By Andrew P. McCoy and Fred Sargent
Published On January 15, 2022

No one believed we could do it. But we arranged an on-the-job ­interview with a service and maintenance electrician 100 years from now.

When we arrived at the job site, we immediately encountered someone walking by who appeared to be an electrician.

Catching a glimpse of the name tag on her work uniform, in nearly perfect unison we exclaimed, “Julie!” She was the service electrician we had traveled such a wide span of time to interview.

“Hello,” she said turning back in our direction. “You’re here to interview a service electrician!”

“And you still refer to yourselves as ‘service electricians’?”

“Yes,” she replied, “we still call ourselves service electricians, just as people did back in 2022. Relatively speaking, there are far fewer of us, thanks to the kind of special helpers we have today who were not available back in your day.”

Cobots

As if on cue, at that moment a robot came around the corner and cozied up to us like an old friend who needed no introduction.

“Good morning, Josh,” Julie said. “Gentlemen, let me introduce Josh.”

Josh said good morning in a voice that surprised us with its human-like quality.

“A century ago,” Julie said, “you would have referred to Josh as a ‘cobot,’ a collaborative robot powered by artificial intelligence. But we call Josh a ‘versatile’ with I&P—intelligence and physicality. Josh is capable of many things besides merely assisting me in installations. I could not get along without his help.”