Behind Every Good Robot Is A Human - For Now Anyway?

The other day, I overheard a conversation between a gentleman and two friends, where he noted that Volkswagon was building US Factories and how that was thought to mean more jobs - turns out that the same job before done by 1000s of autoworkers can be done with about 100 and tons of robotics. So, the jobs creation windfall is ho-hum in many regards. We have noted that productivity in manufacturing is way up these days, and manufacturers in the US are competing in some industries, but it is perhaps more about robots than people - but yes, the profits of these corporations do please shareholders.

Did a robot steal your job (yet) might be a very worthy question to ask my loyal readers today?

There was an interesting piece in "the Writer" September Issue titled; "Not for Robots - In a Technological World, Let Us Not Forget That Behind Every Good Virtual Worker Is a Human - and Some Sweet," by Cynthia Joyce. This article got me thinking, as I dozed off into another world, considering the future of work, and the relationship between humans and robots. Yes, let's talk shall we?
As it stands now, behind every robot is a human, controlling it, designing it, building it, maintaining it, and giving it instructions on what to do - setting it up for the next assignment or manufacturing run if you will. So, is the human really behind it, or is it behind the human? You say, "semantics," but I say, "this is a relevant and important philosophical argument and topic."
Of course this whole question is a take-off of the old saying; "behind every good man is a woman," but today you might say behind every good woman is a man, a robot, or perhaps another woman," and yes, society in the US has changed a bit.

So, who is behind whom, or does it really matter. Well, when it comes to our Artificially Intelligent tools, it does matter. For instance who is flying the South Korean Boeing 777 flying into SFO on a sunny afternoon? Who is driving the train in Spain, speeding down the tracks? Who is writing your articles, or is it a combination of spell-checker, fact-checker, cite-checkers, SIRI correction features, Dragon Naturally Speaking, or some software derivative maker? See the problem? The Wall Street Journal had a tongue and cheek piece not long ago which noted; "give a chimpanzee an iPad and eventually he'll write like Shakespeare," and I'd just like to leave you with all these thoughts today.