In an earlier post I mentioned that we all like to think that there is something superior about humans. We don’t just think we are superior, but believe that we humans have some quintessential element that machines do not, that they can never possess. We write books about it, we make movies about it. We even write songs celebrating it. One such song features the American folk legend John Henry.

John Henry was a steel-driver. His job was to hammer holes into rock that were used to place explosives to clear away the rock to build tunnels. When the new steam powered hammer threatened to replace men such as John Henry, he fought back. He was sure he could work faster and better than the new machine. This culminated in a face off in 1870. At the site of a new tunnel in West Virginia known as Big Bend, John Henry and the steam powered hammer spent almost two days demonstrating their ability. John Henry worked without rest and in the end he succeeded at besting the machine. This victory was at the expense of his life. He died, either immediately or shortly thereafter, by some accounts because his heart gave out after the prolonged effort to beat his nemesis. Regardless of the details or even of the accuracy of the accounts, the message is obvious: machines possess certain advantages over humans. They can work without breaks, they don’t get tired, they don’t sleep. They work “like a machine”.

Technology has been a threat to labor ever since the industrial revolution. Over the past century we have seen great strides in automating tasks formerly carried out by humans. These advances and the increases in productivity that come with it have become even more pronounced with the standardization and formalization of processes used in many industries. What were formerly considered skilled artisans and laborers were decomposed into specific tasks which were easily teachable to an unskilled person. No doubt the most well-known instance of this was Henry Ford’s creation of the assembly line for the efficient production of the motor car. By decomposing the building of an automobile into discrete tasks he was able to define specific skills required at each step of the process. No longer did the manufacture of the automobile require a team of people with many skills acquired over many years. He could hire anyone off the street and with a minimal amount of training make them a productive worker on the assembly line. This was the dawn of mass production.

In the second half of the twentieth century our ability to optimize our efficiency through the use of more advanced tools and machinery accelerated and towards the end of the century we began to see machines take over many jobs completely. By the turn of the century, automobile assembly lines became almost completely automated. Advanced robots became capable of moving quickly through warehouses and picking inventory for shipment. This was the first time we got a real glimpse of the future – of the future of the worker. Whereas John Henry was being replaced by a machine which still had to be in the hands of a human being, this new generation of machines could operate autonomously. While machines still rely on humans for supervision and maintenance, they are taking on more and more responsibility. They are requiring less supervision and taking on more difficult tasks.

In the next twenty-five years we will see a rapid increase in both the capabilities and responsibilities of machines. Every year that goes by we trust the capabilities of machines more and this gives rise to giving them more responsibility. We have seen cars which are capable of driving themselves even though we aren’t ready to trust them enough to give up our driver’s seat to them just yet. We have seen drones used first in military applications and now it seems they are ready to enter the business world as delivery drones. The advances in technology during the twentieth century which replaced the jobs of humans were characterized by electro-mechanical advances and to some extent the electronics which control them. In this century the machines seeing the most rapid advances are the intelligent machines. The physical capabilities of machines are still advancing but the real magic is the ability of these machines to do the things we have always thought only a human was smart enough to do. The next generation of computers, robots, and machines will be superior to humans not just physically but in their ability to process enormous amounts of information, solve complex problems, and react more quickly than their human predecessors.

Where does this leave us, the primitive human? Will we be relegated to cleaning up after our mechanical successors? Will the world degenerate into the final chapter of The Terminator? The list of sci-fi movies about this type of struggle is a long one. Is this life imitating art? Perhaps the real fiction is that in the movies the humans always win.