The Robots Are Coming, and Sweden Is Fine<br />GARPENBERG, Sweden — From inside the control room carved into the rock more than half a mile underground,<br />Mika Persson can see the robots on the march, supposedly coming for his job here at the New Boliden mine.<br />Three years ago, Soren Karlsson quit his job on the business side of a Swedish newspaper to start United Robots, a venture<br />that one might initially think was aimed at ruining the lives of his former colleagues: He developed a robot, named Rosalinda, that scans data about sporting events to yield news stories.<br />“In Sweden, if you ask a union leader, ‘Are you afraid of new technology?’ they will answer, ‘No, I’m<br />afraid of old technology,’” says the Swedish minister for employment and integration, Ylva Johansson.<br />“If we don’t move forward with the technology and making money, well, then we are out of business,” says Magnus<br />Westerlund, 35, vice chairman of a local union chapter representing laborers at two Boliden mines.<br />“We can’t just moan about what is happening.”<br />Yet even if robots create more jobs than they eliminate, large numbers of people are going to need to pursue new careers.<br />“It’s a Swedish kind of thinking,” says Erik Lundstrom, a 41-year-old father of two who works alongside Mr. Persson.
