In the prosperous, optimistic days that followed World War II, Americans dreamed of a utopian future made possible by advances in technology. In this gleaming future, all menial labor would be performed by robot servants, sparking a new Renaissance as Americans found themselves unfettered from the need to work. But, during the counterculture movement of the 1960s and '70s, when many Americans began to distrust the government and other established institutions, robots and technology were increasingly viewed with suspicion and paranoia. Increasingly, visions of the future of human-robot relations tended toward the antagonistic, if not the apocalyptic, with the smarter, faster, stronger machines intent on supplanting human beings or wiping us out, altogether.
Whether you believe that we humans will always be able to keep our technology on a leash or you're of the variety that predict we will inevitably be challenged for supremacy of the earth by our humanoid creations, both of those future scenarios recently became closer to reality with the unveiling last month of the "world's most high-tech humanoid," a robot with lifelike features and expressions and working artificial human organs.
the future has arrived >> Posted 03.05.13 by BrentJS