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ecoStory - volume one, number 1, 23 July 1998
	ROBOFROGS Robotics is the science of 'robots', I believe. My Oxford pocket dictionary of 1969 only lists "Robot: mechanical apparatus resembling & doing the work of a human being; [...]". Another Oxford version of 1976 says: "Apparent human automaton, intelligent and obedient but impersonal machine; [...]". Those who have seen the movie 'Blade Runner' will remember the policeman who got into trouble trying to kill the last of six humanoid robots who had manufacturing errors. In the dramatic last minutes the robot changes his mind and shows mercy. Robot saves his persecutor and then dies a natural death since his programmed life time is over. Earlier on in the film the robot had killed the Chief Executive of the company that made him, since "its not an easy thing to meet your maker" (and I am an imperfect creation). Today there are a number of industrial researchers whose ultimate goal it is to develop robots that can communicate and interact with human beings. Some prototypes can walk and dance, another plays beachball, and a third 'meal-support robot' was developed to help people suffering from injuries to their spinal columns. These applications may be far-fetched but the research certainly creates valuable technological developments that are applied in industry. An interesting idea is the micro-robot that could be inserted in a human body to treat diseased organs. One scientist who is working on a micro ladybird robot says that, by virtue of its small size, it will be able to live together with humans and possibly develop coexistent or symbiotic relationships with them. Imagine swallowing a tiny 'creature' to let it survey your stomach and colon and cut out ulcers as soon as they develop. The ladybird-shaped microrobot is only about one by one by one cm and moves by converting light into electrical power. I love libraries. Some weeks ago I found a 1996 Ladybird Dictionary in the children's section. It says that a robot is "1) a machine that can do some human work and 2) an imaginary machine figure that acts as if alive." A ladybird, it says, is "a small round beetle, usually red with black spots." [American English: ladybug] And a frog is "a small animal that can live in water and on land and has long back legs for swimming and jumping". Everybody knows what a frog is. Many of us have caught tadpoles when we were young (the writer is 56), in the ponds or drains in between the meadows. Not all tadpoles are caught by young boys and girls. Most of them are eaten by other animals. Some survive and turn into frogs who croak in the evening to find a mating partner and produce new tadpoles to be caught by children. The tadpoles and frogs are part of our life experience, that made us the people we are today. It is one of the many small pieces of our personal history that comes alive when we need it. We may remember the mysterious call of a single frog - somewhere in the dusk at the far side of a silent pond. But the frogs seem to be disappearing, mysteriously, all over the world. Biologists are alerted but do not yet understand why. Sick or dead frogs are seldomly found. In one case a scientist found several populations of sick frogs in South America. In the USA a significant number of mutated frog colonies have been documented. Chemicals? Ultra violet rays through a thinning ozone layer? Or too many frog eaters in the food chain? God knows. So far the bad news. The good news is that fewer frogs can nourish fewer storks which in turn can deliver fewer babies and thus curb the population explosion. We are almost 6 billion today and the trend is towards some 8 billion in some 50 years time. Whereby we keep in mind that some 80 per cent of the world's resources are being consumed by around 20 per cent of its population. Mini-robotic frogs could be developed - robofrogs. That's certainly much easier than micro-ladybirds. They could mysteriously croak for us at dusk, whilst being indigestible for the storks so the babyboom remains curbed. The question remains unasked whether we have enough resources to produce the robofrog in sufficient quantities to satisfy demand. And whether industry will be able to produce the micro-robo-tadpoles in demand by us - grandfathers and fathers who want to pass on our youth experiences to our offspring before we take leave from (this) life. The question is whether it may not be wiser to cut back on some of our activities and demands in order to leave some room for nature. At the end of the day natural frogs, tadpoles and ladybirds may be more important for the maintenance of the web of life than a robot. How lonesome would a humanoid robot be without his master? Just to set this one straight: I am not proposing to go back to the stone age. I love chocolate, so I want a dentist with his or her high tech equipment when caveties have developed since I did not sufficiently clean my teeth afterwards. I am humanoid. Copyright 1998 ecology discovery foundation new zealand 20 July 1998.

email your thoughts to [ecoStory@ecoglobe.org.nz] new: club @ ecoglobe . org. Kindly tell us whether your reaction is private or free for publication. Credits: We owe the info and pictures on robots to a special report "Humanising Our Robots" in "PACIFIC friend", May 1998. The info on frogs is becoming common knowledge and we took some figures from a feature "Scientists puzzled by vanishing frogs" in "The Dominion" of 6 July 1998, and from issue February-March 1997 of "COLORS - a magazine about the rest of the world una revista che parla del resto del mondo", dedicated to "ANIMALS ANIMALI". The frog picture appeared in the same issue of "COLORS".

Copyright © 1998 ecology discovery foundation new zealand (charitable trust), P.O. Box 24184, Wellington, New Zealand. Telephone: ++64 - 4 - 3843269. ® ecoglobe is a registered trade mark. email welcome@ecoglobe.org.nz. URL of this page: www.ecoglobe.org.nz/ecostory/robofrog.htm. Last revised 2APR99/Lu 8215.

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