I heard a politician say no one is mentioning the fact automation is destroying the workforce. I have been saying it for years and as anyone who reads my articles knows I have also said we have to change the way our economy works, since there will not be enough work in the world for people to work 8 hours a day. These problems are not due to trade agreements or anything else, although when jobs leave this country and go to other countries it does speed up our problem, but eventually the same thing will happen all around the world. Just as the industrial revolution spread and computers became popular along with cell phones, factories will receive more automation. The reason is simple, robots work cheap. They perform tasks previously performed by humans, never need a break, don’t eat lunch and are never late or sick, so they don’t need medical insurance. One has only to look at a photo of a modern automobile plant and compare it to one 50 years ago to see the almost complete absence of humans on the plant floor today. Where there were hundreds and sometimes thousands of people putting cars together years ago, today there are only a couple of people running the computers that control the machines.

It is only a matter of time before our planes become pilotless. Drones are everywhere and being used for every conceivable situation. Where helicopter pilots used to be used to scout certain areas, drones are now used. They are used to look at forest fires, enemy troop positions and are also used to look for people in trouble. What better way to find someone lost in the wilderness without risking the life of a pilot flying low? Drones in battle have been used for several years now, but the idea of a drone goes much further back. In case you are wondering when the first drones were used it was during World War I. They were called pilotless aircraft. We didn’t have computer controls back then, but they were good enough to use as aerial targets and indeed the first was the Ruston Proctor Aerial Target of 1916. The ultimate goal was to develop a pilotless plane to attack Zeppelins. Right after that came a drone known as the flying bomb or Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane. The idea was to have a gyroscope control their course. If successful they would have been the first cruise missile.

The U.S. Navy is developing drone ships. In a way drone ships have been around for thousands of years. In the old days, it was not uncommon to light a ship on fire, take the crew off and send it into a fleet of the enemy’s ships. The navy has been working on a drone warship designed to operate as an anti-submarine drone. It is said this will be the very first unmanned surface naval vehicle optimized to overtly track and trail target submarines. It is said its sensors are so sophisticated they can track the new quiet diesel electric submarines. It will operate under minimal supervisory command and control. The ship is being tested and is quite big for a drone at 130 feet. The name of the drone is ACTUV which stands for Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel. So far it is claimed it has reached a top speed of 31 miles per hour. I have seen no mention of the drone being capable of destroying or even attacking submarines, but I am sure it will gain that ability somewhere down the road, if it doesn’t have it already. Another use being considered for the ship is an unmanned supply ship.

The U.S. Army has been experimenting with all sorts of robotic devices. The first which comes to mind is a truck which drives itself. Remember how dangerous it was for truck drivers in Iraq? This danger could be eliminated if the trucks had no drivers. In 2014 a test was conducted. Lockheed took part in it and it was known as the Capabilities Advancement Demonstration or CAD. It seemed to work very well. Autonomous trucks traveled on a dirt roads with dust flying everywhere and yet they seemed to perform perfectly and avoided obstacles like pedestrians and were able to travel through an urban environment without any problems. They were able to sense traffic and obey traffic laws when going straight and turning. The video is very interesting so I have posted the address. It is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HseUNLP6q24
You can copy and paste it into your browser’s address bar. Sorry Truth Facts doesn’t use live links to outside sites.

In the same vein it is only a matter of time before all driving jobs disappear in this country and then eventually in the world. As the driverless software is perfected and some say it is already, taxis, trucks and busses will become autonomous. The same will become true for trains and commercial and freight airlines. We will have to get used to the idea. As I mentioned before, that will cause quite a loss in the amount of jobs available. The government knows what is happening and so do all the candidates for office and when they tell us they will bring back all the jobs we have lost, it is a fairy story. We just keep losing more to automation and soon we will see even the hamburger joints run by one person as machines do everything from waiting on people at the counter to cooking the food.

I believe this is one of the reasons some countries are now giving a guaranteed income to their citizens and others like Canada are considering it. Something has to be done and the way this country is handling the situation by hiding it, is not the way to go. Robots are taking over everything, but we are just on the brink of this happening and have not felt the full impact of it yet, but we will and will that happens, if nothing is done, our economy will collapse. I have to wonder what some of these companies will do when there are so many people out of work there is hardly anyone with money enough to buy their products.

Times are changing and the change is going to be the biggest change the human race has ever experienced. It is time for us to make plans to adapt. If handled correctly it could provide for much more free time for us. One answer may be for us to get out into space and establish colonies which in turn would provide work, but the days of 8 hour jobs and 40 hour work weeks may soon become a thing of the past.