Assignment NT 2.2

I believe that in today’s modern world, we are feeling the same intimidating notions of robots and A.I. as the characters and people in Asimov’s Caves of Steel. People in the novel feel threatened by robots, because they can perform duties, tasks and jobs, as easily or even better than humans. They do not need sleep, wages, and can work endlessly. Enderby, the commissioner mentions to Bailey that, “there are R’s that can do your work and mine (10).” As in the novel, our world has undergone a great transformation with the technology boom. The development of computers and other technologies has lead to a world that is completely becoming automized.
Industrial robots can manufacture entire cars with little help from humans and soon a bank teller’s job will be replaced fulltime by the common ATM. At home, robots are quickly making an entrance. There are robot vacuums that sweep automatically and one can even buy a pet robot dog from Sony. Even in agriculture, there are tractors that can drive and harvest crops automatically with the aid of onboard computers and GPS. I personally think all this technology is exciting, yet it is very intimidating. It is interesting to see how far humans can go with A.I. and fabricating a machine that carry out thoughts and maybe even emotions. On the other hand, it is daunting to think that robots and other machines are going to replace a good number of jobs performed by humans. Imaging going to work and finding out that you have been fired and replaced by a machine. As fast as technology is moving today, I do believe this threat will become a reality, not only in manufacturing and other jobs that are physically intensive, but with jobs that require the most expertise and precision as well such as surgeons performing open heart surgery. Each year robots become smarter and more efficient, thus increasing the threat of replacing numerous human jobs. I believe robots can be tolerated to a certain extent. I think robots that are created for leisure and entertainment such as Sony’s robot dog, the Aibo are more accepted by a typical human being than a robot that poses a threat and is competition for their jobs. These robots to a certain degree challenge the purpose of human existence.
“Do you suppose,” went on Baley, relentlessly, that they could make a robot that would fool you into thinking it was a human?”
The roboticist tittered. “Oh my dear Mr. Baley. I doubt that. Really. There’s more to a robot that just his appear—“
Dr Gerrigel froze in the middle of the word. Slowly, he turned to R. Daneel, and his pink face went very pale…(173)

I feel the more human characteristics no matter if it is an animal or machine portrays, the more people respond to them as if they were human. In Asimov’s novel from the quote above, Dr. Gerrigel was a robot specialist that was an expert in humanoids. Even Gerrigel could not tell that R. Daneel was a humanoid until Baley hinted him on. Gerrigel responded and interacted with R. Daneel just as if he was a human before he found out he was a robot. As for our closest animal relative, chimps, gorrilaz and other primates, we do tend to anthropomorphize with them a lot more than other animals. Primates and humans cannot directly communicate through language, but can share emotions and thoughts through different body gestures and facial expressions. One could not simply do this with a turtle or a shark as an example because they lack any type of human form and have no means to communicate with each other efficiently. So if robots had more of a human form and characteristics that are close to human (arms, eyes, mouth), I do think that people would anthropomorphize with them more as shown with Dr. Gerrigel. I think it is hard for people to attribute human characteristics and qualities to a robot that was just a plain box with wheels and beeps (except for R2-D2 maybe…) As an example, Sony has created a robot called the “Qrio.” It is about the height of a 3 year old child, can articulate and walk/run very close to like a human. It has one of the most sophisticated AI’s and can be considered the world’s first fully functional “humanoid.” It can distinguish different people with facial and voice recognition. Soon it will be able to carry out a conversation on the same level as a 3-4 year old human. At Sony’s website (http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/videoclip/), there is a video clip of this robot interacting with a group of kids. These kids do not seem intimated by “Qrio,” but see him as a “friend” because Qrio has a voice of a child and uses hand gestures and other motions to interact. I do not think these kids would interact the same way with a robot that lacked these human qualities. I think the more human qualities and form a robot emulates, the more they would be anthropomorphized and accepted just like the interactions between a human and a primate.