How we cite our quotes: (Act.Paragraph)
Quote #4
HELENA: Please, tell me, is something happening?
ALQUIST: Nothing at all. Just the same old progress. (1.166-167)
The "same old progress" here means the robots are rebelling and the world is coming to an end. Alquist is a progress skeptic. New technology and new modernization just means going to hell in a shinier machine.
Quote #5
When precision reigns, human law reigns, God's law reigns, the laws of the universe reign—everything reigns that should. The timetable is greater than the Gospels, greater than Homer, greater than all of Kant. The timetable is the most perfect manifestation of the human intellect. (1.397)
Hallemeier puts his faith in order, regimentation, and the factory clock. A train schedule is greater, he says, than all art and philosophy. You're not really supposed to believe him though. Not long after he's reminded that the robots get everywhere on time the better to kill everyone on earth. It'd be better if they'd stayed up late reading Kant and missed that train.
Quote #6
DR. GALL: Listen, Domin, we definitely made one mistake.
DOMIN [stops pacing]: What was that?
DR. GALL: We made the Robots look too much alike. A hundred thousand identical faces all looking this way. A hundred thousand expressionless faces. It's a nightmare. (2.10)
Modernization here is presented as a rush of quantity and a loss of diversity. Gall is oppressed not by the existence of one robot, but by the mass production of robots. He's upset because there has been a loss of individual craftsmanship. You'd think there'd be other more important things to think about at the end of the world, but some folks just really like their robots handmade.