Robotic Nation Evidence

Robotic Umpire

Modern science has created a robotic umpire able to call balls and strikes. It is not being used in games yet, but according to the article Foolproof Umpire, The it would appear that the end is near for umpires:

"While U.I.S. is not designed to call balls and strikes in the midst of a game, Major League Baseball is using the system to measure the overall reliability of its human umpires. Ten of the 30 major-league stadiums have installed QuesTec technology (the equipment costs about $40,000 per venue, or about a tenth of a senior umpire's salary), and in the games played there, baseball officials have informed the umpires that their ball-and-strike calls will be graded against the computer's."

If the equipment costs a tenth as much as a human umpire, and if the robotic umpire does a better job, it is only a matter of time before the umpires are gone. The next time the umpires strike, they will be replaced.

Economically, replacing the umpires makes sense for lots of reasons. Why pay human umpires $400,000 per year when a machine does a better job? The problem is that millions and millions of jobs will succumb to this same pressure over the next 20 years -- everyone from pilots to Wal-Mart employees will be replaced by robots at approximately the same time. See Robotic Nation for details.