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Sigmund Freud said that we have an uncanny reaction to the inanimate. This is probably because we know that - despite pretensions and layers of philosophizing - we are nothing but recursive, self aware, introspective, conscious machines. Special machines, no doubt, but machines althesame.
The series of James bond movies constitutes a decades-spanning gallery of human paranoia. Villains change: communists, neo-nazis, media moguls. But one kind of villain is a fixture in this psychodrama, in this parade of human phobias: the machine. James Bond always finds himself confronted with hideous, vicious, malicious machines and automata.
It was precisely to counter this wave of unease, even terror, irrational but all-pervasive, that Isaac Asimov, the late Sci-fi writer (and scientist) invented the Three Laws of Robotics:
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws
Many have noticed the lack of consistency and the virtual inapplicability of these laws put together. First, they are not the derivative of any coherent worldview and background. To be properly implemented and to avoid a potentially dangerous interpretation of them - the robots in which they are embedded must be also equipped with a reasonably full model of the physical and of the human spheres of existence. Devoid of such a context, these laws soon lead to intractable paradoxes (experiences as a nervous breakdown by one of Asimov's robots). Conflicts are ruinous in automata based on recursive functions (Turing machines) as all robots must be. Godel pointed at one such self destructive paradox in the "Principia Mathematica" ostensibly comprehensive and self consistent logical system. It was enough to discredit the whole magnificent edifice constructed by Russel and Whitehead over a decade.
Some will argue against this and say that robots need not be automata in the classical, Church-Turing, sense. That they could act according to heuristic, probabilistic rules of decision making. There are many other types of functions (non-recursive) that can be incorporated in a robot. True, but then, how can one guarantee full predictability of behaviour? How can one be certain that the robots will fully and always implement the three laws?
Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given to them by human beings, except where such orders violate the First Law.
In this paper, I will explore ethical issues to the artificial intelligence. In Wallach and Allen coauthored “Moral machines: teaching robots right from wrong”, they explore on many theories and practical issues for AMAs. I will use this book to interpret Wallach and Allen’s ideas of ethical design.
Epstein, Richard. The case of the killer robot: stories about the professional, ethical and societal dimensions of computing. John Wiley and Sons. 1996.
The story is an adaptation of Asimov’s short story which warned about the future and about technology. It takes place in Chicago in 2035 and to this time robots are a part of the everyday life. There is no way one could imagine a life without robotics. The company who develop the robots, U.S.R., is about to bring out the new robots, NS-5. But the business is overshadowed by the suicide of the developer Alfred Lanning in the U.S.R. headquarters. Detective Spooner is convinced that it is a homicide and that the committer only could be a robot. But nobody believes him since there are the three laws of robotics which build a perfect cycle of protection. “1. A robot may ...
Asimov’s robots can be described as clumsy, hard-working, cost-efficient, soulless, strong, fast, obedient, human-made, a cleaner better breed, more human than man.
During the period of time from 1700 to 1830, Great Britain was the first country to industrialized, making products by machine instead of by hand. You may ask: Why was Britain the first to Industrialize? Well, I’m here to answer that. Britain was the first to industrialize because it had the right resources and the right environment for industrialization, meeting all the factors of production: land, labor, and capital (money). It had the correct natural resources (coal and iron), a powerful workforce, and a favorable economic climate.
In 2010, robots are very different from the expectations set in 1965. “The latest advances in technology have led to robots that look very much like humans but are mostly able to perform only limited functions.” (Bar-Cohen 12). Yoseph Bar-Cohen and David Hanson’s book ‘The Coming Robot Revolution” is very clear ab...
It is fascinating that non-living things can think reason, plan, solve problems, and perceive, just like humans can. Robots and systems became sentient beings that were self-aware, going against their defining trait (that robots and machines lack emotion).
Nowadays, technology is a dominant feature in the lives of people around the world. Most of daily life activities involve the use of technology which is expanding every day through scientific innovations. However, such innovations do not always occur in every part of the world, but mostly in technologically developed countries, such as South Korea, the USA and Japan. Presently, the development of robotics science has become a subject of considerable attention in those countries. According to Weng, Chen and Sun (2009, 267), “Technocrats from many developed countries, especially Japan and South Korea, are preparing for the human–robot co-existence society that they believe will emerge by 2030.” The word “robot” was introduced in the beginning of 1920th by the Czech playwright Karel Capek from the Czech word “robota”, meaning “forced labor” (Robertson 2007, 373). According to Robertson (2007, 373), robot, in practical usage, can be defined as an autonomous or semiautonomous device that is used to perform its tasks either controlled by human, fractionally controlled and with human guidance or regardless of external actions that are performed by people. Regrettably, the majority of robots in the past centuries could not operate without human control and intervention. However, the progress in robotics over the past few decades enabled humanity to achieve soaring results in creation of autonomous humanoid robots.
The approach to artificial intelligence should be proceeded with caution. Throughout recent years and even decades before, it has been a technological dream to produce artificial intelligence. From movies, pop culture, and recent technological advancements, there is an obsession with robotics and their ability to perform actions that require human intelligence. Artificial intelligence has become a real and approachable realization today, but should be approached with care and diligence. Humans can create advanced artificial intelligence but should not because of the harm they may cause, the monumental advancement needed in the technology, and that its harm outweighs its benefits.
The idea behind robots and their uses has been a compilation of thoughts stewing in the minds of engineers and physicists from as early as the 1700s. The first representations of these creations was in the textile production industry; i.e. Hargreaves’ spinning jenny around 1770 and Cropmton’s mule spinner around 1779. Once these ideas were put into action, the robot development seed was planted and its roots spread into the minds of many potential engineers. This ventured into the development of Numerical Control (NC) and Telecherics technologies in the robotic field. John Parson’s Numerical Control is a system that integrated numbers as a tool to control the machine/robot’s actions, and this led to the creation of a prototype at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1952.
In today's society, robots come in different types and qualities, and robots’ use was mainly in the laboratories and factories; however, that has drastically changed where their uses are changing at a high speed. In addition to that, they have spread throughout the world. The main function of robots is to replace the work that people used to do, or perform tasks that man cannot. A robot is a mechanical or virtual device that uses a computer program, or electronic circuitry, to carry out its functions. In modern science, robotics refers to the study of robots is robotics, which deals with designing, constructing, operating, and using robots and computer systems for controlling and processing information and providing feedbacks. However, as much as robots replace human labor, individuals or organizations can use them in dangerous environments that might be harmful and beneficial to humans. Therefore, to understand the logic behind the creation of robots, one should learn the pros and cons of robotics, in the current society. This is because people are using this technology without having a deep understanding of its effects. However, an objective evaluation of the use of robots, in the modern society, shows that they have a positive influence on human beings, but if the robots were overused, it could lead to a negative side. which shows why human beings should use robots wisely that will result an improvement to their societies and own lives. Robots have become interactive equipment whereby they have become part of human life. In this regard, people use them directly or indirectly to enhance the quality of their lives. However, Sharkey argues that there are ethical issues that arise because of using robots to enhance hu...
Robots always had a special place in mankind’s heart. There has always been an aura of mystery and discovery surrounding them. What is a robot? Wikipedia defines it as “an automatically guided machine which is able to do tasks on its own.” That is a good definition of a robot, but there are few exceptions too.
With the development of technology in the world, people are faced with many things they never saw and knew before. In this modern life, technology has affected a lot of people’s lives in many levels. Robots are considered as important products of technology. Robots were introduced by a writer, Karel Čapek, from the Czech word, robota, meaning “forced labor” or “serf”. Čapek used this word in his play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) which opened in Prague in January, 1921, a play in which an Englishman named Rossum mass-produced automata. The automata, robots, are meant to do the world’s work and to make a better life for humans; but in the end they rebel, wipe out humanity, and start a new race of intelligent life for the robots themselves (Asimov, 1984). Robot does not have a specific definition itself, every dictionary has a slightly different definition. “Deciding if a machine is or is not a robot is like trying to decide if a certain shade of greenish blue is truly blue or not blue,” said Carlo Bertocchini, the owner of RobotBooks.com. “Some people will call it blue while others will vote not blue,” (Branwyn, 2004). This essay will limit the meaning of robot as what defined in the Merriam Webster Dictionary (2004), robot is a machine that looks and acts like a human being, an efficient but insensitive person, a device that automatically performs especially repetitive tasks, and something guided by automatic controls. As the technology grows more modern each day, scientists and programmers are creating and improving the function of robots. Nevertheless, many people are still debating should robots be developed more and should robots be used in everyday life. I disagree that the further development of robots should be remain...
In case of emergencies, robots could reduce the percentage of fatal damages that occurs through these cases. In fact, humans’ lives are much valuable and precious rather than robots, in which societies could use robots to scarify through the dangerous situation for the sake of rescuing people. In addition, dangerous situations such as firefighting or earthquake require much effort, precision, and scarifying in the evacuation process. Furthermore, a beneficial feature that could help robots to coexist through the risky situations easily and preform the rescuing mission perfectly is that robots do not have feelings or emotions. According to Bruemmer (2006), robots do not have the ability to realize or notify any aspect that people do not programmed them to do. In other words, robots are merely machines that cannot feel or recognize what surrounding them without a sophisticated program done by humans. Therefore, as robots do not have the ability of feeling or knowing they could go through inhumane conditions for saving people. Moreover, robots have various capabilities that make them unique enable them to do heavy duties and bear more serio...