Currently there are robotics competitions going on across America and almost every single major university as a robotics program along with degrees in computer sciences, robotics and artificial intelligence. There is no doubt within the next decade that the field of artificial intelligence and robotic androids will come of age. In fact currently artificial intelligence designers are trying to make business decision computers and thus your future boss could be an android. That is to say if you do not lose your job first to a robotic system in manufacturing.

Academia has assured us that we will not have to worry about robots taking over the world in causing Armageddon, but how can we be so sure? After all, right now they're only experimenting and building prototypes. Right now all we see is unmanned aerial vehicles in the military, robotics lawnmowers and those little nifty robotic vacuum cleaners you can buy for your home. But in the future we will have robotic artificial intelligence armies, with no people. Half of the U.S. Automaker manufacturing facilities currently use robotics to build cars. All or most all car washes in the United States use robotics and more and more industries are turning towards robotics and artificial intelligence systems to run things, rather than people.

This is great for shareholders equity and quarterly profits, yet anyone who has been downsized due to the robotics efficiency probably has a different perspective on this issue. Will the human race become slaves to robotic systems? We all know that in every civilization there is a point when government gets so large and has so much control that no longer needs to people at once served. Who is to say that government will not employ robots to cut costs and save taxpayers money? At that point the robots will be running us and what if they decided we are no longer needed. Will it matter then if academia promised us that their artificial intelligent robotic research would not harm us? I dare to ask this question even though I am very pro robotics. Consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow

Currently Lance is retired at age 40 and is running an Online Think Tank Forum while traveling North America. Perhaps considering something extremely challenging to do that will exercise his mind and utilize all his experiences, observations and skills. Any ideas?