Will robots replace us at work someday? And what's more--will we be glad that they did?
Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page envisions a future where people work because they enjoy it, not from a need to survive.
"So the idea that everyone needs to work frantically to meet people's needs is just not true," said Page, as quoted by Forbes. "I do think there's a problem that we don't recognize that. I think there's also a social problem that a lot of people aren't happy if they don't have anything to do. So we need to give people things to do. We need to feel like you're needed, wanted and have something productive to do."
Page believes that jobs should be redistributed so everyone is working but working less. In his view, the transition as machines replace many human workers will be similar to the change when most farmers were no longer needed in the 19th century.
"90 percent of people used to be farmers," Page pointed out. "So it's happened before. It's not surprising."
People need basics such as a place to live, security and opportunities for their children, but in today's economy, they are working frantically to provide things that are much less important, according to Page.
"So we need to give people things to do. We need to feel like you're needed, wanted and have something productive to do," Page said. "But I think the mix with that and the industries we actually need and so on are--there's not a good correspondence ... Until we figure that out, we're not going to have a good outcome."
Page and Google co-founder Sergey Brin think that technology will be the key to improving everything from housing to health, and smarter machines will be central to that future.
"You should presume that someday, we will be able to make machines that can reason, think and do things better than we can," Brin said.
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