Disadvantages of Robotics

The book balances these advantages against nine disadvantages of robots and automation. (1) Robots have no sense of emotions or conscience. (2) They lack empathy, and this tends to create an emotionless workplace around them. (3) If robots ultimately did all the work while humans simply sat and monitored them, health hazards from a sedentary, disengaged workforce would increase rapidly. (4) The unemployment problem will increase as robots take over more roles. (5) Robots can only perform defined tasks and cannot handle unexpected situations outside their programming. (6) Robots are well-programmed to do a specific job, so if even a small thing goes wrong it can end up causing a big loss to the company. (7) If a robot malfunctions, it takes real time to identify the problem, rectify it, and reprogram the robot if necessary -- this process requires significant time during which the robot cannot work. (8) Humans cannot be replaced by robots in decision-making. (9) Until robots r …