13. The Robot is a Machine after All

　　As is vividly shown in the pictures, a man and a robot were playing cards. Obviously, the man was losing, for he was with a sad face. The robot, on the other hand, was smiling. Then the man went to open the body of the robot and changed something inside it. A moment later, they were back again to the game. Now it was the robots turn to frown: nearly all the coins were won over by the man.

　　Simple as the cartoons are, their symbolic meaning is profound and far-reaching: the robot is but a robot, a product by man. It can never really defeat human beings; much less can they control or replace man. With this in mind, we need no longer worry about the miserable fate of human beings as foretold by some pessimists or as described in some American films like The Star War or Matrix.

　　While we should be optimistic about the future of human beings, we need also be warrant of the danger resulting from some inappropriate use of modern technology, like that of gene and cloning, which might endanger mankind either physically or morally. We might not be defeated by robots, but we might be ruined by ourselves.