So what happens when robots take all our jobs away?

Seriously. Temporarily put aside any doubt that we (as a society) can design and build robots to perform many of the tasks we consider manual or menial labor. Picking fruits and vegetables, cleaning houses, assembling small (and large) things, lifting heavy things. Weren’t we all promised that in “the future,” robots would make our lives easier? What about the people whose jobs have been made obsolete?

I don’t know if it’s just that I’m in a pessimistic mood about the future lately, but I have a hard time seeing how this technological advancement won’t lead to more inequality and disparity in the world. Life will be good if you’re a robot designer, and there will surely be new jobs for technicians and such, but the whole concept is to take lots of people out of the equation, so there will be millions left without jobs. I can only imagine this gets even uglier in the US if Willard (Mitt) Romney is elected. He’s apparently not feeling very sympathetic these days…