Letter: Are we hurting ourselves by replacing people with machines?

Regarding the article about replacing bank tellers with machine technology (TCH, April 10), this is something I have difficulty appreciating.

While technology is an amazing invention, I cannot help but ask myself if in the long run we are hurting ourselves. People will always need jobs to sustain themselves, so to me this is an irony — while the population continues to grow, there will be less jobs.

How can this make sense to anyone? The way I see what is happening is that with all this technology, we are defeating ourselves without the majority realizing we are. In my opinion, we need to look beyond today’s and tomorrow’s inventions; this includes robots. Is this going to be a world of robots while humans continue to exist? How will our basic needs be met?

I am not worried about myself, considering I am in my twilight years. I am concerned about our children and their children.

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Letter: Are we hurting ourselves by replacing people with machines?."