今天的机器人——新的“钢领”工人——决不会和人一样,它只能担任有限的工艺,而且大多数机器人目前都是人制造出来的。尽管机器人并不象电影《星球大战》中的“R2D2”,而是更象一只机械的大龙虾,但它们进入工业生产车间的数量却正在日益增多。例如,美国的机器人销售量去年猛增50%;许多专家断言,在1990年之前,机器人每年将继续增长35%。“机器人革命”使美国工会忧心忡忡,深怕某些产业——如汽车和电器部件制造业的大部分工人将会失业。虽然这种忧虑有一定的道理,但是由于机器人在工业上的使用而造成普遍失业的情况看来还不会发生。尽管机器人在用到生产过程的初期必然要取代某些工人的职位,但是在采用这种新技术时,如果劳资双方能合作起来,取代工人职位后发生的问题可以减至最小限度。七十年代初期有人曾预言:到1980年,将会大量要求提供工业用机器人,但是这种情况并没有 Today’s robots - the new “steel-collar” workers - will never, like humans, work as a limited craft, and most robots are currently manufactured. Although robots are not more like “R2D2” in the movie “Star Wars” but more like a mechanical big lobster, they are increasingly being introduced into industrial production plants. For example, sales of robotics in the United States surged 50% last year; many experts asserted that by 1990 robots will continue to grow 35% annually. The “robot revolution” worries the U.S. unions for fear that most industries, such as most of the workers in the automotive and electrical components manufacturing industries, will lose their jobs. Although there is some truth to this concern, it seems unlikely that widespread unemployment will result from the use of robots in industry. Although robots must inevitably displace certain workers in the early stages of the production process, the use of this new technology can minimize problems that occur when workers and staff work together to replace them. It was predicted in the early 1970s that by 1980 there will be a large demand for industrial robots, but this is not the case