Originally published in the 2006 issue of Llewellyn’s Starview Almanac, this article uses astrology to look at the future of robotics–including driverless cars. It’s turned out to be very prescient.
Science and Invention: Robots and Astrology
Robots are set to capture the public imagination, much like the Internet two decades ago or personal computers in the early 1980’s.
Science fiction books and movies have long forecast the widespread use of human-like robots. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s 1942 short story, “Runaround,” which introduced the word robot, was later published as part of a collection of stories in I, Robot. This book later became the basis for the 2004 summer movie, starring Will Smith. It showed robots as commonplace, all-purpose drudges—schlepping shopping bags and hailing taxis—until they staged a peasants’ revolt.
The popular media have also depicted colorful androids in movies like Blade Runner and robots with attitudes, such as Star Wars’ irascible C3PO. Cyberpunk fiction writer William Gibson, in novels such as Mona Lisa Overdrive, portrays a world where robots mingle uneasily with the down-and-out in a futuristic urban landscape.
The robots of science fiction are about to become a reality. During the next year, we will witness the glamorization and spread of robotics. Indeed, a United Nations study recently concluded that the use of robots was set to take off in the next two years, with robot vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers leading the vanguard of a revolution in home technology.
The planets[1] have helped to set the stage for the robot revolution and will make robots—automatic devices that perform functions normally carried out by humans—a huge social and cultural trend. In the year(s) ahead, we will find the world warming to cool, metallic robots in surprising ways.
Looking Back to Look Ahead
A look into the past can help us to see the future.[2] During the 1920s, and then in the 1960’s, key planets were positioned very much like they are today. In both decades the nation witnessed cultural revolutions in technology that were very similar to what we are seeing now. In the 1920’s, devices such as pop-up toasters, hair driers, and bread slicers helped make for more efficient households. In addition, the short-wave radio was introduced and, not coincidentally, the first robot was produced.
The early and mid-1960’s[3] was a time period notable for the heightened development of space flight, mainframe computers—and the first stirrings of robotics in private and university research labs. Technology in the early 1960’s was challenged to meet the demands of the Cold War. President Kennedy made manned space flight a national priority, and mainframe computers found their way into government and big businesses. Technology was driven by detail-oriented teams of engineers.
Over the last decade, technology has exploded. We have seen The Internet, lightning-fast personal computer processors, digital cameras, cellular phone technology—and, soon, robots. Unlike the 1960’s, however, this modern technology is distinguished by its wide accessibility and popular use. Only a few went to the Moon. Millions log onto the Internet.[4] It will be the same with robots. They will be everywhere.
Out of the Lab and the Battlefield
Large-scale technological advances are frequently developed by the military and research laboratories, often working in tandem. The early ENIAC computer, for example, was originally built to chart munitions trajectories. The military is in the process of developing robots for a number of battlefield tasks, such as minesweeping. Scientific labs use robots as drones to perform onerous physical tasks like swabbing slides. Many of these military and scientific uses will begin to have applications in our homes. What makes the coming robot revolution so different from the robots used on factory assembly lines is that the new revolution will produce robots which are adaptable to different environments.[5] Who wouldn’t want to have a small robot programmed to silently vacuum the carpet twice a week, even when we have re-arranged the furniture?
The robot revolution began in earnest when a robot named Spirit landed on Mars—and, unlike an earlier attempt, this time it worked.[6] So did the next robot, Opportunity, which landed three weeks later. As of this writing, both are still going strong. In an extraordinary real-world demonstration of the flexible, adaptable world of modern technology, it was recently revealed that some Mars Rover robotic tasks were being run not from the Jet Propulsion Lab but from a second floor office in a gentrified section of Lower Manhattan.
One can envision the day when these Mars robots, with prices reduced to WalMart levels, will pick up dust bunnies instead of red rocks or rake leaves instead of the Martian surface. If you don’t believe the Mars Rover will ever become available at the mall, just remember: The multi-million dollar mainframe computer eventually became the $500 desktop PC.[7]
Underwater Robots
We will see more and more robots performing underwater.[8] Mitsubishi has developed a robotic fish for use in aquariums. It can be designed to look and behave exactly like extinct or rarely-seen fish such as the coelacanth. Fish robots will also be used to search huge areas of the ocean, looking for pollution, or making deep sea maps. Robots the size of lobsters, able to mimic crustacean behavior, are being developed for eventual applications as marine minesweepers and deep-sea data gatherers.
Health Care and Robots
The medical field will continue to find new ways to use robotics.[9] Surgeons already use robots to make precise, minute incisions. Robots will also be used for such operating room tasks as holding instruments and positioning limbs. Coronary bypass surgeries have even been completed by a surgeon using three robotic arms (known as the da Vinci System, named after Leonardo da Vinci, who designed the first robot) inserted through small incisions in the chest. This area of robot technology will continue to accelerate and amaze in the year ahead.
Prosthetic arms, legs, and hands will employ sophisticated robotic technology. Sadly, the battlefield is driving this field of robotics, too: A high number of Iraq War military personnel need prosthetics and rehabilitation for limbs which have been lost in combat.
Invisible Bots
Many robots will operate almost invisibly, escaping our notice.[10] We already have invisible robots hidden in home computers where they scurry around in our hard drives. They are nicknamed ‘bots and, among other nefarious tasks, spy on our computers, help to activate pop-up ads, and clog up valuable disc space. Internet search engines like Google also use ‘bots for a more benign purpose, trolling the Internet for web pages to add to search lists. Look for these invisible robots, both the good and the bad, to multiply in quantity and applications.
Robots, Ben Franklin, and Security
Beginning in 2008, our cultural experiences will have many of the characteristics associated with one of America’s founders, Benjamin Franklin.[11] He was a down-to-earth inventor of utilitarian devices and would most certainly have welcomed robots—as long as they were practical and helped people do a better job. Franklin invented bifocals, as well as the long arm used to reach books on high shelves. Like Franklin’s sensible 18th Century inventions, affordable and practical gadgets—including small robots—are set to hit the consumer market. An aging population will welcome the utility of labor-saving robots that can perform simple tasks, such as cleaning the bathtub and sweeping the sidewalk.
We will soon begin to experience widespread and dramatic transformations of our world.[12] Robots will be used for national security and border patrols. Driverless robot vehicles and drone aircraft will patrol the U.S. borders, an area of heightened concern since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In fact, tractor maker John Deere is working with the military to build a driverless utility vehicle which may eventually be used for homeland security.
Look for robots to continue growing in popularity and then hit the big time consumer market in 2008 or slightly before. They may not all have humanoid personalities like R2D2 from Star Wars, but with the media’s help we’ll love them anyway.
Endnotes
[1] Neptune entered Aquarius in 1998, where it will remain until 2012; Uranus went into the sign of Pisces in 1993, where it will stay until 2011. Uranus, the modern planetary ruler of airy Aquarius, is invention and technological wizardry. Neptune, the modern ruler of liquid Pisces, has to do with things which seep into all areas of life. Neptune also rules the popular imagination, glamour, and things we glamorize through mass media. A tremendous exchange of energies between Uranus and Neptune began in 1993 when these two planets conjoined for the first time in 170 years. This momentous planetary connection resulted in the late-1990’s media glamorization of technology and the stock market “tech bubble.” The combined energies of these slow-moving outer planets help to define long-range cultural trends. Conjunctions between the outer planets are predicable but rare and the effects of such planetary events can last decades—or even centuries. The powerful merging of these planetary energies continues to evolve. Beginning in 2003, Neptune and Uranus began to occupy each other’s signs: Uranus is now in Pisces and Neptune is in Aquarius. In addition, the current position of Uranus is beginning to enter into a challenging aspect to both Uranus and Neptune in the United States birth chart.
[2] Uranus takes 84 years to go through all twelve signs of the zodiac. The last time Uranus was in its current sign, Pisces, was in the 1920’s. By looking back at events in part of that decade, we can begin to project some possibilities for the present and near future.
[3] Uranus was in the sign of Virgo in the 1960’s. Virgo is a zodiac sign associated with technology and engineering detail. The U.S. birth chart Uranus is in the sign of Gemini, a sign associated with rapid development. When the planet Uranus, coursing through its orbit, interacted strongly with the U.S. Uranus in the 1960’s, we saw rapid development in engineering and technology. Over the next several years, we should get rapid development in Piscean areas such as medicine and health care—with robotics leading this surge in development. . As in the 1920’s, these advances will not be confined to labs and big corporations, but will become widely available.
[4] Both Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius are characterized by technology in the public domain, rather than in the hands of a privileged few.
[5] Pisces, the sign in which the technology planet Uranus currently resides, is known for being adaptable and flexible.
[6] The landing of the Mars Rover took place shortly after Uranus entered Pisces, a synchronous signal that inventive Uranus’ journey through Pisces was going to be very robotic.
[7] One of the astrological “signatures” of the present planetary placements of Uranus in Pisces and Neptune in Aquarius is that there is a tendency for technology to spread, seeping into all corners of the culture. In order for this to happen, technology has to become affordable. That is what happened with the personal computer, the digital camera—and will happen, very soon, robots.
[8] Pisces is a water sign, perhaps the most watery of all the zodiac signs. With Uranus in Pisces, we will see lots of technology involving water or liquid.
[9] Pisces is also the sign most associated with medicine and health care.
[10] The planet Neptune rules Pisces and is also currently part way into its journey through Aquarius. Neptune can make things hard to see or notice.
[11] Pluto will enter the sign of Capricorn in 2008. Benjamin Franklin had his Sun in Capricorn and embodied many of the qualities traditionally associated with this sign: thrift, industriousness, a wry sense of humor, and practical invention. Since Pluto, which sets the tone for world and cultural change, will be entering Capricorn in 2008, we can expect to see a lot of “Ben Franklin” in modern culture.
[12] Pluto’s entry into Capricorn in 2008 will bring dramatic changes in the world and 21st Century culture. In the astrology of trends, Capricorn is a sign associated with—among other qualities—security and vigilance. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the planet considered to be the “boundary” between the inner and the outer planets. Thus, Capricorn has to do with boundaries and borders, the security of which is a growing concern in the post-9/11 world.
Bibliography
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