Changing Times Part I

Over 30 years ago, Steve Martin was the host on Saturday Night Live and he did a short monologue called “What I Believe” which I still quote as often as possible. One of the best lines in the routine, certainly one of my favorites, is “And, people say I'm crazy for believing this, but I believe that robots are stealing my luggage.” It got a big laugh. Back in the 1970s robots were still mainly science fiction; there were a handful of assembly plants using industrial robots, a few very primitive robotic spacecraft had been launched, a small number of drone vehicles were being developed, but for the most part automation was still limited to building computer systems into existing machinery (like a programmable thermostat) or developing specialized equipment to fulfill a specific function (like a washing machine). The general purpose robots that could wash your clothes or dishes, go adjust the thermostat when it’s too warm in the room, or run into the Baggage Claim area and make off with your suitcase, while much beloved of Science Fiction writers, hadn’t (and still have not) appeared…

Continuing the theme of specialized, rather than general, cybernetic workers, we now have specialized software that can riffle through the Internet, either to find content of a specific type or just locate places where many people are posting comments, and then deposit ads promoting your business. These are often referred to as “robots” (although there are a number of less complimentary slang terms for them, such as “spam-bots”) by the community, which evokes the image of a human-shaped machine sitting at a computer and dutifully entering address after address, looking for comments sections and discussion boards on which to post its ads. It’s a silly thought, but these programs actually bear the same resemblance to that imaginary web-surfing robot that automated control systems bear to the humanoid robots of golden-age science fiction: cheaper, more efficient, and they don’t require huge quantum leaps in technology. But most Internet users pay about as much attention to them as we do to the thermostat…

And so did I – until one of them turned up in my comments section. After my post on Wednesday about the flooded cars in Ionia, I got a comment from these folks saying that they were featuring my post on their site, and I should feel welcome to send them any of my future postings. I checked, and the first two paragraphs of my post are indeed on this site (it’s on the Direct Car Insurance page), along with a link to the blog for Wednesday. In fairness, I can’t actually say if the folks running this web site found my blog using a robot, or if the comment was posted by an automated system; it could just be a “form letter” email that they use because of the volume of sites they visit. The point I’m going for here is that even 20 years ago, the idea of a “robot” increasing your readership would have been pure science fiction, had personal web pages or blogs existed at the time…

It’s always a mistake to try to predict the technology curve; it’s what gets you “Star Trek” episodes set in the 24th Century with computers slower and weaker than the one presently clipped to my belt. And I’m not saying that 20 years from now you’re going to be solicited by robots that will carry on personal conversations with you, sell you products, deliver them to your house, assemble anything that needs assembling, return every six months to perform routine maintenance, and exchange Christmas cards with your family. I’m just saying that you really shouldn’t be surprised if all of that does happen…