The Robot Revolution
(11 of 11)
intrinsically human, such as sports, entertainment, scientific research." The value of many things will eventually change, since every thing made by machine will come to seem commonplace and everything made by hand, even a pair of knitted socks, will acquire the quality of rarity.
To guide all these potential changes will require a degree of ethical judgment and social organization that humanity has rarely shown any sign of possessing. Just as the computer itself derives, however, from the simple proposition that all mathematical logic can be reduced to various combinations of zero and one, these revolutionary upheavals in human society are clearly vis ible in the distance. Indeed, they can be seen already in the birdlike contraptions that poke their fiery beaks into the un finished steel frames at the Jefferson plant in East Detroit.
By Otto Friedrich. Reported by Christopher Redman/Detroit and Janice C. Simpson/New York
-West Germany has the largest number, 850. Sweden has 600, the most per capita in the world, and Sweden's ASEA is the world's third largest manufacturer of robots (after Unimation and Kawasaki). Italy has 500, France 200, the Soviet Union 25.
Top Stories on Time.com
Most Popular
-
Most Read
- Will Citigroup Survive? Four Possible Scenarios
- Looking Ahead: A Bad Recession or Something Worse?
- Why Obama Wants Hillary for His 'Team of Rivals'
- Why Sasha and Malia Will Go to Sidwell Friends
- In the Downturn, Government Jobs Looking Better
- Obama Picks Geithner, an Insider, for Treasury
- A Generation Gap in Tibet's Royal Family
- Is Obama's Energy Plan Enough?
- Plastic Surgery Below the Belt
- BlackBerry Storm: The Novelty Wears Off Fast
-
Most Emailed
- Will Citigroup Survive? Four Possible Scenarios
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Schools
- In the Downturn, Government Jobs Looking Better
- Why Sasha and Malia Will Go to Sidwell Friends
- Looking Ahead: A Bad Recession or Something Worse?
- In Mexico's Drug War, Bad Cops Are a Mounting Problem
- Geithner at Treasury: An Insider to the Rescue?
- Why Obama Wants Hillary for His 'Team of Rivals'
- The Global Economy's Big Fear Becomes Real: Deflation
- BlackBerry Storm: The Novelty Wears Off Fast
Mixx





RSS