Fringe Sketch Description

Robotics will have a severe impact on several industries over the course of the next several decades. The purpose of this sketch is to question where the future of robotics will take humanity rather than provide a close-minded, definitive idea as to what to expect from its progress. Thinking broadly, this allows any person to use strategic foresight to think of the first, second, and third-order effects of the ongoing technological innovations. By first stating the obvious effects of robotics on broad subgenres, strategists may begin to think about the unknown variables that may play a substantial role in the future; these main four subgenres our team used to encompass the effects of emerging technologies in the robotics field are (1) household, (2) individual, (3) business, and (4) global implications.

Potentially, robotics may serve to assist billions of households. However, this begs the question: “What are their limitations?” How far can robots really go? Are they even safe to put in our household? This begs the next question: “Do these serve more as a privacy risk than a home servant?” Who utilizes the information the robots gather? What protocols are put in place to prevent security breaches? Will they be used to aid any governmental body or police department? How do they expand communication among residents with these robots in their homes?

Robots actually pose more job opportunities than they do threats to the market. But how much will humanity rely upon robots in our everyday lives? How much will consumers depend on the psychological services, careers, financial advice, physical aid, etc. that they provide?

Branching off of business, how will this increase networking among colleagues? What happens to the labor market or lower or lower-middle class, whose skill sets are now seemingly deemed defunct? How many jobs are lost? How many gained? What skills will employees have to attain to pick up the slack? What about major industries that involve everyday activities such as transportation or dining? Will robots replace humans? How does this affect education, thus affecting the performance of businesses? What will be an employee’s dependence level on robots to properly complete tasks at their job?

Lastly, how do robots contribute to global warming; are they better or worse? What about containing the next pandemic? Will they be able to stop diseases from spreading as rapidly as they may in today’s world? Will the police and military pick up these innovations and incorporate them into their respective fields? What are the risks of this? Could this bring humanity closer to a catastrophic event? Will fewer human lives be lost in times of war, if only robots are used? Will certain markets across the globe boom and certain countries or states which provide the most material for robots become powerhouses? How does this bring about a shift in prices?

Will robots outperform humankind? There are millions of immediate thoughts, then the follow-ups which could hypothetically stem into countless other directions. These need to be thought of in order to ensure that the generation of today is ready for the generation of tomorrow and the one after that, and after that, and so on.