Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!darwin.sura.net!wupost!gumby!destroyer!ubc-cs!newsserver.sfu.ca!sfu.ca!kkoehn
From: kkoehn@fraser.sfu.ca (Kaari David Koehn)
Subject: Re: MIT Insect Robots
Message-ID: <kkoehn.709427805@sfu.ca>
Sender: news@sfu.ca
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
References: <1992Jun16.065514.2629@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1992Jun18.175623.15359@seer.gentoo.com> <1992Jun20.015635.29593@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> <1992Jun23.171102.517@seer.gentoo.com> <1992Jun24.215644.19045@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1992 23:16:45 GMT
Lines: 19

So here's a thread set forth by the last poster:
 Are green/conservationalist policies at odds with a technological/robotic
society? 
My first thoughts are that robots, being essentially mechanical,
are going to be yet another drain on non-renewable metal resources.
(Of course, if we switch to mass transit, there ought to be a lot of cars
and former car resource channels available - factories, etc.)
However, by making the most efficient use of what we have, robots could 
balance out...(if one robot, of 600 lbs. metal, using X kilowatts of
(solar-generated?) power a day, does the work of Y humans, consuming
Z resources...the"cold equations")  

...Are green/conservationalist policies at odds with humanity?

...As jobs are replaced/removed by robots, people don't have more free
time; they just don't have jobs.
(which, I suppose, gives a lot of free time, worth what you pay for it.)
kkoehn@sfu.ca  "look, ma! a serious post with my name!"

