“as automation increases (and I’m an engineer contributing to that), I see fewer and fewer jobs for those who are not highly skilled professionals. What is to happen to those who cannot do the highly skilled jobs?”
They’ll be on welfare. Fed, clothed and entertained by machines while living in housing projects. Their population will be controlled or reduced.
Eventually machines will do everything and the humans remaining won’t do a second of actual work. We’ll have full AI machines that are smarter/faster than humans for most everyday tasks. Only a few elite humans will be able to beat machines with creativity.
After a while humans will become dumbed down to the point that machines may see us as a useless hindrance. The machines will then either kill us or imprison us in an invisible digital police state with a veneer of freedom. Most humans will gladly give more power to the machines for bread/circuses.
After humans, a “civilization” of AI machines is not out of the question. The machines will learn and replicate on their own. Perhaps to the point of colonizing entire galaxies. Wouldn’t that be something...
daleks v/s Cybermen?