Let's not kid ourselves. Your job and mine could be done by machines. And, in the end, they probably will be.
Why, not long ago, a TV executive informed me sarcastically that an algorithm could do what I do. (That's not original; most TV executives aren't.)
And, as many pundits have said in response to Donald Trump's boasts about bringing jobs back to the Rust Belt in the United States, there are fewer jobs because automation has taken over.
Besides, how long before someone decides that most of those pesky immigrants doing menial labour could be replaced by robot-thingies that don't need visas and can be programmed to have language skills? Elon Musk is possibly working on this already.
It's a way-interesting scenario. Daunting, too. And then what happens?
You must remember Humans. The Channel 4/AMC thriller series about robots, known as Synths, who serve humans and the thriller part is the revelation that these Synths have a residue of human feeling and are about to start a revolution, unless they are stopped.
Thing is, it's all an allegory. The series is about labour, exploitation and the way in which we dismiss lowly, low-paid service workers as disposable machines. It's a heady concoction.
The reason why Humans (returning Monday on AMC at 10 p.m.) is a huge hit in Britain, and why it has a devoted following hereabouts, is the sheer ordinariness of the world in which it is set. This isn't a fanciful sci-fi universe.
It is set in the Britain of now – service jobs such as child care, elder care and basic agriculture tasks are a normal, essential part of the economy, but instead of new immigrants and youths toiling in these roles, it's all done by these humanoid robot figures. Easily mistaken for humans, the Synths are robotic servants. Also, the series has great charm and sharp flashes of humour.
Anchoring the series is a middle-class family.
Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill) bought a Synth named Anita (Gemma Chan), much to the discomfort of his wife, Laura (Katherine Parkinson), but to the delight of his kids.
In Season 1, Joe attempted sexual advances on Anita and, as the family soon discovered, Anita was not merely an obedient robot. She went on the run, as did other semi-human robots and they set out to manipulate software that would reveal those Synths who are close to being human.
This second season is alluring from the get-go. One of the rebel Synths, Niska (Emily Berrington), is a fugitive in Berlin and in a relationship with a local woman. Niska has the power to undermine the software that controls Synths and does so – the result is a very slow revelation by some Synths that they have consciousness and aren't going to bother with being silent, passive workers any more. They're not waving the red flag of communist revolution, but you get the picture.
The Berlin setting is put to good use – it is visually sumptuous and the remarkable Berlin Hauptbahnhof, that cathedral of glass that is the main train station, is prominent.
Meanwhile in England, Anita, too, is on the lam, working in a seaside café and having human empathy for the café's owner. She knows, mind you, that there are dark and dangerous forces out to capture and terminate her.
And in the United States, a Synth-specialist scientist, Athena (Carrie-Anne Moss), is hired by a tech entrepreneur – an Elon Musk figure – to sort out the problem with so many Synths becoming all too human.
But it's the mundane reality of the lives of that family in England that holds it all together. Joe and Laura are seeing a therapist to deal with their marital problems following Joe's fling with the Synth. They are provided with a Synth therapist who helpfully suggests that she might modulate her voice to help them feel comfortable. "Can you do Richard Burton?" Joe replies. Then, without much further ado, Joe is made redundant at work, and replaced by a Synth.
That scene is key to understanding what's going on with Humans. Joe asserts that his job is about human contact and that element can't be duplicated. Then the Synth begins to list the names and ages of the children of Joe's clients. He's superfluous. Just as his wife felt usurped and superfluous when Joe brought home Anita.
For all its sci-fi and speculative dimensions, Humans is both a first-rate thriller and a moral education.
It makes you think. It makes you think about how easily you can be replaced.