[red-beard]

I saw the writing on the wall in the 1990s. ex-Mrs. Beard was a Medical Technologist, 4 yr degree person who worked in/ran a Medical Lab running the tests. Near the end of our time together, I bought a cheap USB microscope. Instead of looking into a glass scope, you could put the image on a computer. With a computer image, you could do the things that the technicians were doing, except by computer.

I told ex-Mrs beard, she needed to go back to school and get an MBA and become full management track or to do what it took to become a PA. The lab equipment was going to eliminate most of the jobs. The MLT positions (Medical Lab Technicians, 2 yr degree) were going away and being replaced by non-degreed "monkeys". The specimens just needed to be loaded into racks and the machine would take care of the rest. This was 20 years ago. I expect the automation is more severe now.

The only good news, most "robots" are specialized. You cannot take a robot designed to paint a car and directly use it for assembly. You CAN do this with people. People are far more adaptable. But they have to add more value than they are paid, or the job will eventually be eliminated, one way or another.