Will Robots win out over Humanity?

Today I was watching Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC prattle on with some other know-it-all about the threat robotics presents to the human job market. Now, this is not an issue I would normally concern myself with. My ears did, however, perk up a bit more when Ratigan and his guest clarified that these robots are not only threatening to take the place of assembly line workers, but advancing on more middle class jobs as well.

 Healthcare, for example, is one industry that scientists have already been working on making robot replacements for. Of course, they aren't saying that in the future we'll be visiting the local radio shack to get a diagnosis on an illness, but there are many analyzing areas of healthcare that can quite easily be replaced by robots. Developers have even began discussing a possible robot replacement for in home healthcare nurses.

"I don't know how these robots could give the warmth and nurturing that a human could, but then again I haven't met the robot." Said Ratigan.

When I was done laughing, I realized, once again, just how out of control this electronic society of ours is getting. And how there is a lot more at stake here than jobs. Think about it, if scientists are creating a robotic nurse to take care of home-bound patients what could be next? A robot to raise our children for us? We're already half way there.I could go to the local Wal-Mart right now and buy an electronic device from Leap-Frog that reads books to my children for me. How far off are they from developing a robot that can change a diaper, or prepare a lunch?

Robotic gadgets could be very convenient yes, but what about a human's other needs? What about our need for human companionship? A child's need for his mother's comforting touch when bathing him or changing him, his father's reassuring voice reading him a bed time story? These are the basic human needs that are so vital to all of our lives, but that may very well be cast aside in the name of convenience.

 A few months ago I remember being disgusted over a headline out of Japan where a couple neglected their six month old baby unto death in order to care for their electronic baby! Some may say this was a ridiculously extreme, isolated incident, and they would be right but how many times have we seen an isolated incident repeat itself again and again until it became common place in every day life? How many people in this nation or world for that matter spend more quality time on their computers than they do their spouses? Was this a common problem as recent as fifteen years ago?

Dylan Ratigan and his expert  have a right to be concerned for the security of American jobs. As a healthcare worker, I'm concerned too. The last thing I want is for some robot to come in and draw blood from my patients. But as a mother and a human, I'm even more concerned for the security of the Americans' psyche.