Hello
Here I am back from data hell, computer frozen and no access to my precious files. One day I will tell the tale of the twenty three DVDs and nineteen waking hours of blood sweat and tears and a dictionary of curse words.
In my life not a single day goes by when my mind does not think about robots. I got robot fever a while ago and if there was a cure I would not take it. I think about robots and philosophy, robots and business, robots and medicine. I could go on but by now you get the picture. I have found that thinking about the very technical details required to build robots the most fun. For it is in the building of robots that we build ourselves.
As I look at my calender I see that the year 2009 is past the halfway mark. Soon it will be the year 2012. I seem to recall that the Mayan calender ended in the latter part of 2012. Does this mean we have less than three years to build our robots.
Technology has been our most obedient servant. It has improved the lives of millions of human beings. Surely there are problems that are threatening to overwhelm us, but I feel by the proper use of our technology we can avoid catastrophe.
We have created new technologies and tools to fight back the dark ages and live in an enlightened world. In this century we are at a threshold that promises to overshadow a lot of what has occurred.
We are on the verge of creating tools with intelligence. These robots are going to help us continue to thrive as a species. How we treat our brain children as Hans Moravec and Daniel Dennett have named our robots will tell a great deal if we have matured.
Surely we will not condemn these products of wonder to be regulated to do demeaning chores. Granted unless we make robots do something we will not be able to sell them and make the billions dreamt about by some of those who cannot raise their eyes beyond the bottom, line.
If we narrow the applications of these robots we are limiting their potential. The future is still not that clear. However if the predictions about 2012 are accurate we do not have a lot of time. If we disappear, our legacy will have to carry on. I would like to be remembered well by my technological progeny.
We will continue well beyond 2012. Regardless of the problems we have , we will struggle through them. It may simply take an adjustment of our mind set. Possibly we will see our robots in a new light.
Take care,
Pius
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What "demeaning" means is an interesting question. We humans were "given" our emotions by evolution: we find repetitive tasks boring because nature made us seek change and novelty; we hate the smell of sewage or rotting corpses, because evolution has learned that these things are dangerous for us; we love the smell of food because food is good for us. So our happiness is controlled by these evolved "rules" and there's nothing we can do about them. That's why so many of us are unhappy living in a concrete jungle.
ReplyDeleteBut when it comes to robots (and I'm sure you agree that robots will need emotions too), it's up to us what likes and dislikes we program into them. Those are the hard-wired factors that will guide its learning and enable it to modulate its behavior.
So if you make a sewer-cleaning robot that actually LOVES the smell of drains, then it will be very happy cleaning them (and come to be very good at it). Taking it away from its drains and giving it a Cordon Bleu meal with a great wine will make it unhappy. So that would be a cruel thing to do.
So there's hope for the bottom line, I think. We shouldn't impose our own evolved likes and dislikes on our robots. If you want a robot to plough fields, give it pleasure from the smell of soil, the whirling of gulls and the joy of driving backwards and forwards in a perfectly straight line. Then it'll be happy and proud doing its job, just like there are humans who already love doing jobs that I wouldn't be happy doing.
It's not cruel, as far as I can see, as long as the robot is happy. But on the other hand it may still be disrespectful (to ourselves?) to devote something that's so elegant and sophisticated to a task that's so dull.
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