Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!uunet!destroyer!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!bronze!btaplin@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
From: Brad Taplin <btaplin@silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: MIT Insect Robots
Message-ID: <1992Jun28.114419.17419@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Summary: Robots are more than that...
Sender: btaplin@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1992 11:44:14 -0500
Lines: 32

tomk@seer.gentoo.com (Tom Kunich) writes:
>awfuchs@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au (A.W. Fuchs) writes:
>>Beware of making statements like "man will never fly"...
	Thanks. :)
>Big science is only big science. While it is nice for you and
>I to know the origins and fundamental properties of the universe,
>it doesn't really amount to a hill of beans to the average person.

	There are indeed pressing needs quite deserving of the
	billions spent on Big Science, but I hope we remember
	our debt to such Big Scientists as Newton and Babbage.

>Robots are another of these ideas. While there will always be a small
>market for robotics of one sort or another, the development funds for
>real robotics seems pretty vulnerable when human labor is so cheap

	That market will grow, and less-real robotics in such
	areas as cleaning, maintenance, security and exploring
	nearby planets will drive the costs of components down,
	making the challenges of "real robotics" less daunting.

>We must also face the fact that fossil fuel is limited and...

	Agreed. :) We do need to concentrate resources on more
	immediate concerns. But remember that new technologies
	occasionally do benefit the population. If robots could
	farm the ocean, build housing, and help out cleaning up
	the environment I would consider them worthy of respect.

-- 
btaplin@silver.ucs.indiana.edu or simply btaplin@ucs.indiana.edu will
appreciate your intelligent suggestions, anecdotes, comments & offers.
