Robots [antikvár]

FOR€UJORD Robots should not be thought of as mere mechanical arteiacts, but rather as symbols oi deep changes in the operation of industry m the late 20th century—changes that spill out of this area of activity to affect people in many different wato of life. In technical parlance, robots are machines that in some aspect of appearance or behaviour imitate people. Few robots of what can be called the classic type (as featured in countless science fiction films) actually exist. These are "androids"-machines that look like men and women and perform actions that replicate those of their human counterparts. Tbday's robots, generally speaking, are mechanical arms controlled by computers, which can be programmed to undertake a huge rangre of handling activities normally done by people. The effect of robots, however, goes beyond what this simple description of their capabilities might suggest. First, robots are establishing themselves in novel systems of automation in manufacturing industry that can tum out a range of goods with great precision, and which require only a few human workers. In these cases minimal times are needed to change the systems to make different types of products. Much of manufacturing industry is concemed with production of goods not in large runs in which the items seldom vary, but in small, broken-up streams, during which factory managers frequently change the types of products being fumed out to suit the demands of consumers and industrial customers, whose special needs vary. The new manufacturing systems, often built arovmd robots, offer a flexibility that can match this variation in demand, to this respect, one can perceive consequences that naturally follow for the way that manufacturing industry operates, and for the type of people who work in it. The era of robots will call for different types of skills in industry Overall, there will be fewer jobs in this sector Due to the importance of manufacturing industry in the economies of the developed nations, the countries that handle the transition the better will gain the upper hand. Whereas Britam pioneered the initial development of large scale industry in the late 18th century and the USA was the leader m this sphere in the 100 years to 1960, Japan appears to be emerging as the dominant force in the manufacturing technologies of the 1980s and 1990s. The second reason for the importance of robots is their emergence into othei; non-industrial areas of life. The first fledgling robots for domestic uses are coming off the production lines. Such machines may be able to imdertake handling jobs, at an economical price, of the kind normally left to people. They could allow men and women who are only moderately well-off the luxury of "hiring" domestic helpers of a kind only affordable by the wealthy in Victorian times. Robots also have uses in many other areas of life, either in replacing or enhancing human effort-often in hazardous places such as outer space or under the sea. Tfechnical advances are gradually giving robots properties that actually increase their likeness to humans. Thus many of today's robots possess a sense of touch, and can "see" with at least moderate ability. Futhermore, researchers are hard at work on producing robots that walk and (usmg computers that operate according to the principles of artifical intelUgence) even "think" for themselves. The question whether technologists can succeed in making reliable, useful and cheap androids may be answered during the next decade. Whether they tum out to be valuable servants, or, as could just as easily happen, whether they spark off large-scale alienation and loss of identity among the human population, remains to be seen. It should be an interesting 10 years. Peter Marsh