The Honest Courtesan

In 20th century science fiction, humanoid robots which could perform manual labor as well as (or even better than) humans were common, while those which could think in a human-like fashion were rare.  But as the actual science of robotics has advanced, scientists and engineers have discovered that building humanoid robots which can perform tasks humans master at a very early age (such as walking) is actually much harder than it looks.  And because the human brain is wired to see faces in everything and to interpret natural phenomena and random events as the acts of conscious beings, creating programs which seem intelligent to the ignorant and gullible is quite easy in comparison.  This has not been lost on the Techlords, which is why they decided a few years ago not to try to automate boring, soul-destroying work, but rather the thinking, creative work which commands high salaries.  If they can succeed in replacing brain work with computer programs, the people who currently do those jobs will be forced into the blue-collar labor market, thereby creating a labor glut which will drive down wages for the physical jobs robots cannot yet do as cheaply or efficiently as even an unskilled human.  Consider that the same people busily engaged in selling companies on “AI” are also in favor of lowering the labor age and banning both contraception & abortion; if they can achieve their sick dream of chabots doing all thinking work, there will be so many people competing for so few jobs the wages for those jobs will crash to barely above slave-labor level.