Caution: Robots At Work @DrPaulSalmon @ConversationUK @ConversationUS

Paul Salmon, a professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast, discusses the image of robots at work in the Star Wars universe and the extent to which those images reflect the actual uses of robots IRL, in an article for The Conversation. 

He writes in part:

Interestingly, they can also tell us useful things about automation, such as whether it poses dangers to us and whether robots will ever replace human workers entirely. In these films, we see the good, bad and ugly of robots – and can thus glean clues about what our technological future might look like.

One major fear is that robots and automation will replace us, despite work design principles that tell us technology should be used as a tool to assist, rather than replace, humans. In the world of Star Wars, robots (or droids as they are known) mostly assist organic lifeforms, rather than completely replace them.