James Walker: Technology? We’re a long way from ‘Yabba Dabba Doo’

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If you are a baby boomer or from the Greatest Generation, no doubt you are probably marveling at the advances in modern technology — and a little spooked by it, too.

I know I am.

Some of this stuff is right off the pages of science fiction and straight from the movies and comic books that we boomers were in awe of when we were kids.

Who would have thought way back in the day when we were watching “The Jetsons” that we would actually have flying cars in our time?

But they’re here.

Dutch company PAL-V said it launched the era of the flying car with two models.

For a mere $399,000, you can take to the skies in the sport version of the PAL-V Liberty or in the Limited Edition for $599,000. That is up, up and away in more ways than one.

Since its website indicates there will not be a cheaper model, I am not expecting anyone — or I should say, anyone I know — to be jumping off the couch racing to place an order. And I certainly don’t expect to look up and see the sky full of cars with wings anytime soon.

But since the rich love their toys, I guess we have to start looking up to make sure nothing is coming down. As my mother always reasoned for not getting on a plane: “If something breaks down, you can’t get out and fix it.”

Still, some of the technology is so cool.

Who would have thought that a watch could alert a person to having a heart attack or that a heart-monitoring T-shirt that will do the same thing is on the way? Or that a fitness wristband could help your health by tracking your calories or the number of steps you take?

Now, scientists here in the United States have successfully created human body parts using 3D printers and also to print skin cells onto wounds to heal more quickly; artificial eyes are being made in California and artificial embryos are being tested in the UK. Three years ago, the FDA approved the world’s first artificial pancreas.

And on the way are smart food labels to replace “sell by” dates. The new label is smooth to the touch in the beginning but gets bumpier as food decays. Also on tap is using your brain print as a password.

That is just some of the eye-popping stuff technology is bringing our way.

But I am a baby boomer and if you were born during or before my era, you see the dark side some of this technology is bringing as clearly as you can read the words in this sentence.

There is an expression: “out with the old, in with the new.”

The robots are here — and they’re everywhere. They do most things people do and do them better in many cases.

They clean houses and do it tirelessly and efficiently, perform delicate surgery with precision, shoot hoops with uncanny accuracy and play golf. They cook dinner (Robotic Kitchen), sew clothing (LOWRY), and roam aisles of supermarkets. And then there are the robots you don’t see, such as the one at the supermarket self-checkout lane. And let me introduce Pepper, a robot that leads Japanese funerals chanting Buddhist sutras while banging a drum. Pepper will even send you a video of the funeral if you are unable to make it.

And no doubt manufacturers salivate over LOWRY. The robot can make as many shirts in an hour as 17 people.

From where I sit, that is the problem. Analysts say 38 percent of jobs in the U.S. are at “high risk” of being replaced by robots because machines don’t get tired, can work 24-7, are virtually mistake-free and extremely efficient. In other words, not human.

So far, robots are muscling in and taking jobs from stockroom workers, as well as bartenders on Royal Caribbean cruise lines. At a pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, robots package and dispense prescriptions. They’re also the reason for the downsizing of paralegals and doc-review-focused attorneys. Bank tellers have virtually disappeared with the rise of personal teller machines and standalone banking kiosks.

But shocking to me was that robots will likely take some journalists’ jobs in the near future. Can you imagine that?

Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at MIT and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, told MarketWatch that business journalists such as those who focus on number-heavy stories like market reports — and sports writers who do a lot of numbers analysis — may be most at risk as already robots write short sports recaps.

Between automation and artificial intelligence, robots are expected to create 14.9 million new jobs in America by 2027 — the equivalent of 10 percent of the workforce, a recent report by Forrester Research found. Forrester is a market research company that provides advice on existing and potential impact of technology. But during that same period of creation, it will kill 24.7 million jobs.

That leaves a lot of folks on the unemployment line and turning to social services for help.

But according to Forrester, this sounds a lot worse than it is and “the largest effect will be job transformation: Humans will find themselves working side by side with robots.”

But if 38 percent of jobs are at risk, doesn’t that mean robots do those jobs better? Will robots now man big-box stores? Fast-food restaurants? Car washes? They’re already in the supermarkets. What does this meanfor the kids who don’t go to college or a trade school?

I don’t have a business head, I have a human head. When I think of robots, I don’t think of them as useful tools, no matter how much they are touted.

I think about the everyday jobs they’re taking and how companies are taking more and more from the average American worker — so much, that they can’t afford to miss a single paycheck and are on food lines to fill voids.

And as companies continue to squeeze and tighten workers to fatten their profits and play for position on the world stage, I can’t help but think how this will play out in the far, far future. I can’t help but think of the “Terminator” and the Birthing machines in the “Matrix” and the Fertilizing Room in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in the book “Brave New World.”

It is science fiction and to think those things could become a reality is far-fetched, but when people first arrived on U.S. soil eons ago, so would have been cars on wheels and going to the moon.

And so far, nothing I read or saw on the small and big screen as a child, has not come true.

Unrealistic? Sure, but definitely food for thought.

Technology? We’re a long way from “Yabba Dabba Doo.”

James Walker is the New Haven Register’s senior editor and a statewide columnist for Hearst Connecticut newspapers. He can be reached at 203-680-9389 or james.walker@hearstmediact.com. @thelieonroars on Twitter