Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
President Jimmy Carter at a cost of $11.7 million. The result of the study
was a realistic proposal for a self-replicating automated lunar factory sys-
tem, capable of exponentially increasing productive capacity and, in the
long run, the exploration of the entire galaxy within a reasonable time-
frame. It was not, however, without a certain amount of trepidation,
that the report commented on the social aspects of what it termed the
“SRS cornucopia”—the unfettered evolution and reproduction of such
systems. In reading the extracts of the report presented here you may
safely ignore the notion that the “robot factory” will be on the moon or
elsewhere in the galaxy—in my view that is a complete red herring.
How will humankind deal with what has been termed, with some
justification, “the last machine we need ever build?” How might
people's lives be changed by a replicative universal constructor sys-
tem capable of absorbing solar energy and raw dirt and manufac-
turing, as if by magic, a steady stream of finished building mate-
rials, television sets and cars, sheet metal, computer components,
and more robots—with little or no human intervention required?
Just as the invention of the telephone provided virtually instanta-
neous long-distance communication, and television permits instant
knowledge of remote events, and the automobile allows great indi-
vidual mobility, the autonomous SRS has the potential to provide
humanity with virtually any desired product or service and in al-
most unlimited quantities. Assuming that global human popula-
tion does not simply rise in response to the new-found replicative
cornucopia and recreate another equilibrium of scarcity at the origi-
nal per capita levels, supply may be decoupled from demand to per-
mit each person to possess all he wants, and more. The problems of
social adjustment to extreme sudden wealth have been documented
in certain OPEC nations in recent years. Much attention has also
been given to the coming “age of leisure” to be caused by super-
automation. What more difficult psychological and social prob-
lems might emerge in an era of global material hyper-abundance?
[11]
One of the concerns presented in the report related to the possibility of
a population explosion amongst self-reproducing robots:
An exponentially increasing number of factories (even if the rate
is not sustained indefinitely) will seem especially threatening and
psychologically alarming to many. Such a situation will draw forth
visions of a “population explosion”, heated discussions of leben-
sraum, cancerous growth, and the like. Nations not possessing
