Robots!

Dinosaur news AND robot news in two days! It’s like some kind of fantastical Christmas.

Greg Sandoval of c|net reports that George Lucas is looking for writers for a new live-action series about the lives of robots. He didn’t confirm nor deny if it would involve C-3PO and R2-D2, but he did say that neither Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader would be involved.

I would watch a show about C-3PO and R2-D2.* Maybe they could be a gay robot couple. Actually, I’m not even sure if heterosexuality exists for robots, as they are all gender-less, they are just “robot”. Do robots even have feelings for other robots? Do they have feelings for humans? Do they have any feelings? Whatever it is, they would all have to be either homosexual (homo meaning same), or asexual.

According to Isaac Asimov’s Three Law’s of Robotics:

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

This establishes robots’ relationship with human beings, in that they are basically there to do humans beckoning, always ahead of their own. I understand this, and agree that it helps to stop anything similar to the Matrix or I, Robot happening. However it does not discuss anything about robots relationships amongst themselves, or in a positive way with humans. They can’t affect humans in a negative way, and we are firmly established as superior, but could they be something akin to a wife back when women had no rights?** They would be accepted as inferior, yet could serve as some sort of companion, eventually establishing a deep connection between a robot and its owner.

I am a firm believer in the fact that once robots get to the level of making choices on their own, there is no way to avoid them having bias, thus they would have emotions, at least on some level. Robots WILL be making decisions based on emotions, albiet they would still have to follow orders. Couldn’t they eventually develop an emotion towards a human? I could definitely see robot-human relationships. The danger you run into though, is people preferring robot companionship to human companionship. While robots may be able to feel emotion, they still aren’t humans. I don’t think a fully functional brain is something that will ever be duplicated. Robots will forever be less vibrant than a human personality. Bottom line is, they are still machines. Thus human companionship should be preferable to robot companionship. But I’m afraid it might not be for some people. There are always those people out there that would somehow abuse a robots willingness to help. This is especially possible since a robot cannot say no, and offers no criticism of anything their human tells them. It certainly leaves the door wide open for abuse of power.

Take one look at how many people ridiculously refuse to accept homosexuality and you’ll see why I’m sure a robot-human relationship would never be accepted in our society. I can’t decide if it even should be. I suppose it could certainly help some lonely people, and I am all for anything that brings more love into our world, but the opportunity for abuse of power is too great.

I haven’t even touched on a possible robot-robot relationship. What characteristics draws a robot to another robot? Would robots consider some robots good looking? If a robot were to marry another robot and start a robot family (obviously they would reproduce by building new robots), would it be possible for their ultimate loyalties to move from their human to their new robot family? This would fly right in the face of Rule 1. Once robots start breaking these rules, it’s a slippery slope and before we know it, humans are all being farmed by robots solely to produce energy for them. I’m not saying I think robots are inherently evil, but ultimately they would be much more powerful than us and would certainly be more than capable of taking over, if it came down to it. We don’t want that to happen. Robots can become beloved to us, and robot family are cute, but they are still machines, not people.

While I hope someday soon we have the technology to have very advanced, Star Wars-like robots, there is no denying that we, as a society, have lots of questions to answer about parameters and rules of relationships between, not only us and robots, but also robots and robots.

*Granted, I would probably watch any show if it were either robot or Star Wars related.
**I want to absolutely stress that I love women and would never encourage them to be ever thought of as any lesser than men!

-John

john@addictedtowords.com

Posted in Robots, Technology, All, TV | 2 Comments »

Robot Heart

I wrote most of this list awhile back, but it’s something I still think about. If robot hearts were available, would I get one?

Now, I’m not talking about extreme circumstances where my heart is failing and I NEED a robot heart, or a donor human heart (do they do that?). I’m talking about if fully healthy me was offered a robot heart today, would I take it? Also, I am going to ignore the whole issue of love and whether emotions come from your heart or what. They don’t, love and all of your emotions come from your brain, which is one of the few body parts I would certainly not have replaced by a robot part. Having a robot heart would make me no less human, it would just change physical aspects of myself. Nothing mental. Here are my pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Never stops beating.
2. Can control beats-per-minute with in-arm control panel. This is incredibly useful when strenuously exercising, where you will no longer be short of breath, your heart beats as fast as you need it to. Also, there is no longer an issue of your heart slowing down too far or stopping while being put out for surgery.
3. Bullet proof in case somebody shoots you in the heart with a gun.
4. Arrow proof in case somebody shoots you in the heart with a crossbow
5. It makes you part robot, which technically means you are always doing “The Robot”. Think about the ramifications of that for a second.
6. You can use bionic as an adjective to describe you.
7. You can officially classify yourself as a cyborg.
8. Easily replaceable.
9. Pumps sterile blood, good for donating
10. If somebody were to stab you in the heart you would be ok. I.E. sword, dagger, knife, prison shank, jagged edge (not the R&B group, or the 1985 Glen Close movie) etc.
11. Less gooey than regular heart.
12. Less slippery than regular heart.
13. If you find yourself in the Temple of Doom from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, you won’t be at risk of getting your heart ripped out and therefore turned into a child slave by the creepy Voodoo guy. He has no use for robot hearts. Incidentally, how did the people stay alive after they got their heart ripped out?
14. Heart attacks are no longer an issue.

Cons:

1. Batteries need to be replaced every seven years, much like the Prius.
2. Can be costly.
3. Not a pretty red hue
4. Heavier than regular heart despite weight saving materials.
5. Those robot jokes suddenly make so much sense (too much sense…). Example: “You are dead inside” just isn’t funny anymore, it rings too true.
6. The saying heart of gold does not apply, you need a gold heart for that. I don’t think a gold heart would work, or even have any benefits other than that you could tell people you literally have a heart of gold. Gold hearts are even more costly than robot hearts! I guess if you are into blingey stuff…
7. Careful of short circuits!
8. Problems with airport security.
9. Makes random clanking sounds.
10. The surgery to get it installed is quite invasive and risky.

This is a decision I will not need to make anytime soon, as this technology is still at least 10 years out, but I feel like I might take the robot heart. It would make make me a cyborg, and that’s something I have always been interested in.

Would you get one?

-John

john@addictedtowords.com

Posted in Robots, Technology, All | 1 Comment »