> 47% of US jobs under threat from computerization according to Oxford study
So? Just tax companies accordingly and give the money to all those people who lost their job. Then it won't matter if the job is done by humans or by machines. Why can't we let go of that that antiquated paradigm?
Isn't it wonderful to let machines do the work for us, so we can spend our life with more pleasant tasks?

the matrix has you :)

When our income comes from the government we become it's dependants.

When they computerize the manufacturing and sales of Cinnabons we will know Hal has arrived.

Thanks for the idea Mark. I'll get on that for ya!
But seriously, I wonder if this is taking into consideration the rate at which NEW job titles are being created.
Additionally, I don't think even engineering is completely safe. Sometimes "creativity" is just the expansion of a pattern.... one that the "program" of life has been doing for quite some time (read:evolution).
Look up: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/exploringtheuniverse/borg.html
This is a 2006 article!
And trust me, I'm sure even your Nokia brickphone has more intelligence and creativity then some of the engineers I know.

Game over for the surgeon (soon):
"Factory robots are now mastering the fine art of filleting fish." http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24253-robofishmonger-uses-3d-images-to-aim-its-knife.html
Game over for the artist (soon):
a) A Painting Robot Teaches Us About The Artist Process (when computers become "creative") http://www.fastcodesign.com/1673084/watch-a-painting-robot-teaches-us-about-the-creative-process http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/07/can-computers-be-creative
b) Can Computers Write Music That Has A Soul? http://www.fastcodesign.com/1673173/can-computers-write-music-that-has-a-soul

We will need all the help we can get to sort out our world and make things right again for all people. What percentage of the population do you think would be inclined to sweep the streets and clean the public toilets when social media, social networking and interactive virtual content is so appealing. Probably that 1%. The rest of us will be in our living rooms enjoying the delights.
Besides, the capital outlay for the machines that "will replace us" is not small, so for a long time it will hold back the automation movement.
Creepy things to watch out for that might be a turn for the worst in this respect:
1. When you are in a room full of people in a social environment and nobody is making eye contact with anybody.
2. When you actually want to put your internet gear away and enjoy the sunshine, but 10 apps and whistles let the rest of the world know you are not connected. They strongly discourage you from disconnecting with disincentives if you do.
3. When you go outside, but there are new signs, bypasses and barricades in place preventing access to certain areas of the city that were not announced through highlighted through news media.
4. You walk for an hour on a pleasant sunny day, but see nobody on the streets. Everyone is inside their homes.
5. You can't find any printed books for sale, only magazines
On a positive, the complex nature of our socialization through the internet will actually create more jobs then not. The physical jobs might diminish, but automation of tedious tasks and manufacturing has already been in progress since the 80s, so this is nothing new.
Our lives in future will be filled up with so many other high level tasks that dealing with the tedium of day to day tasks will feel bothersome and better outsourced to the machine. The fact we can't escape from is that machines will likely care for us and the environment more then we ever did. So the human quality of life will universally get better.
Machines will be like the loyal old dog, following us around everywhere and tolerating our outbursts. Offering their unbiased attention, for some people becoming their pillar of support. Think smart phone that also carries your backpack, cooks and cleans for you, and reassures you when you are feeling down.

Why are our factories located in China? This Oxford study is looking at what remains outside of China.

Ditto Threesixty's comment. If it's as cheap to export manufacturing and low-skilled work to where labour is cheap as it is to mechanise, then international capital will continue to chase after states with low labour costs and lax regulation. But logically, in the long-term, mechanisation/computerisation taken to it's fullest extent raises as many questions as it answers. Will there be enough raw material to sustain a mostly mechanised economy? Is there a real (if remote) risk of the computerised systems becoming sentient, and deciding that the human population is an irrelevance, which it can allow to starve, or a potential threat which it must exterminate. This coupled with the possibility that any such 'Skynet'-type computer system may well have a psychology that is fundamentally alien to begin with. And finally... if we can eliminate drudgery by substituting sophisticated machines, a capitalist economy becomes increasingly hard to justify, or make work. Until now, the world's working-class majority has produced the goods for which it is also the majority consumer. What happens when it is unable to produce, and hence has nothing with which to pay for those goods/services?

First off im not sure if any of you realise this, but average working hours have increased over the last 30 years, not decreased; even WITH computers.
Secondly it appears that none of the others posting in the comments understand that money being saved by a business does not just mean that this saved money disappears, do you think once a business has automated some services and saves money that it just sits on that money and doesnt do anything?
It was a rhetorical question, no business that wants to be successful would do this. In fact a business that saves money somewhere will invest this money elsewhere, which in turn will create new JOBS with better PAY.
CONCLUSION: Money saved by businesses through automation means money freed up for investment and job creation elsewhere in the market. Before jumping to uneducated conclusions please use your brains in the future :-). There will ALWAYS be jobs for humans to do. ALWAYS!