The dream of any state is to have a self-generating industry, a la Silicon Valley - an industry that spontaneously grows it own companies, better than any other location does. Minicomputers are the obvious Boston-area example; biotech hasn’t quite gotten there yet. This Globe article raises the hope that robotics might do it. From the story:

• “People are moving to Massachusetts fromelsewhere because of the robotics companies. This is seen as a placewhere robotics is happening,” says Rodney Brooks, the dean of roboticsresearch at MIT and a cofounder of iRobot Corp., the Bedford maker ofthe Roomba vacuum cleaner.