Robots will destroy our jobs – and we're not ready for it

The McDonald's on the corner of Third Avenue and 58th Street in New York City doesn't look all that different from any of the fast-food chain's other locations across the country. Inside, however, hungry patrons are welcomed not by a cashier waiting to take their order, but by a "Create Your Taste" kiosk – an automated touch-screen system that allows customers to create their own burgers without interacting with another human being. It's impossible to say exactly how many jobs have been lost by the deployment of the automated kiosks – McDonald's has been predictably reluctant to release numbers – but such innovations will be an increasingly familiar sight in Trump's America. Once confined to the pages of futuristic dystopian fictions, the field of robotics promises to be the most profoundly disruptive technological shift since the industrial revolution. While robots have been utilized in several industries, including the automotive and manufacturing sectors, for decades, experts now predict that a tipping point in robotic deployments is imminent – and that much of the developed world simply isn't prepared for such a radical transition.