War with the Robots

There is no real reason why robots cannot be designed to do anything that a man might do. For those whose minds are constructed that way, and who think first of the male function when the word man is mentioned, it should be stated that parthenogenesis has already been induced mechanically in mammals. Nor should extra-uterine growth of fertilized ova in a suitable medium be beyond the scope of scientific achievement. Though artificial construction of the ovum itself, with the proper DNA chains, seems now to be so difficult as to border on the verge of impossibility.

Mankind can still perform these functions adequately and pleasurably, without any outside aid. But there are numbers of other jobs that men do that they would be only too willing to turn over to the robots. No one really sets out in life with the ambition to be a garbage collector, though this is an important and essential function of civilization. Proof of this position’s lack of desirability can be seen by the fact that it is always the poorest and most underprivileged groups who staff the lower ranks of the department of sanitation. A look at your garbageman will quickly tell you which social group is at the bottom of the pecking order in your community.

Undoubtedly robots will be garbagemen and boiler cleaners, physical laborers and harvest hands. They will also fill the more hazardous positions. Underwater obstacles will be removed from swift-flowing channels by them, and they will repair atomic generators in radioactive rooms that would be instant death to a human being.

They might also have a function in law enforcement…