Top 3 reasons why people dont like robots
Simon Laub
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I was eager to tell about my experiences with japanese robots.
And once again I found people to be somewhat hesitant
about robots - if not downright negative.
I think I have identified 3 reasons.
a) People think the robots will eventually turn on us.
b) Robots are slaves, either due to the drudgery of their
work assigments, or due to manipulated minds.
People dont want to be reminded that humans
might not be all that different.
c) People just dont like anything new.
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It started on the plane back home from Japan,
when I showed a fellow traveller, a dentist from
New Caledonia, video of ReplieeQ2. He was not all praise:
- They have seen Terminator and have learned nothing?
Such attitudes follows a long tradition. Czech writer Karel Capek coined the
term 'robot' in 1920.
In his play robots are slaves. They soon outnumber humans, gets ever
expanding intelligence.
Eventually there is a robot revolt, where the human race is wiped out.
Makes you wonder, the person who invented the modern concept of robots
predicted
they would wipe us out in the end.
Famous Sf author Asimov wasn't much better. Starting back in 1951 with his I
robot collection,
the robots are quite error prone. Or, if the are not error prone, then they
are out implementing
grand schemes for humankinds future, without letting any humans in on the
master plan.
So much for the idea, that robots are just innocent computers with legs.
No wonder then that some people feel a bit uneasy when it comes to robots
:-)
Even when the robots dutifully play their part as slaves it's no good.
Remember senator Palpatine when he stands there on the balcony inspecting
his droid army?
We homo sap know, thats what evil people do, they keep slaves and they turn
people into slaves.
Bad people simply like people to obey. It gives them a twisted sense of self
importance and power.
Human domination instincts gone amok.
Good people on other hand gives people freedom and joy.
So, if you are a roboticist in the business of making intelligent android
slaves (to the Palpatine droid army
or for you to boss around) you better hire a pr. image consultant to tell
the public that you are only
making cute little, innocent vacuum cleaners at the robot plant.... :-)
All in all, there is a certain irony here, that some of those,
who are most opposed to having androids sharing our world,
are also those, who actually believes that androids could eventually be
really 'human like'!?
Certainly, It takes human imagination to believe, that androids could
eventually
suffer as slaves or run amok and try to kill people.
Even when the androids aren't stealing jobs and aren't fulfilling twisted
human dreams of becoming emperor, some people still don't like them.
For sure, some people just don't like new things. New stuff takes you out of
your comfort zone.
It forces you to exercise your brain, and worst of all, perhaps you will end
up with a need to adjust your worldview...
Bad thing. After all, its your worldview, knowledge representation, skills,
know-how,
understanding of the world - that gives identity and pride.
Come to think about it, if humans are not careful they will end up being so
full of pride
that they stop updating their knowledge, which of course will eventually
make
the knowledge obsolete and irrelevant.
Becoming mentally old and just not liking new things is such an easy human
pitfall.
And there is so much new stuff going on with the androids.
E.g.
a) Life without genes - is one such new thing.
Where, for biological beings, the purpose of a body is genes way of making
more genes.
A chicken is the eggs way of making more eggs. So to speak.
Then, whats the purpose of an android body? To make genes in some other
(biological) body happy?
Really? Life without genes? Surely, the genes didn't see that one coming.
And certainly,
it will take some time for humans to get used to the idea!
Afterall, most people aren't like Steven Pinker, who once wrote, on choosing
not to reproduce,
'If my genes don't like it they can jump in the lake'.
b) Life without growth and reproduction - is another first.
It has never been easy figuring out what life really is:
E.g. can you have lifeless parts as the building blocks of life?,
bodies of alive organisms that are half dead?
So, if we are already a little confused, the future just gives it another
notch.
I.e. consider science fiction like this: What if you take a super high
resolution brainscan today,
and future engineers uses the scanned picture to resurrect a you-copy.
Say in 500 years time and inside a robot body?
Will it then be a 'not really alive' robot or almost you? And what if that
robot is blown up?
Does anyone die then?
c) Morality in a robot world - is also new, unchartered waters.
E.g. Consider the situation only 11 years from now in 2020,
when 30 percent of the american army will be robotic.
With fewer human lives at risk (on one side at least), wont it be much
easier to go to war then?
etc.
Adjusting old wisdom is painful - emotional.
And with issues like slaves and human instincts gone awry thrown in there
- obviously, people are going to be somewhat hesitant.
FUT: rec.arts.sf.written
-Simon
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Simon Laub
http://www.simonlaub.net/Robot/ishiguro/replieeQ2.html