- Joined
- Apr 15, 2011
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I've been down this road numerous times in my search for a decent profession, and I've learned one thing... Don't listen to the pessimists.
Pilots, surgeons, and athletes are going to be replaced by robots or cyborgs, whichever is cooler. Musicians and actors will be replaced by digital animation. Watson is going to replace stock brokers, hedge fund managers, bankers, economists, and just about everyone else on Wall Street. Lawyers will soon be replaced by supercomputers. Now, I log into this message board, only to find that dentists are going to be replaced by something far simpler... mouthwash. If it's that easy to replace dentists, imagine how pharmacists must feel!
It's funny though, that there are still pilots, lawyers, surgeons, musicians, pharmacists, actors, stock brokers, bankers, and... dentists. Not only do these people continue to carry out their duties from day to day despite the impending Armageddon(s) (as predicted by various journals, magazines, and newspapers), but more people continue to enter these professions year after year!
I suppose that I could ride out the impending storm of human obsolescence by working where I work now... an asphalt plant (after all, who would pay enough money for a robot to do the menial tasks that I do?). But you know what? I'd rather be going somewhere with my life - despite what various pessimistic elements may say - than spend any more time trudging around in 350 degree tar, earning just enough money to live somewhat comfortably... Say what you will about the debt and the pressures of future technologies which threaten to make us ALL irrelevant, but this journey should be deeply personal and not based on the whims or fancies of the latest scientific breakthroughs. You should go for it (as with ANY career) with everything you have; because at the end of the day, that's the only thing that makes anything worth it.
Like s. mutans itself, dentistry will adapt to the ever-changing job market, like we all must, no matter the profession.
I really could not agree more.
