SpenniesThe future of robotics
January 8th 2007 01:41
Bill Gates announced last week his vision of seeing a robot in every home.
[link]
His statements coincided with the launch of Microsoft’s first commercial operating system for robots, the Microsoft Robotics Studio, a project undoubtedly inspired by the growing competition in the industry – the Japanese Robot Association has already predicted that by 2025 the personal robot industry will have taken well and truly off.
But how do people feel about personal robots?
Any talk of such things conjures up images of, as Gates himself said, Isaac Asimov and Star Wars, but whereas those particular stories have always been nothing more than an exercise in imagination, now it seems that technology could make them very real.
The question is of course, should we or shouldn’t we?
There are particular problems on both sides. If we don’t take advantage of technology and progress in the areas of robotics and AI then we are simply stunting the growth of our society. If we do take advantage we must be careful to place limitations and create an ethical code which will ensure that no human being is disadvantaged.
Some will declare that building a machine trained to operate like a human being is unethical, because no human could ever match its efficiency and skill. Others will argue that this is necessary for progress, and those parts of society that will be advantaged by these machines far outweighs those that will be disadvantaged.
But can a big corporation like Microsoft be trusted to build and more importantly stick to an ethical code where AI is concerned? Robotics is in its infancy stage at the moment, but as Gates pointed out it won’t be long before the machines we build become far more complex than we imagined. When we have surrounded ourselves with machines that can carry out the tasks we consider menial, we will continue to build machines that can carry out the tasks we consider not so menial, and so on, until we may feel a general uneasiness in continuously creating something better than ourselves. We may like the fact that we don’t have to vacuum the house any more, or work in an assembly line, or even send troops to fight on the battlefield, but how will we react when our dominance over innovation is threatened? A robot may not be able to feel or rationalise the same way as a human can, but there is nothing to stop if from being programmed to think like we do. After all, our brain works pretty much like a computer program, so once we iron out all the kinks we can program a machine to think. But will it generate thoughts that have already been thought, or is there a chance that it could randomly generate an original thought? What this will lead to is uncertain but we must be aware and alert starting now, so that we don’t find ourselves in a sticky situation down the track.
[link]
His statements coincided with the launch of Microsoft’s first commercial operating system for robots, the Microsoft Robotics Studio, a project undoubtedly inspired by the growing competition in the industry – the Japanese Robot Association has already predicted that by 2025 the personal robot industry will have taken well and truly off.
But how do people feel about personal robots?
Any talk of such things conjures up images of, as Gates himself said, Isaac Asimov and Star Wars, but whereas those particular stories have always been nothing more than an exercise in imagination, now it seems that technology could make them very real.
There are particular problems on both sides. If we don’t take advantage of technology and progress in the areas of robotics and AI then we are simply stunting the growth of our society. If we do take advantage we must be careful to place limitations and create an ethical code which will ensure that no human being is disadvantaged.
Some will declare that building a machine trained to operate like a human being is unethical, because no human could ever match its efficiency and skill. Others will argue that this is necessary for progress, and those parts of society that will be advantaged by these machines far outweighs those that will be disadvantaged.
But can a big corporation like Microsoft be trusted to build and more importantly stick to an ethical code where AI is concerned? Robotics is in its infancy stage at the moment, but as Gates pointed out it won’t be long before the machines we build become far more complex than we imagined. When we have surrounded ourselves with machines that can carry out the tasks we consider menial, we will continue to build machines that can carry out the tasks we consider not so menial, and so on, until we may feel a general uneasiness in continuously creating something better than ourselves. We may like the fact that we don’t have to vacuum the house any more, or work in an assembly line, or even send troops to fight on the battlefield, but how will we react when our dominance over innovation is threatened? A robot may not be able to feel or rationalise the same way as a human can, but there is nothing to stop if from being programmed to think like we do. After all, our brain works pretty much like a computer program, so once we iron out all the kinks we can program a machine to think. But will it generate thoughts that have already been thought, or is there a chance that it could randomly generate an original thought? What this will lead to is uncertain but we must be aware and alert starting now, so that we don’t find ourselves in a sticky situation down the track.
Will Smith having some robot trouble in I, Robot
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Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
A robot in every home is kind of dumb, tehnically some people already have robots in the form of automated vacum cleaners or robotic dogs, but a single robot to do everything as Bill would liike to have us to think is ridiculous and not feasible.
Different machinery to different tasks.