Suplee, Curt, "A Computer-Powered Robotic Revolution (Advances are just around the corner)

Suplee, Curt. "A Computer-Powered Robotic Revolution (Advances are just around the corner)." The Washington Post Weekly Edition 25 September 2000: 30-31.

Real-world robots and attempts at AI as of the last year of the 20th c. References Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence and Hans P. Moravec's Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind (q.v this Category). "A true android of the R2D2 variety—that is, an autonomous robot that can make lots of decisions for itself, handle unfamiliar surroundings and situations, and converse usefully with people—may be a long way off"; but a fair "number of computer innovators have been writing what amounts to an advance obituary for the human race." One opposing theory: the robots won't replace us because we'll outdistance them as cyborgs. See for toys and entertainment as sources for low-cost robot parts and opportunities for robot use; "insectoid devices for terrestrial and space exploration"; humanoid vs. nonhumanoid faces, esp. for care-giving robots; and only somewhat developed references to DARPA funding of robot research, necessarily Advanced Research Projects of the Defense variety.