MACHINES AND MEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22139, 19 June 1935, Page 13

MACHINES AND MEN

EXPERIENCE OF AUCKLAND LABOUR-SAVING DEVICES NO GENUINE ROBOTS The extent to which human labour has been displaced by machines is a matter which has been raised with some frequency since the post-war years brought their world-wide problem of unemployment. Imaginative word pictures have been drawn of a world over-run by robots, of man as the slave of the machines he has created. Whatever may be happening in the rest of the world, however, it is difficult to find <1 robot in Auckland.

There are in Auckland many ingenious machines doing work that at one time was done by men, but none of them yet seems to have reached the true robot stage. There are machines that sew round corners, crack beans, weave rugs and wrap chocolate. Others add figures, make screws or rivet leather, but they are not real robots. They all call for some sort of close human supervision.

In London and some other places the robot would seem to bo more of a reality, but that, perhaps, is only because of the introduction of the mechanical voice. A traveller on the underground railway might be told by robot to "Keep clear of the gates," when the lift gates are closing, but no such mechanical warnings rule the conduct of Aucklanders. The direct human voice, sometimes amplified by loud-speakers, is the only one to have its say in the comings and goings of the people of Auckland.

In England, too, a robot telephone operator has been put into commission to tell subscribers when the line is en-

gaged, or the time of the day. So far this is an experiment only, but one of which the outcome seems assured. The Auckland parallel to this is to be found in the automatic telephone system, but its voice is no more than a primitive sound that has not the ability to shape itself round a vocabulary.

Auckland has not even an escalator, cr moving stairway. Shoppers and others moving from floor to floor in city buildings take a lift, and in this the human agency is vital and apparent. Machines there are which do a number of wonderful things, but so far they have not been able to take charge of daily affairs.