ABSTRACT
Though named robots only comparatively recently, mechanical stand-ins for humans have existed for millennia. Currently, robots are used extensively in surgery and are proving superior to humans in this domain, similar to the way in which computer chess programs have outstripped human brain power. Robots plus humans are evolving a worldwide superculture as previously labor-intensive complex tasks are progressively automated. Even psychotherapy may involve robotic components. Two approaches follow. The first one is conceptual. The second approach is practical. Inactivity, as Daniel Lieberman says, is a natural condition, a result of a built-in drive toward entropic stasis or, in evolutionary terms, the need to rest after hunting and gathering. Discussion could move to what might replace work or what might occupy leisure for individuals with varying capabilities and talents.
