When I was a kid, I wondered what life would be like in the year 2000. It seemed like it was an awfully long way away - it seemed like I'd be an old man by then (surprise - I'm not!). We saw movies and television shows about what the future would be like, and places like Disneyland and the World's Fair would have "the home of the Future" and "Tomorrowland" on display. Of course, a lot of the guesses were way off. My car still doesn't hover over the ground or zip around the sky. My robot servants haven't arrived yet.
Some of the things predicted have come true - and some of the things are even better and more advanced than anyone ever could have dreamed of. By definition, the future is always tomorrow, but somehow the year 2000 is the date that we've considered the future, for so long, that it seems like the future is really about to happen. My youngest son will be in the high school graduating class of '01. Maybe a robot will hand him his diploma!
There are robots that serve us, lots of them. It just didn't turn out to be a good idea to have them walk around and look like people. Our real robots tend to stay in one place and do a specific job - or roll around on a track delivering interoffice mail - or weld an auto body, or do some other specialized task. They may look more like boxes with extensions that handle specialized tools, but they are doing a man's job. The important thing is to see that they do jobs that people are sick of doing.
This has always been a problem - jobs that people don't want to do. Traditionally they are the jobs given to the lowest social class, but when everyone gets a fair chance at equal rights and opportunities, when everyone is educated to the best of his ability, who will want to do the unpleasant jobs? Right now we give the boring jobs to beginners, young people, or even to mentally handicapped people who may not be able to handle more complex tasks. But young people want to move up and beginners become old timers, and mentally challenged people have rights, too - at least they deserve to make the most of their abilities.
One answer is to make the drudge work more pleasant - and get machines to help. Any job worth doing is worth doing well. Sometimes people complain that everything's already been invented - but there's plenty of things that could still be done to make life easier!
Another answer is for managers and company heads to consider putting some variety in a person's job description. A person who sits at a desk all day could probably use an hour or two doing some physical labor. In our company of the future, maybe the computer programmer will grab a mop from 4 to 5 pm and do both himself and the floors some good. Perhaps the person who answers the phones all day will go outside and pull some weeds. In companies with daycare facilities, you might see the tax accountant on diaper patrol. There's some things a robot can never do!