The Nova episode Rise of the Robots is half of double shot of PBS don’t-fear-the-tech documentaries, along with The Human Face of Big Data. Both are crisply written updates on the tech revolution that are somewhat airy on the dark underbellies of their subjects.
Much of Rise of the Robots revolves around a million-dollar contest among engineers to see whose robot can most quickly negotiate an obstacle course including eight simple tasks. But, television critic Glenn Garvin notices, Rise of the Robots takes little notice of the identity of the contest’s sponsor, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which over the years has spent a lot more time and money on developing Predator drones and Arclight missiles than on rescuing kittens from trees. It may well be true at, for the moment, the only targets really threatened by robots are the jobs of $15-an-hour “living wage” burger-flippers at fast-food restaurants—a Big Mac is not significantly more challenging than a pancake—but count on DARPA to extend their range as quickly as possible.
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