No one can do it for you

A father asks his son, who is tapping away at a game:

"What job will you choose when you grow up?"

The son answers:

"I don't need any job."

"What do you mean?"

"Robots will do every job. Robots will grow the rice, build the houses, catch the criminals, run the country. Basically people won't have to do anything, because robots will do it all."

"But a robot won't eat for you. There's no robot that eats so that you get full. No robot sleeps so that you get rested. No robot goes to the bathroom so that you get clean. Everyone has to do those basic things themselves.

There's no robot that studies so that you get smart. If you don't study, you're just a lump of meat that walks.

No robot exercises so that your body gets firm.

And no robot cultivates itself so that you become a moral person.

However far technology goes, even into space, the most basic things remain each person's own responsibility. If we hand everything over to robots, we'll be useless in this world and not need to exist any more. If you want to be a person of value in a world that has advanced by leaps and bounds, then right now you have to throw that game machine into the fire, get up and go running, take out your schoolbooks and study, and work on your character bit by bit.

Your mother and I won't live forever to earn your meals. You must be skilled enough and have enough moral character to contribute to the world, and the world will give you back food and clothing and money to support yourself."

The child can only understand this much, but we have to understand further. However far technology goes, people need to understand the law of cause and effect, the cycle of rebirth, and the virtues of love and compassion. Humans cannot stay forever at the ordinary, mundane level where good and evil are mixed. People have to rise to a higher, saintly level. We believe that somewhere in the universe are planets where people have developed a civilization that balances technology and morality to the utmost. Science and technology support morality, and morality governs technology.

We only fear that Earth is developing one side, putting everything into technology and neglecting moral cultivation, and the outcome is unknown. The more technology develops, the more urgently conscience demands that we raise our morality. Anyone who worries about the future of humanity has to be aware of this.