Our tech future: the rich own the robots while the poor have 'job mortgages'

Artificial intelligence expert Jerry Kaplan says those whose jobs involve 'a narrow set of duties' are most likely to see their work replaced by automation

Ever since the first vision of a robot appeared on the horizon of mankind, humans have feared that automation will replace the workforce in our dystopian future.

There typically follows a period of reassurance, in which we are compelled to believe that this will be a good thing, and that robots could actually liberate us from the drudgery of daily toil and free us for more enjoyable, cerebral pursuits. Futurist Jerry Kaplan, 63, is among those optimists. He estimates that 90% of Americans will lose their jobs to robots and we should all be happy about it.