• Question: Hi, with technological advancements happening very frequently in all sectors of the workplace, do you ever feel like technology will replace you in the future?

    Asked by anon-196630 to Sebastian, Paddy, Lee, Jennifer, Fiona, Eleanor on 6 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sebastian Cosgrove

      Sebastian Cosgrove answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      This is currently a big topic in all walks of life! With new technological advancements, we don’t always know the different kind of benefits that they may bring. So even though there might be lots of things such as artificial intelligence that looks like it could replace humans, these advances often bring in new job sectors or create many kinds of new jobs for people.
      In science, the advent of new technology often gives us the chance to do experiments that we couldn’t before. For example, being able to let computers do a lot of our chemistry for us has in recent years meant that we have discovered lots of new chemicals and chemical reactions that would not have been possible without the computer technology.
      When there was the invention of mechanical farming equipment hundreds of years ago, lots of people were worried then that we would lose all of our jobs to technology then and it didn’t happen, so this isn’t a new worry actually!

    • Photo: Lee Steinberg

      Lee Steinberg answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      Like Sebastian said, the idea of technology replacing people’s jobs is not a new fear. However, I feel that it is not as if technology replaces us – instead, technology changes the jobs that we need to do. I find that it is best to embrace the changes technology may have to our careers, as it will put us in the best position to deal with their impact!

    • Photo: Fiona Scott

      Fiona Scott answered on 7 Mar 2019:


      Check out the ChemPuter! It can do most of what I do in the lab day to day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvEkm7ZBKSc

      I currently use a few robots in my work in the lab but it actually frees up more time for me. While a robot is purifying my reaction mixture, for example, I can either go for a cuppa or do some other work at my desk or in the lab rather than writing off a whole afternoon to do the purification manually.

      There are nuances to chemistry that a computer will never be able to emulate and we’ll still need chemists for – growing crystals for example is a mysterious art that different chemists have varying levels of success with!

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