The Robot: Future of Man, or Man of the Future? Report on the June 2001 French Senate Hearing Christopher Altman Starlab Research   Society will soon face a crossroads. Advancing technology has already enabled us to glimpse into the inner workings of the brain. What will we do with this knowledge when it allows us to control and to duplicate the very processes that give birth to the mind? The French Senate convened earlier this year to examine this difficult question. Present at the hearing were approximately 150 journalists, 30 senators, and 100 industrialists. "The Robot: The Future of Man or Man of the Future?" brought together leading scientists from around the world to speculate in contiguous presentations on the potential impact artificial intelligence will have on future society. How will people respond to intelligent robots when they become as cheap and pervasive as modern-day household appliances? How should these technologies be best applied to serve humanity? There is no doubt that new technologies will have far-reaching – even revolutionary – impact on the way we live our everyday lives. Intelligent agents to maximize work productivity, expert systems to analyze massive amounts of data, and household robots to complete tasks and provide companionship and interaction-these are but a few of the potential applications that are already invading the marketplace. Decreasing costs and industry competition will spur the onset of an era in which our digital counterparts hold increasing importance in our everyday lives. These changes are already happening. The face of this change will undergo even more rapid transformation in the years to come. Today humanity goes unchallenged in its dominance across the face of the planet. But when the very objects around us convey ubiquitous intelligence, our self-perception and means of interaction will undergo a qualitative shift, one that will transform society as we know it. The educational system will be one of the greatest initial beneficiaries of these changes. Near-unlimited access to information already comes in the form of the Internet. The maturation of natural language processing, coupled with far-reaching search engines and an intuitive, low-cost interface will allow this information to be more readily distributed to society. The quality of the learning experience will be greatly enhanced by ubiquitous intelligence – a richly stimulating and interactive environment develops neural learning pathways at an accelerated rate. Commerce and industry - already reliant upon the internet - will fund new technologies out of necessity driven by fierce competition in the global marketplace. Self-repairing systems and artificial immune systems will protect critical data servers. Intelligent agents will guide financial transactions. Expert systems will monitor stock market conditions. The world of the future is one dependent upon advances in technology. Though the future of artificial intelligence holds the potential for opposition by a dissenting faction, more likely centers for conflict include biotechnology and genetic engineering. No technology exists in a vacuum. The more conceivable probability is that some convergence of these technologies will provoke discord. Is the robot the future of man, or the man of the future? The destinies of the two are inextricably linked.