Robots Are Us: The Mystical Side of Science (and Fiction)

Jeremy Smith, AlterNet – April 12, 2002

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Robots are no longer science fiction metaphors or wish-fulfillment fantasies. According to the United Nations’ World Robotics 2001 survey, there are at least 750,000 units in operation around the world building cars, vacuuming floors, and mowing lawns. These are automated laborsaving devices, more like washing machines than androids. Even the most entertaining and experimental robots today are little more than electrical marionettes — the most autonomous are more akin to insects than to mammals. But governments and corporations are spending billions of dollars each year researching ways to mimic human motion and the human mind with steel and silicon, and they’re getting results.

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