So I was reading Popular Science on the plane back home, and the featured article, entitled The Future of Robots: Here comes the walking, talking, pie-making Humanoid Machine, sparked my interest.
The article mainly talked about how robotics is being developed in today's society and how robots will be able to help out humans in the near future.
"We will have the hardware and software to achieve human-level intelligence in a machine by 2029. By then, we will have become part machine ourselves."
That quote, taken from the article, raises a couple of questions.
"The year is 2029. The machines will convince us that they are conscious, that they have their own agenda worthy of our respect. They'll embody human qualities and claim to be human, and we'll believe them" - Ray Kurzwell, The age of the Spiritual Machines
So, the question is, will people accept the fact that robots will live among us? Obviously, there is a positive side in which case the robots will be helping us humans out with chores at home and what not, Rosie style (The Jetsons). However, do you think that robots will take over the chores and jobs. If it costs less to work with robots, will human kind decay and become useless? Well, maybe not useless, but alot might be losing their jobs.
Movies also create negative propaganda toward the science of robotics. Movies like I, Robot and A.I. don't exactly put robots on the good side of the idea. However, Star Wars seems to present robots in a positive way. But will people cave in? will people accept robots in the society? Will they be scared that they will eventually have their own plan and take over human kind and become slaves to them just as they are to us?
2029 is only about 20 years away. Most of us will probably still be alive by then. Will our generation accept these machines in? Its not like TV or MP3 players. These machines will act, walk and talk like humans. Will a new side to racism arise? They will be machines and they will most probably be programmed in to do whatever it is they are doing. However, if technology is able to reach the level of human brain, will the machines be conscious and have a spirit of their own? will they become human? Our grand-kids will have grown with these machines and it will be harder for them to segregate from that kind of society. Just like digital cameras today. Kids today havent seen the use of film photography.
What about androids and cyborgs (part human/part machine)? How will these people be treated? Do you think there will be ethical issues arising from this?
tifa posted on Aug 21, 2006
| views: 330
Comments
-
FaithMatters said on Aug 21, 2006....
This opens up a whole can of worms:
If a sentient robot proves to be defective, will it be ethical to deactivate it without some sort of due process?
Can sentient robots be considered private property to be bought and sold? Would that be tantamount to slavery?
Will there be a bill of rights for sentient robots? Guidelines for treatment of them?
It will indeed be hard to think of them simply as tools once they have enough "human" characteristics. That said, we can control the level of "humanity" we imbue these robots with. We don't develop emotional attachment to UAVs, auto manufacturing arms, bomb sniffers and other purely functional robots. Perhaps we don't have to go down the road of developing robots we "relate" to, even if they can "think" like us.
-
tifa said on Aug 22, 2006....
as much as we'd like to control it...scientists strive to get to human level machines..When reading the article, they were talking about this robot who has a whole system of vocal chords and what not. it sounds exactly like a human! another robot can already recognize itself when it looks at itself in a mirror. We are gradually achieving what human kind has been trying to achieve, create life. how and who will determine the limit of what is too close to the human brain and what isn't?
-
Weird_World said on Aug 31, 2006....
Actually speaking the moment something inate has intelligence, and by the I do mean "human intelligence", there is always the chance of they going astray (like we humans go at times...)...
So those machines can easily turn monsters...
How about that??
Adious
S
-
tifa said on Sep 01, 2006....
so then do you think that we should take the risk of them becoming monsters? like do we want something like I, Robot to happen? where we won't be able to control them anymore? or should we just keep on doing research and hope that won't ever happen?
-
Weird_World said on Sep 01, 2006....
tifa,
In truth half the research scares the live out of me...be it stem-cell, or AI, or be it nanotech...
You cant search for something, and just sit and wish that it there wont be dis-advantages...
Nothing comes in a total package of good, it will have a .1% of evil none-the-less...
Thats my thinking...
Look the basic thing in human intelligence is that we can feel all emotions from humanity to cruelity...from evil to good...then if you give something that intelligence, then it will feel like humans, and think also in situations like humans...
So if you go by the reasoning, you know where we can land...
Adious
S
-
Weird_World said on Sep 01, 2006....
tifa
Yeah you asked about VR...
If you wanna learn something fun and not too much into programming, try about VRML (Virtual Reality modelling language)...
It is fun to learn, and more fun to play with me...
If you are interested, I will give you some sites for tutorials...
It is real fun to play with, and doesnt have much of hard-core programming...
Tell me by a couple of days...
I am leaving town, wont be able to answer other-wise...
Adious
S
-
tifa said on Sep 01, 2006....
yeah actually im quite interested! whenever you have time to send me those sites, i would really appreciate it! =) thanx!
-
Weird_World said on Sep 02, 2006....
hey tifa
okay...
VRML is fun, thats why I told you about it...very less hard-core programming, and if you are interested you can start playing with Maya also...afterwards...
anyways first things first...
For VRML you need a special type of browser which is freeware...
I use Cortona, or a browser, I created for it specially...
To download cortona, here is the link...
http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/cortona/
You can download a lot of VRML goodies, VRML models, VRML Pad (A special pad to write VRML code in..., as much as I know it is freeware)...
With cortona you will get a model of a "rose" (rose.wrl) free, you can download other models from there (jaguar,IKEA chair, for the time being "parrelgraphics" has and it is free)
VRML files are saved with extension .wrl
Anyways I will give you the link of a good tutorial...
http://web3d.vapourtech.com/tutorials/vrml97/
You can download it, or use it online, your choice...
Study this one, it is the best, if you want I will give other links afterwards...This is the best one...
Enjoy VRML (its fun)...
Adious
S
-
tifa said on Sep 02, 2006....
awesome!! thanx ALOT! ill make sure to check it out and play around with it. this could help me for my thesis! =)
-
Weird_World said on Sep 27, 2006....
hey tifa,
not been around, anyways remembered something which might help you in your thesis...
worked on this software three-four years back, and its real cool...
its called virtual terrain...
the site is http://www.vterrain.org
it is damn interesting, but not been there for about four years so no idea what its upto now...
so if you want check it out...
Salaam
S
-
Weird_World said on Sep 27, 2006....
anyways if you check it out and find it interesting, can help you about it...
if things not changed much...four years long time...
Salaam
S
Comment on "The Age of the Spiritual Machine"
Related Posts:
9Terrier20
posted on Nov 02, 2008
| views: 36
|
I wrote in a previous post that from the outside my life must look relatively awesome, but that in reality it's not. But I'm realizing that it's much more complicated than that. On a day-to-day basis my life is pretty straightforward a... read entire post