Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and really the entire way technology has taken over every aspect of our lives, algorithms are now all around us. This has led to one of the biggest fears for our future: automation. It's the question that has plagued politicians who are constantly wanting to show voters that they will bring or give more jobs to people. How do you bring back jobs if computer algorithms are making it so entire sectors of the work force will be replaced with robots? Self-driving cars, will replace Uber, Lyft, taxi, and truck drivers. Fast food restaurants will become more self-serve. Delivery people will begin being replaced by drones. If you are a person in pretty much any workforce this should scare you. But, one thing you can take comfort in? The algorithms aren't just coming for your jobs, they're also coming for your boss's job.

The Wall Street Journal has the story today about the growing responsibilities that are being given to the automated workforce. Put simply, the robots are getting promotions.

Companies say the new tools make them more efficient and give employees more opportunities to do new kinds of work. But the software also is starting to take on management tasks that humans have long handled, such as scheduling and shepherding strategic projects. Researchers say the shift could lead to narrower roles for some managers and displace others. When Shell wanted help evaluating digital business models in the car-maintenance sector, executives plugged the project into an algorithm that scanned for available Shell staffers with the right expertise—and assigned the job with a click. Shell uses machine-learning software designed by Boston-based Catalant Inc. to match workers and projects. The program tracks and evaluates their activity so it can refine the next round of matches.

When the bugs are inevitably worked out, this going to happen more and more in more and more industries. And the result? You think there's income inequality now, just wait until huge swaths of the work force disappear while the people hiring the robots get richer and richer. We need a plan for how to deal with automation, be it a government backed Universal Basic Income that is paid for by taxing these companies that replace jobs with robots, or a limit on automation, we need to do something. Or before you know it, we'll be watching an android LeBron James play an android Michael Jordan, before going to a museum where we can look at the paintings made by androids, and then returning home to sleep with our android partners. It's bleak.