Word: robots
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...grasp a stainless steel container filled with pink powder, then lifts it into a furnace where it is baked at 950° F until it turns into a nondescript gray button three inches in diameter. Such a button could be worth $100,000, for the job of this robot, which goes into regular operation in a few months, is transporting reprocessed plutonium, one of the most toxic substances known to man. Until now, this dangerous task has been done by men in elaborate space suits. The robot, which knows neither weariness nor boredom, also knows nothing of danger...
...robot, a dream as old as man's yearning to avoid doing his chores (see box), is finally emerging from the pages of science fiction and beginning to transform the way the world works. What this amounts to is nothing less than a robot revolution. It promises to revive decaying industries and give smaller firms all the benefits of mass production. Ultimately, it may also transform the way society itself is organized and the way it assesses its values. These steel-collar workers already paint cars, assemble refrigerators, drill aircraft wings, mine coal and, for that matter, wash windows...
...there is more. Care for the afflicted? Quadriplegics may some day use spoken commands to order robot servants to do their bidding. Other designers are working on a robot that could gently lift up a bedridden patient, while a nurse changes his sheets, and tuck him back into bed. M.I.T. Computer Scientist Marvin Minsky visualizes a day, about 20 or 25 years from now, when a surgeon will be able to slip on a pair of special gloves connected by remote control to a pair of mechanical hands that can perform surgery for him in a hospital hundreds of miles...
...robots wash the dishes? Of course, say the engineers. Unimation's Engelberger, for that matter, is outfitting his office with a robot that will make and serve coffee to his guests. Fredkin of M.I.T. visualizes the household robot as a creature that could not only do all the chores but also chase away burglars, "preferably by crouching in a dark corner and growling like a large dog." But does the ordinary homeowner want to pay $50,000 to get the kitchen sink cleaned up? "Actually, homes are a complicated environment for robots," says one expert in Washington...
These are, furthermore, the service jobs that are supposed to be reserved in the future for the factory workers retrained out of the robot-run assembly lines. But wherever there is drudgery, the robot stands ready to move in. Says Westinghouse's Clark: "If a robot can do the job, a man shouldn't be doing it anyway...