower-paid workers, and I've pointed out instances on this blog that lend credence to my claims.

I also think that many pharmacists live in denial about where the future of the profession is headed. It's a touchy subject that many pharmacists don't like to discuss. They don't want to believe that we could so easily be replaced by robots.

Perhaps it's because they listen to those with a vested interest in convincing pharmacists otherwise, or perhaps it's because it's just too frightening for pharmacists to accept. Who knows? But the way I see it, if the American Dream continues as is, eventually we will all be replaced.

Again, just don't take my word for it. See what the PBS Newshour reports about this subject -

4 comments:

  1. I agree, a lot of denial amongst the profession regarding the future, all this nebulous talk of "expanded clinical roles" is nonsense.

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  2. It's a corporate-run world my friend, where the bottom-line is all that matters. I don't know the exact numbers, but it seems to me that most pharmacists work for large corporations, a trend that has been consistently growing.

    If corporate "entities" and their enablers can justify using less-costly workers and/or technology to improve the bottom-line, while providing studies showing that it doesn't compromise the provision of healthcare, what's stopping them from achieving their cost-containment goals?

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  3. Are we in danger of losing the “race against the machine,” as the M.I.T. scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee argue in a recent book? Are we becoming enslaved to our “robot overlords,” as the journalist Kevin Drum warned in Mother Jones? Do “smart machines” threaten us with “long-term misery,” as the economists Jeffrey D. Sachs and Laurence J. Kotlikoff prophesied earlier this year? Have we reached “the end of labor,” as Noah Smith laments in The Atlantic?

    Read more at - The Great Divide: How Technology Wrecks the Middle Class

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