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The Future Impacts of Humanoid Robots in Assisting Disabled and Elderly People (2025–2035)

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Introduction

Advances in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are ushering in a new era where machines are increasingly capable of performing complex tasks traditionally done by humans. Among the most promising developments are humanoid robots—robots designed to resemble the human form and interact naturally with people. From assisting with mobility to offering emotional companionship, humanoid robots have the potential to revolutionize care for disabled individuals and the elderly. As societies across the globe grapple with aging populations and shortages in care workers, these technologies are not just futuristic novelties but urgent necessities.

Between 2025 and 2035, we can expect dramatic changes in how humanoid robots support these vulnerable populations. This essay explores the anticipated impacts, both positive and challenging, across four key areas: healthcare assistance, mobility and daily living support, social and emotional companionship, and ethical and societal considerations.

1. Humanoid Robots in Healthcare Assistance

1.1 Medication Management and Monitoring

One of the most immediate and vital roles humanoid robots will assume is in medication administration and health monitoring. Elderly individuals, especially those with cognitive impairments such as dementia or Alzheimer’s, often struggle to adhere to complex medication schedules. By 2025, early prototypes like Toyota’s Humanoid Partner Robot and SoftBank’s Pepper have already demonstrated the ability to remind users to take medicine. Over the next decade, these robots will be integrated with real-time biometric sensors, electronic health records, and AI-driven diagnostic tools to monitor patients’ health with increasing precision.

For example, a humanoid robot might remind a patient to take insulin, check blood glucose levels using a non-invasive device, and send data directly to a healthcare provider. These robots will not only reduce hospital readmissions but also extend independent living for millions.

1.2 Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy

Humanoid robots will also play an increasing role in physical rehabilitation. Machines like ReWalk Robotics’ exoskeletons already assist spinal injury patients with walking. However, humanoid robots in the coming decade will offer personalized physiotherapy sessions, adjusting exercises in real time based on muscle activity, range of motion, and fatigue levels. These robots will be especially useful in rural or underserved areas where access to therapists is limited.

2. Enhancing Mobility and Supporting Daily Living

2.1 Assistance with Daily Tasks

As humanoid robots become more dexterous and perceptive, they will assist users with daily living activities such as dressing, cooking, toileting, and grooming. Companies like Honda and Samsung are developing robots capable of folding laundry, preparing simple meals, and cleaning homes. By 2030, such robots could become commonplace in private residences and assisted living facilities.

This support will be transformative for disabled individuals, especially those with limited use of their limbs or neurological disorders. Rather than depending on full-time human caregivers, users can issue voice commands or use gesture-based systems to receive help on demand.

2.2 Fall Detection and Emergency Response

Falls are a major risk for elderly individuals, often leading to serious injuries and long-term hospitalization. Modern wearables already detect falls, but humanoid robots offer a proactive layer of safety. Using advanced computer vision and real-time motion analysis, robots can recognize early signs of instability or fatigue and intervene before a fall occurs—perhaps by offering physical support or suggesting rest.

In cases of emergency, these robots can immediately notify emergency services, unlock doors for paramedics, and provide critical information, such as medication history and allergies, improving response time and survival outcomes.

3. Addressing Loneliness and Providing Companionship

3.1 Social Interaction and Mental Health

One of the most profound contributions of humanoid robots will be in combating loneliness and social isolation, particularly for the elderly. Studies show that social isolation has significant negative impacts on mental and physical health, increasing the risk of heart disease, depression, and cognitive decline. With families more dispersed and caregiver shortages growing, humanoid robots will provide consistent, empathetic companionship.

Equipped with natural language processing, facial recognition, and emotional AI, these robots will be able to engage in conversations, recognize moods, and adapt their behavior accordingly. Some robots may even be programmed to play games, read aloud, or help maintain social schedules. This consistent interaction can act as a buffer against depression and memory loss.

3.2 Cultural and Language Sensitivity

One exciting frontier in humanoid robotics is cultural adaptability. Robots will be designed to recognize and respond appropriately to cultural norms, languages, and customs. For instance, a Japanese-speaking elderly woman in Tokyo might be assisted by a robot that bows appropriately, speaks Japanese with regional dialect, and understands nuances of etiquette. Meanwhile, a Spanish-speaking man in Los Angeles might receive companionship from a robot with a warm, familiar tone and gestures.

This level of personalization will make robotic companionship more acceptable and emotionally rewarding to diverse populations across the globe.

4. Economic, Ethical, and Societal Impacts

4.1 Economic Accessibility and Health Equity

A key challenge for the widespread adoption of humanoid robots is cost. As of 2025, advanced humanoid robots can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $150,000. However, by 2035, economies of scale, open-source development platforms, and government incentives may reduce these costs substantially. If public health systems recognize the long-term cost savings from reduced hospital stays and delayed institutionalization, humanoid robots may even be subsidized or covered by insurance.

This will be particularly important for low-income and disabled individuals, ensuring equitable access to life-enhancing technology rather than perpetuating a divide where only the wealthy benefit.

4.2 Job Displacement and Human Labor

The rise of humanoid robots inevitably raises concerns about job displacement, particularly among low-wage care workers. However, the most likely scenario is not widespread unemployment but rather role evolution. Care workers may shift toward supervisory, technical support, and interpersonal roles that require human nuance. The demand for “robot-assisted care specialists” could grow, creating new vocational training opportunities.

Moreover, with aging populations growing faster than the workforce in many countries, robots will fill labor shortages rather than replace excess labor, especially in countries like Japan, South Korea, and parts of Europe.

4.3 Privacy, Consent, and Emotional Ethics

The deployment of humanoid robots also comes with serious ethical considerations. For instance, how should robots collect, store, and share sensitive health data? How do we ensure informed consent among users with cognitive impairments? What happens when elderly individuals form strong emotional bonds with machines that simulate empathy but don’t actually possess it?

Between 2025 and 2035, governments and ethics boards will need to create new regulatory frameworks addressing data protection, robotic autonomy, and emotional manipulation. Developers will need to balance realism with transparency—robots should be emotionally supportive without deceiving users into thinking they are conscious beings.

Case Studies and Global Trends

Japan: A Leader in Robotic Care

Japan, facing one of the world’s most rapidly aging populations, has aggressively promoted robotic care technologies. Companies like Mira Robotics, Toyota, and Cyberdyne are developing robots tailored to Japanese homes and cultural norms. The government provides grants for elderly care facilities to integrate robots, and by 2030, humanoid robots may outnumber human caregivers in some settings.

Europe: Integration into Public Health

The European Union is funding several initiatives to explore humanoid robotics for social care. For instance, the GrowMeUp and Mobiserv projects aim to design robots that adapt to users’ emotional and cognitive needs. Northern European countries, with strong social welfare systems, may lead in integrating robots into publicly funded eldercare by 2035.

United States: Market-Driven Innovation

In the U.S., innovation is largely market-driven, with companies like Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, and Embodied, Inc. pushing the boundaries. Adoption will likely begin in high-end retirement communities and tech-savvy households. However, by 2030, partnerships between Medicare, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and private insurers could bring humanoid robotics to a broader population, especially disabled veterans and rural seniors.

Future Outlook: 2025–2035

By 2035, we can expect humanoid robots to be a common feature in the lives of many disabled and elderly people, especially in technologically advanced nations. Some major predictions include:

  • Over 50% of assisted living facilities in high-income countries will employ humanoid robots.
  • Home-based care robots will become a standard part of eldercare packages for middle-class families.
  • AI-driven robots will provide multilingual emotional companionship with hyper-personalized interfaces.
  • Robotics training will be integrated into nursing and gerontology curricula, reflecting a hybrid model of care.
  • Legal frameworks will emerge to define robot-user relationships, data rights, and emotional boundaries.

Still, there will be a strong emphasis on human-robot collaboration rather than full automation. Robots will serve as extensions of human caregivers, augmenting rather than replacing the social and emotional richness of human interaction.

Conclusion

The decade from 2025 to 2035 will mark a turning point in how societies care for their most vulnerable citizens. Humanoid robots, once the stuff of science fiction, are poised to transform the daily lives of disabled and elderly people, offering unprecedented support in health management, mobility, emotional well-being, and independence.

Yet, with these opportunities come profound questions about ethics, equity, and the nature of human relationships. As we move forward, we must ensure that the adoption of humanoid robots is guided by compassion, inclusivity, and dignity. Only then can technology truly serve its highest purpose: to enhance the human experience.

Future of Manufacturing: Trends Shaping 2025-2035

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The landscape of manufacturing in the United States is poised for significant transformation over the next decade. As we look ahead to 2025-2035, key factors such as the continued implementation of tariffs under the Trump administration, the rise of automation, the advent of 3D printing, the expansion of dark factories, and the introduction of humanoid robots will shape the nature of manufacturing jobs. These developments will fundamentally alter the workforce, the economy, and the very structure of the industry. However, the effects on manufacturing jobs will be complex, with both positive and negative outcomes for workers.

The Influence of Tariffs

The Trump administration’s tariffs on foreign-made goods, a policy set to persist under future administrations, will continue to exert pressure on global supply chains. These tariffs are designed to incentivize American companies to shift their production back to the U.S., potentially reviving some manufacturing jobs that had previously been outsourced to countries with lower labor costs. On the surface, this “reshoring” effort might create new employment opportunities in certain sectors, particularly for industries like steel, textiles, and electronics.

However, the impact of these tariffs on jobs will be tempered by the need for companies to maintain competitiveness. Higher tariffs may increase production costs, which could lead to price hikes or force manufacturers to find ways to remain competitive without expanding their workforce. This may result in a shift toward more advanced manufacturing technologies, including automation and artificial intelligence (AI), to keep costs down and output efficient.

The Rise of Automation

Automation has already made significant inroads into U.S. manufacturing, and this trend will only accelerate in the coming decade. Robots are increasingly taking over repetitive and dangerous tasks, from assembling parts to packaging products. By 2035, many factory floors may operate with minimal human intervention, with robots performing the majority of labor-intensive work. While this may seem like a threat to traditional manufacturing jobs, it also opens up new opportunities for skilled workers who can design, program, maintain, and oversee these automated systems.

However, the shift toward automation will likely lead to the elimination of many low-skill, manual labor jobs in factories. For workers without the skills to transition into new roles, automation presents a significant challenge. The U.S. will need to focus on reskilling and upskilling initiatives to help these workers move into the technology-driven jobs that will emerge. The growing demand for workers with expertise in robotics, data analytics, and AI could offset some of the job losses, but a large-scale retraining effort will be required.

3D Printing and Customization

3D printing is poised to revolutionize manufacturing in ways that are already visible in industries like aerospace, automotive, and healthcare. The ability to produce customized parts on-demand and locally will reduce reliance on large factories and international supply chains. By 2035, we may see decentralized manufacturing hubs, where smaller, localized 3D printers are used to produce everything from medical implants to consumer electronics.

This decentralization of manufacturing could reduce the number of traditional factory jobs in centralized industrial hubs, but it will also create new opportunities. Small-scale 3D printing operations could give rise to a new breed of entrepreneurs and workers who specialize in customizing and producing parts locally. This shift may also spur the creation of jobs in design, quality control, and machine maintenance for these advanced printers.

Dark Factories: The Shift to 24/7 Production

The concept of dark factories, where production runs 24/7 without human workers on-site, is another crucial development for the future of manufacturing. In these fully automated factories, AI, robotics, and sensors manage all aspects of production. While human presence is limited to overseeing operations remotely, these facilities allow manufacturers to operate around the clock with minimal downtime.

Dark factories will likely lead to a reduction in the overall number of human jobs needed for physical production. However, there will still be a demand for skilled workers to design, manage, and troubleshoot these systems. Jobs in system monitoring, AI training, and remote maintenance will likely increase. Furthermore, the need for cybersecurity specialists to safeguard these highly automated operations will be crucial as factories become more dependent on digital infrastructure.

Humanoid Robots: A New Era of Human-Robot Collaboration

Perhaps one of the most fascinating prospects for manufacturing in the coming decade is the use of humanoid robots. Unlike traditional industrial robots that operate in fixed, predefined ways, humanoid robots will be designed to work alongside human employees, collaborating in real-time to complete complex tasks. These robots will be able to handle delicate tasks that require dexterity and adaptability, such as assembly, inspection, or packaging in industries where human workers traditionally excelled.

The integration of humanoid robots into manufacturing will redefine job roles. Workers will likely transition into supervisory, coordination, or design roles, where their expertise will complement the abilities of these robots. While the rise of humanoid robots may reduce the need for certain low-skill manual labor positions, it could also generate new opportunities in robot development, programming, and management.

Conclusion

The manufacturing jobs of 2025 to 2035 will look vastly different from those of today. Tariffs and reshoring efforts may help revitalize some industries, but the increasing reliance on automation, 3D printing, dark factories, and humanoid robots will reduce the demand for traditional manual labor. As jobs evolve, so too must the workforce, which will require investment in education and reskilling programs. While the future holds the promise of greater efficiency and innovation in manufacturing, it also presents significant challenges in terms of job displacement and the need for workers to adapt to a new technological landscape. If managed correctly, however, this transformation could lead to a more dynamic, tech-driven manufacturing sector in the United States, providing new opportunities for those ready to embrace the future.

Struggles with Medium: An Honest Account of Loss and Transition | Blogging and Social Media Income Insights

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I gave up on Medium a few days ago. My revenues were going down to where I was actually losing money this month. It was getting to where it was no longer enjoyable. I feel for anyone who using blogging, vlogging, social media, etc. as their primary source of income. I bet for every Mr. Beast, there’s thousands of people no one will ever hear of.

A friend of mine has been really cold and distant for the last several months. We’ve been friends since we were teenagers. This isn’t her normal. I once suggested she seek medical help. She became so angry I thought she was going to end the friendship. So I let it drop. But she just gets darker and more despondent with each passing month. She has plenty of time to post memes and videos to Facebook. But she almost never responds to anyone who writes to her, not just me. Getting her to return texts is damn near impossible. And she NEVER answers her phone. Something’s definitely wrong. When she does text, it’s to complain about her job, the homeless in her city, the state of the world, etc. It was discouraging for a long time. Now it’s just irritating.

I recently got some in home health help. Through the state, I have a lady come in a couple times a week to do some cleaning, laundry, help putting away groceries, etc. We also keep each other company. She and I are getting to be kind of friends. She’s almost 60 years old and widowed. She’s been encouraging me to socialize more online. She knows I like gaming and is encouraging me to get involved in online gaming chats and forums. I don’t usually do online gaming against other people.

I started doing some online gaming against other people in free games on my PS5 like Monopoly. I bought NCAA Football 25 a couple days ago. I’m thinking about getting involved in some online tournaments. Nebraska is my favorite team. My dad is a University of Nebraska alum, as are several of my cousins. My favorite PS5 games are still Cyberpunk 2077 and Skyrim. I beat Cyberpunk 2077 earlier this summer. I got a second game going trying out different things. Took me two years to beat it the first time. But I didn’t play the entire time I was in physical rehab.

My brother recently bought a Tesla with self-driving capabilities. It’s mainly his wife’s commuter car. She rented a Tesla while on a business trip. Fell in love with Tesla right on the spot. My brother made a couple road trips with the Tesla. Said of the four motels he stayed out on that trip, two of them offered free charging with a night’s stay. He’s almost giddy that something like this became a reality within our lifetime. I often joke to his 13-year-old son that he won’t need to get his drivers’ license if he really doesn’t want to.

When I was still quite active on Facebook, I joked to one of my futurist groups that I wanted to ride in a self-driving EV with my robot best friend, smoking a marijuana cigar while riding past a police station on my 60th birthday. That would be in 2040. Heck, now it’s looking like that fantasy will become possible by 2030. Especially since I read an article last week stating that Tesla wants to start selling it’s Optimus humanoid robots starting in 2026. We’ve come a long way when it was just You Tube videos of cats riding on Roomba machines.

Now that my experiment with putting most of my writings on Medium has failed, I’m concentrating on longer posts on Word Press. The money was nice while it lasted.

Rant About Working and Money

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I’ve been feeling quite calm and content since Thanksgiving.  I really haven’t left the complex that much but I do keep myself occupied.  I still watch a lot of educational videos on youtube and curiosity stream.  Most people will find me odd for saying this but I love learning new things.  Sure the things I learn may not help me make more money or land a dream job, but so what?  Why does everything I do have to have a dollar sign attached to it?  Why can’t I do something just to make myself smarter and more interesting?  I know plenty of well to do people who haven’t voluntarily read a book since high school.  But these people are one dimensional, boring, and really don’t know what’s going on in the world outside of their workplace.  You may make a lot of money but that doesn’t make up for the fact you may be boring, uninteresting, a bad parent, or your marriage is falling apart.  Most of my critics think I’m wasting my time and efforts learning extemporaneous things and not doing practical things like chasing women or complaining about my coworkers.  But I don’t care.  I’ve reached the age where I’m focused on what I need to do to advance my work and purpose and everything else is just background noise.

As it is I consider this blog and my own enlightenment my career now.  I don’t care that I don’t make much money from it.  Besides money isn’t backed up by anything tangible as most countries haven’t been on a gold or silver standard for generations.  Your money is fake.  Your money is less real than a porn star’s body parts.  And that is why I don’t care that I don’t get much money from this blog or my other outside projects.  My critics just love to brag about how much they work in one breath and then complain about how much they hate their jobs in the next.  Robots and automated programs will be taking many jobs within the next twenty years.  Someday that job you lord over others to brag about how much you are earning your keep will be taken over by machines.  Then what?  Then you will be in the same place with the “welfare bums” and “lazy idiots” you have damned for generations.

I really have no patience for people who brag about how much they supposedly work and about how irreplaceable they are.  Screw you, we are all replaceable.  There have been tens of billions of humans that have lived in the history of our species, individuals are not that special.  Many jobs will be replaced by machines within the next generation.  Many millions of people will be unemployed without their consent.  And here you are complaining about people that can’t find jobs to support themselves or resorting to welfare programs.  Well, screw you!  We will probably all be on some kind of tax payer sponsored support within the next thirty years, especially when automation takes off.

Many people think we’re going to bring back millions manufacturing jobs and it’ll be like the go go 1950s once again.  First of all, most manufacturing jobs are getting to the point that machines can do them better than any human can.  Even Chinese factories are putting in robotic manufacturing processes as we speak.  It’s not like an average person just out of high school is going to work the same factory job for forty five years and then get a pension anymore.  Those days are as dead as the horse and buggy.  And it’s stupid and pointless to try to bring those days back.  If we are to compete on a world stage, we’re going to have to update our entire education system and retrain millions of workers.  It angers me to think that I spent my educational career in a mediocre system that didn’t challenge me or even try to prepare me to compete on a global scale.  Heck I feel like I was cheated by my school systems.  There is more to life than whether you can throw the football a long way or become prom queen.

We aren’t going to bring back the “good ol’ days”, and they weren’t that good to begin with.  I have no patience with people who have an overabundance of nostalgia for the past and think that the old days were some magical time where people respected others and an honest day’s work meant an honest day’s pay.  In most cases, an honest day’s work meant you didn’t get whipped by your slave masters for most of history or beaten by your alcoholic husband.  I hate nostaliga and I am really sick and tired of people longing for a past that never existed in the real world.  Do your homework already!

I guess I shouldn’t rant that much about people who won’t do their homework.  But it does get old after awhile.  It does scare me that even though I’m a schizophrenic on disability pension I do more homework into the state of science, technology, and world affairs in a typical day than most people do in a month.  The internet is a great tool to learn cool and great things.  Use it for some constructive purpose already.  The internet was not designed just so you could troll people who don’t agree with you.  Dealing with stupid people who think they’re something special because they have the internet (which they had nothing to do with in making) gets tiring and discouraging from time to time.  I guess this  is one of those times I’m just discouraged with so many people in my life acting and thinking like a bunch of barbarian brutes.  I will feel better eventually but I just need to vent right now.  Even mentally ill people should be allowed to have moments of weakness.  Screw the stiff upper lip at all times!

 

Thoughts on Socializing While At Work

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I wanted to originally do this in one post.  But I had to break it into two smaller posts.  Consider this my buy one, get one free promotion. I do enjoy having good conversations one on one or with small groups.  But far too often we are kept apart from people on an individual basis.  We seldom have in depth conversations with our coworkers because there isn’t enough time during the work day to just sit down and chat with your coworkers.  And most people are usually too tired to spend time with coworkers at the end of a shift or they have family obligations.  We work with these people every day, sometimes for years at a time, yet we rarely get to really know them.  The irony about most jobs is that much of what is done during an eight hour work day is redundant busy work, especially in most office jobs.  Most of what is done in an office, from my experience any way, seems could be done in half the time the work shift demands people be at their cubicles and acting busy.  I found the same thing in high school and college.  Some of those classes could have been only half as long and almost all of them could have been more stimulating.  I had a couple friends who were homeschooled for part of their academic careers and they said they usually had only four hours of classes a day while I had at least seven.  And they still did better on tests, and later their careers, than many kids I went to regular school with.  Unless you are working in the trades, working in the medical field, or working in a factory, most jobs could probably easily be done from home via telecommuting or with only four to six hour work days.  Even store clerks have to always look busy.

During the years I worked in retail I was told it was bad and tactless to chat with my coworkers while we were on the clock.  Who decided this?  I wasn’t asked for my opinion. Can’t have coworkers knowing each other and getting along well, now can we?  That might make things awkward when a coworker gets fired or reprimanded for arbitrary reasons. As long as we’re not insulting the bosses, the company, the customers, etc., than screw you.  As long as we are still helping the customers and getting our work done, it shouldn’t matter that coworkers would spend a few minutes talking to each other during slow times.  The same people we sell to in the large chain stores chat with their coworkers in their offices but manage to get their work done, let’s not kid ourselves.  Why should we have to look busy when we have a few free moments?  Why shouldn’t we be allowed to get to know our coworkers?  My coworkers and I didn’t complain when our bosses took half hour cigarette breaks, hid out in their offices for hours at a time claiming they were doing ‘paperwork’, taking longer than allowed lunches, or talked with their friends and family on company time.  And some people wonder why fast food workers are demanding $15 an hour.  I don’t think it’s the money that’s as large of a deal as the lack of respect and accountability that front line workers get from their managers and their companies.

Yes, the money matters.  The money from fast food and service jobs matters more than twenty to thirty years ago simply because there aren’t that many manufacturing jobs left, at least not in America.  We are running out of jobs that people with less than average intelligence can hold.  Those jobs are being outsourced and even those outsourced jobs are being taken over by machines. A buddy of mine works at a caller center for a bank and is sometimes concerned about his bank outsourcing his job to India.  Yet, the man and woman in India may soon be worried about their jobs being taken over by automated programs.  I get my prescription medications refilled by an automated program that calls me when I’m running low already.  The only time I actually deal with a human is when I pick my medications up at the pharmacy.  And in several years when delivery drones get real good, I may not even have to do that.  Dominos Pizza is already experimenting with delivery drones that take your order right to your door in some countries. Sheesh, my five year old nephew might not even need a driver’s license when he turns sixteen in eleven years.

No longer can a kid not smart enough for college move into a factory, farming, or mining job for the next fifty years of his life.  These twenty to thirty somethings working at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart would have been doing factory work if they came of age in the 1950s instead of the 1990s or 2000s. They are not lazy and unmotivated like most of the popular culture and elder generations think they are.  People thought the World War II generation were drunkards and fornicators when they were in their teens and twenties during the Roaring Twenties.  The clean shaven 18 year old GI who grew up dirt poor in the 1930s that was a private in World War II probably had a 35 year old commanding officer who drank copious amounts of bootlegged alcohol and had lots promiscuous sex with flapper girls and suffragettes during Prohibition.  I also doubt the World War II generations of Japan and Germany are held in such reverence; they might even be considered an embarrassment.  The world is a stage, we are the actors, and the history books are almost always written by the winners.

If our elders were born in 1980 instead of 1950 they’d be irritated about having only fast food and retail jobs as easily available jobs too.  Bill Gates once said that my grandparents generation would have called making hamburgers an opportunity.  Smug and hypocritical advice coming from someone who outsourced a lot of his company’s work.  It could be that once wages get to $15 an hour, then front line employees will be replaced by machines.  Yet, I have never seen a computer shop at Home Depot or a robot eat at Subway.  Reminds of a story I heard from a TED talk when the CEO of an auto maker in Detroit and the head of the auto workers’ union were talking.  The company president was talking about putting in robots in the factory and jokingly asked the union boss how he would get robots to pay union dues.  The union man jokingly asked the auto exec how is he going to get robots to buy cars.  Just some things to think about.  Things could get ugly in the next couple decades.  Occupy Wall Street could just be the start.

My Thoughts On Working Life

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It’s now been four years since I last held a regular job.  Even though I don’t need the money from a job as I am debt free, I do miss the daily structure that having a job gave.  I do not miss dealing with office politics.  It seemed that nothing I ever did at a job was good enough for bosses or coworkers.  I would ask questions and I’d get in trouble.  I wouldn’t ask questions and I’d get in trouble.  I would make mistakes because no one explained procedures and I’d get in trouble.  I dealt with coworkers who were in a foul mood most of the time because they hated their jobs.  I never had any kind of real training and then I’d get into trouble because I was doing things wrong.  I was fired from my first job at age seventeen because I wasn’t figuring things out fast enough.  I was sexually harassed by female and male coworkers. Surprise, even men can get sexually harassed.  I even had a coworker threaten to kill me once.  I walked off the job and quit the next day over that.  I didn’t report it because I was too afraid and it’s my experience that no one would take my problems seriously. Eventually I decided I had enough of the work world in general and just left my last job.  I haven’t looked back.  I would have loved to had the structure and something to do everyday.  But the workplace is just absolutely toxic and unhealthy anymore.  I don’t see how you normals can encourage this nonsense.

Of course my critics think I’m just weak for not being able to deal with toxic work environments.  Some probably think me stupid for not being able to make sense of workplace politics.  I can’t make sense of the work world.  It makes no sense to me why you normals would rather look good but not be productive and not take chances to go for greatness.  Why do you complain about your bosses and coworkers?  Why do you complain about your customers?  I can’t make sense of your workplace, at least not the American workplace.  Surely it couldn’t have always been this toxic and counter productive.  As far as I’m concerned let the robots and automation take most of the jobs.  Most people don’t do their jobs because they love what they do or are even good at it.  Most people work their jobs just for the money.  I think in time people would be happier if they didn’t have to deal with toxic work environments and were at work because they wanted to be not because they had to be.  But with automation set to come in a large way, people may not have to work full time to have a decent life.  If automation makes food and products cheaply, then many people could get by on a low wage job or even a disability pension.

I used to work in customer service.  It seems to be the most abundant set of jobs as fewer people are needed for agriculture and manufacturing in the early 21st century.  And I never could figure out why people are verbally abusive to store clerks and fast food workers.  Most of these workers that get the abuse are front line workers making barely over minimum wage.  I don’t mean this to sound like an insult but if we expected great deals from these front line workers, then we would be paying them more than minimum wage.  And I saw in article last week that Wendy’s, one of the largest fast food chains here in America, is planning on having self ordering kiosks at all of their restaurants by the end of 2016. So you normals are yelling at people whose work can be done by machines now.  Someday your job could be too.

I yelled at a store clerk last summer when I was going through a mini psychotic breakdown.  It was the only time in my life I was mean with a store clerk.  I felt so rotten about it I immediately apologized and I voluntarily stayed out of that store for a month.  I felt so ashamed of myself for yelling at this college aged clerk and he did’t even do anything wrong.  I feel embarrassed writing about it almost a year later.  I used to get verbally abused by customers and coworkers all the time when I worked retail and restaurants.  And I promised myself I would never do that to another person.  It felt terrible being on the receiving end of the abuse and I didn’t feel powerful for being the abuser that one time.  So I ask, why do you normals feel it’s your God given right to be abusive to those in low positions?  We outlawed slavery and serfdom generations ago.  Just because you are in a position of power does not give you the right to be abusive.

I am thankful everyday that I have my disability pension to fall back on.  It wasn’t my first choice when I was growing up. I was a top student as a child and I wanted to be a research scientist since I was five years old.  I knew I wanted to go to college by the time I was in second grade.  I was in a gifted and talented program where I took the college board exams as a thirteen year old.  I was a member of National Honor Society.  I went to college initially as a Pre Med major.  After a year and a half of college, I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and I could no longer do the tough science and math classes. I continued to go to college and work after I was diagnosed because I really wanted to be a good productive member of society.  But my mental illness destroyed my ability to process stress, read people, and navigate work place politics.  I wouldn’t be so negative about the work place if I could process stress better and read people. I probably could have done some kind of trades work but I am not very good with my hands.  All my talents were in the mental realms. But I’ve had enough bad experiences with the kinds of work I can do with a mental illness that I don’t even want to go back to work ever again.  With more and more lower and even medium level jobs being primed to get taken over by machines and automation within the next several years, working may not even be an option for me and many other people.

I never could understand the mentality that you are only valued for what you do, especially what you do for money.  Most farm work is done with machines now.  Many manufacturing jobs are done by machines with a handful of people in support roles.  Automation is coming to telemarketing, fast food, retail, banking, stock brokering, etc.  We have computers that can beat grandmasters at chess, beat any human at trivia games, store and recall more information than any organic brain could possibly. We are developing automobiles and trucks that can drive themselves, so there goes truck drivers.  Airplanes essentially fly themselves anymore with human pilots there mainly to take over in case of emergencies. We have machines that we send to other planets and explore essentially on their own.  Most of the physical and clerical work a human can do can already be exceeded by machines.  Even the military is using robots and drones, so there’s less need for human soldiers in many developed countries.  Unless you’re in a career that involves a great deal of independent thought, personal touch, and creativity, your job very likely is at risk of being automated.  Then what of that identity you’ve built around your job for most your adult life?

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In closing we as humans are more than what we do for money.  I was always more than my remedial job or small bank account.  We are not the cars we drive, the houses we live in, or the clothing we wear.  With machines being primed to do many jobs better than humans and make high quality products for quite cheap, we humans are going to have to find different measures of distinction.  And I probably would have never gotten to this level of acceptance had I never developed a mental illness.  Many people will be blind sided by the levels of change that are going to hit the workplace and society in general.  It will be interesting and scary at the same time for the next fifteen to twenty years.

It’s a Sane, Sane World

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Over the years of trying to learn what makes average people act the ways they do, the only absolute I have come to is this; the biggest difference between being diagnosed as insane or sane is the number of people involved. It is considered insane to have crippling paranoia or depression. It is considered sane to complain about your shortcomings but do nothing to address said shortcomings. Over the course of the almost three years I have done this alifeofmentalillness blog I have stated on several occasions I would do just about anything to be sane and normal again.  I should be more specific and revise this.  I would give anything to not suffer delusions of persecution, hallucinations, crippling bouts of anger and depression, and the general isolation that comes along with it.  But I do not want to become what most people would consider normal.  By that I mean I do not want to lose my ability for empathy.  From what I have seen out of normals over the years, they seem to have a general lack of empathy or ability to see things from others people’s viewpoints.  I do not want to be uncaring.  It causes a great deal of pain that I sometimes have to be mean and even borderline abusive to people just to get a point across.  I hate being angry and mean to people.  I’m not a natural jerk.  Never have been and never will be.  I don’t know how much of that is the illness and how much of that is my natural personality.  But I absolutely hate being mean and combative to people. If I can’t be pleasant with someone and have them be pleasant to me, I try to avoid that person. To paraphrase Lee Marvin from the classic ‘Paint Your Wagon’ “you don’t have to love thy neighbor if you just leave the poor fool alone.”  But too seldom have I seen anyone, mentally ill or not, just leave other people alone.

Another aspect of sanity I never want to possess is the tendency for group think.  I love having a mind and using it. I hate celebrity gossip.  I hate reality tv.  I hate tabloid journalism.  I’ve even come to hate watching sports on tv because of the base nature of what is modern sports journalism.  It doesn’t bother me that a pro athlete makes more than any worker that isn’t executive management or an entrepreneur.  If I had 50,000 people pay $50 for tickets to read my blogs  or ten million subscribers like some popular youtube personalities, I’d be wealthy too.  Besides, well over half of pro athletes wind up bankrupt within five years of their retirement.  Watch the ESPN documentary ‘Broke‘ to see how true this really is. I am however bothered with how people will build up someone with talent only to knock them down later.  That is why I hope and pray I never become famous or wealthy.  “More money, more problems” as the late Biggie Smalls said.

I love learning new things, which is a skill which will become more valuable than it is now in the coming years and decades as technological and scientific advances get even faster than they are now.  For years I have listened to normals complain about their jobs.  I heard the “Oh God It’s Monday” and “Thank God It’s Friday” memes long before I had even dial up internet.  And I’ve seen and read articles on both domestic and foreign news sites about how potentially we could see job losses to automation with future unemployment rates that would make the 1930s look like a bull market on steroids.  NPR had an interactive article I’m linking to about chances of different types of jobs being taken over by machines and computers.  For example many jobs in customer service will likely be taken over, but many traditional medical and STEM jobs probably won’t be automated anytime soon.  And I bring this up because now many people are fretting over their jobs being taken over by machines.  Seriously?  First you complain about how bad you hate your job.  Now you complain that you may lose said job that you were cursing not even a couple months ago?  Make up your minds, people.  Do you think your current job sucks or do you want to do that lousy job?  Personally I don’t care if the robotics take the jobs I’ve had, providing there is some restructuring to tax laws and social safety nets.  The robots are coming, make no mistake.  They will take a lot of jobs.  Advances can be temporarily delayed but will win out.  Robots and computers will take many, if not most jobs.  How will we address a significant portion of people who identified with their work for their entire lives being unemployed and behind on their payments?  I normally don’t talk politics on this site, but regardless of your political philosophy these are issues that we need to demand our lawmakers discuss, ideally sooner rather than later.

Believe it or not I have worked before, even after I was diagnosed with a mental illness.  I have been a retail clerk, fast food cook, waiter, factory worker, teacher’s aide/graduate assistant, dish washer, janitor, construction worker, farm hand, lawn mower, and newspaper delivery boy (when I was 10 years old).  And everyone of those jobs (with the exception of teacher’s aide) was repetitive, mind numbingly boring, required no creative imagination, and didn’t really make a difference to even my small hometown.  Most of those jobs stand a good chance of being automated within the next twenty years anyway.  So those jobs were drudgery, not stimulating, and I worked mostly with people who were not very creative or intelligent. But those were the only jobs available to me, at least in my small town and rural area.  I can foresee a mass migration out of rural areas and small towns all over the world (more so than now) once automation really gets rolling.  Even I may be going to a big city if enough of my hometown dries up and or stagnates.

Creative jobs will likely become in demand soon.  I liked the teacher’s aide job because I got to interact with above average intelligence people everyday, got to use computers, got to teach a few college courses as a substitute teacher, and was actually encouraged to use my creativity.  Unfortunately that job was contingent on me being a graduate student in the Masters in Business program.  I loved the job but didn’t do well enough in the classes to keep my job.  I could have seen being a computers instructor and research rat for the next fifty  years.  But I can’t because I don’t have that piece of paper that states I am qualified for a job like that.

So here I am living on the fringes of society because of my disability.  Wasn’t my first choice but that is the current system we live under.  I don’t make the rules, I just live by them.  I never wanted to just waist my mind on disability.  But the aspects of the illness that make figuring out office politics and dealing with vicious bosses and coworkers will not allow me to function in our toxic modern work environment.  I don’t see how normals function under such systems.  Perhaps normals do it only by copious doses of reality tv, alcohol, anti depressants, tabloid news channels that don’t report anything that really makes a difference (I watch foreign news casts even more than U.S. news because I don’t care at all about celebrity gossip or what steroid pumped football god beat up his girlfriend this week).  I didn’t like the work environments I was in.  Not because I couldn’t physically or mentally do the work.  Far from it.  I just couldn’t adjust to the environment of toxic coworkers and borderline abusive bosses.

As far as people who think I am lazy and just being a leech off the good tax payers of my nation, I wish to leave you with the following thoughts.

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I am definitely not one of the one in ten thousand who can make the breakthrough, perhaps maybe among the one in ten who truly try to appreciate the men and women who make breakthroughs possible.  If it weren’t for brilliant scientists working on psych meds I would be in a padded room in an insane asylum as would some of the coolest people I ever met.  If it wasn’t for medical science my dear mother might be dead because of heart and thyroid problems.  If it wasn’t for scientists and engineers we wouldn’t have the internet, anti biotic drugs, sanitation, etc.  I am grateful every day for the ‘one in ten thousand.’  Everyone should be.

Trying to Understand the Workplace With a Mental Illness

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I will give you a head’s up.  This is going to be a serious rant.  And I am going to, at least for this post, stop holding your hand and give you feel good platitudes about the life of a mentally ill individual.  This is a rant that is long overdue.  So here goes.

As a grown man afflicted with a severe mental illness, I readily admit I do not understand the thinking and actions of normal people.  I never have, even before I became mentally ill.  Seriously, there are things you normals do and complain about that seem insane to me.  But since that is the norm instead of the paranoia, delusions, crippling depression,and hallucinations of schizophrenia, the complaints and senseless actions of the normal are not construed as the manifestations of mental illness.

Today I would like to discuss the world of the workplace.  Ever since I was four years old and old enough to listen in on grown up conversations, I have heard adults complain ceaselessly about their jobs.  I’ve heard you complain about how your boss is an idiot.  I’ve heard you go on without end about how incompetent and lazy your coworkers are.  I’ve heard you complain about how unreasonable and demanding your customers are.  I’ve listened to you gripe about how bad government agencies and regulations are hampering your business and productivity.  Since my parents were health care professionals, OSHA was one of their favorite whipping boys. I have heard you normals complain about how mind numbing and soulless your job is. And I have definitely heard about you normals complain about taxes.

Ah, taxes.  Kind of appropriate so close to tax deadline here in the U.S.  You complain about how you pay too much in taxes, how the rich pay too little in taxes, and I have sure heard you complain about how people on disability and unemployment don’t deserve what they get in tax payer funded programs.  As if throwing these people in jail and asylums would be any cheaper.  And to line the disabled up in ditches and kill them is absolutely unethical and uncivilized.  I have heard you normals complain for thirty  years about how bad your jobs and lives suck. I for one am absolutely sick and tired listening to you normals complain about your jobs.  KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!!! And I have to this very day never once heard even one of you idiot normals formulate a plan as to how you were going to get out debt, start that potential dream business, leave that abusive husband or codependent girlfriend, or how you were going to make sure your kids do better in their adult lives than you.  You are the primary reason your life turned out the way it is.  You are the reason you stayed at that dead end job in that dead end town just like four generations of your forefathers.  For once in your life complain about how bad you suck and actually do something to make sure your life stops sucking.  The facts are your job is lousy and your life is lousy because you settled for lousy.  Stop settling, start making great plans, or shut the hell up.

I admit what I have told you is harsh.  But you know what, I am harsh only because I care and love the human race and want to see us go on and keep doing cool things.  We have done some pretty cool things as a species already.  Cooking meat over fire, writing, the printing press, basic education for the young, fire arms, astronomy, mathematics, the steam engine, space travel, the internet, anti biotic medication, robotics, etc.  We’ve done some pretty cool stuff ever since we parted ways with our monkey relatives.  Having purpose and goals to strive for is what drives our species. Monkeys didn’t develop a cool civilization or make great inventions because they didn’t have any purpose or goals beyond mating, eating, and flinging manure at each other.

Having a goal and a purpose is a complete game changer. It isn’t just the brilliant scientists and engineers that need to have the purpose for their lives.  I often think you normals complain about your “mundane” jobs and your current situations only because you have no goals or purpose.  But your job working in a heated office or working with advanced tools on a construction site are anything but mundane.  Such jobs either did not exist or were much tougher even fifty years ago.  And yet here you are complaining about how bad your job sucks and your coworkers are lazy fools. Oddly, some of your coworkers would have the same complaints about you, especially if they saw you at your worst. You, for whatever reasons, killed your dreams as you tried to settle into something safe and secure.  In the early 21st century, being safe and secure and not rocking the boat is death.

I never got a chance to chase my dream of being a medical research scientist.  The schizophrenia killed all chance of that.  Some consider me a failure or a nonhuman because I can’t work a job for my living.  I hear too much of this outdated Puritanical nonsense about ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’ or ‘by the sweat of your brow you shall earn your bread.’  What an idiotic stance.  We are now to where most of our manufacturing work can be done by machines.  It won’t be the multinational sending thousands of jobs to Asia that will be an issue. Soon most manufacturing jobs (even the ones in Asia) will be done by robots.  And many new technologies will replace many old style business models.  Google ‘3D printing’, ‘robotics’, and ‘automation’ if you don’t believe me.  There are even companies in both the U.S. and China experimenting with building inexpensive housing units entirely with gigantic 3D printers.  Shoot, it won’t be long before most telemarketing and customer service call centers will be handled by computer programs.  So will bookkeeping, accounting, and many insurance and finance jobs.   Did those autoworkers in Detroit or steel mill workers in the Rust Belt suddenly become worthless nonhumans not deserving their daily bread because machines can do their jobs faster and more efficiently? Nope.  Will the armies of customer service reps, tax preparers, bookkeepers, finance workers, and other white collar workers lose their status as human beings because they are unemployed because machines will be able to do their jobs?  No.  Does a man or woman only have value because they make money?  Not a chance. Seriously, there are over one billion people on this planet (mainly in Africa, rural Asia, and Latin America) that live on two dollars a day or less. You couldn’t buy a Big Mac at McDonald’s for that. Are they less worthy of their lives because they don’t have much money?  Certainly not. I think these people are quite resourceful and creative to stay alive on such low wages, especially the ones who don’t have debts.

A job does not give a human value.  Never has and never will.  Neither does the size of a person’s bank account.  I know that flies in the face of generations of protestant work ethic and the mentality most Americans have in identifying themselves by what they do for money.  I cringed every time I was asked ‘what do you do’ when I first meet someone.  What do I do?  I breathe, I sleep, I laugh, I cry, I lust, I love, I play Skyrim, I watch baseball, I hallucinate without drugs, I eat Chinese food, I write, I ask questions, I learn, and I am a great friend.  But I know you want to know how much money I make so you can categorize me and rank me.  But it’s quite tactless in America how much money someone has (which is odd consider how much money is revered in this country).  Maybe the upcoming shakeups our civilization will experience within the next twenty years will force us to reexamine how we identify ourselves.  With so many people most likely being without paying jobs because machines and computers can and will do the jobs better, we will have to stop identifying with our jobs and stop condemning those who don’t have work.  We may have to take drastic actions to keep civilization from descending into chaos.  Desperate hungry and homeless people don’t make rational decisions.  We may even have to completely overhaul or tax and social safety net systems.  We may even have to resort to the whole universal basic income to keep the economy afloat and keep civilization functioning.  I love civilized life and not just because I’m bad at hunting and fishing.  I believe civilization has accomplished some cool things, led to billions of people with billions of talents being born through the ages who wouldn’t have been born had civilization never happened.  I want to see this thing keep going.  And things won’t get better by people believing a person has value only as far as they can earn money by their jobs.