Sunday, November 24, 2013

Do You Think Robots Can Be Made Human?

Good Morning,

First of all, I want to wish everyone a 'Happy Thanksgiving'.

Okay, now down to business, there's a new television series about robots.  I haven't watched it, but I've seen it advertised and that was enough for me.  I'm not into sci-fi and futuristic things.  Okay, back when I was a kid there were comic books about going to the moon, and it happened. 

Every time, I saw the advertisement for this show I kept thinking this is a bunch of hooey.  lol   But, then I would think, anything you can imagine or invent can be done if the creator keeps working to find a way to do it. 

We've all seen the little toy robots with the gravelly voices moving around.  We know about the robots in manufacturing plants, warehouses, etc., but they aren't even human looking. These items don't even look like a person.

Proceed forward a few days, and I happen to walk in to the room where my husband was watching the science channel.  He's big into history, science, sci-fi, national geographic and other learning channels.  Lo and behold; they were talking about making human robots and that caught my attention.  I sat down by him to watch and listen.

Here's what I learned, they are making human looking robots with normal sounding voices.  The one I saw was a beautiful woman, and you would never know she was a robot.  They are giving these robots knowledge of everything, and I would be willing to bet they're going to be smarter than most of us. 

Not only that they're teaching these robots emotions.  You might ask how they're doing that, and I don't blame you, but as I listened I realized they had a good plan for making a robot feel.  It's through touch.  Now, writers know all about touch; showing and feeling emotions, so you wonder if an author, movie maker, or some type of artist came up with this idea.  Remember this channel was the science channel and these were researchers working on this project, and they're people, too, and they're creative. 

As I watched this program, I became a bit anxious. I'm thinking if these scientists can come up with a robot so human that you can't distinguish them from a real person, give them intelligence and feelings what's to keep them from replacing real people?  If you aren't afraid yet; you should be.  Do you think there's a need to worry?

Thank you for reading.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a safe trip to your destination if you are leaving home.  See you next weekend. 

Sandra K. Marshall
http://www.eirelanderpublishing.com
http://www.skaymarshall.com

11 comments:

thewriterslife said...

Wow. Scary, huh?

Kari Rogers Miller said...

Hi Sandy...you are right! this is scary in my opinion.

Do you remember the movie "The Stepford Wives"? The first movie came out in 1975 and it was built on the premise that several husbands got together, formed "the Stepford Men's Club" and "built" what they considered a perfect wife for each one of them in the small town of Stepford...and of course, they replaced their real wives with these perfect robots. So enter a real human being and she observes the subservient wives of Stepford with every hair in place and dinner on the table when the man of the house entered. I believe the movie was remade in 2004 but I didn't want to see it as I disliked the original. Perhaps it is because...with all the modern technology, anything is possible and apparently after what you and your husband observed, closer than we think.

Sandy said...

Yes, it is scary, Dorothy.

Kari, I remember the movie, and we are close to that happening than anyone knows. The same science show, hubby and I watched was talking about implanting chips into real humans and making them robots.

Nix Winter said...

There is nothing to fear from a robot... anymore than you'd fear a car... of course cars run people over.. especially when they're driven by other humans.

IBM's Watson is coming very along in the lines of strong AI. It processes natural language and it's smart.

What is more to fear might be when other humans have that kind of processing power to use. When I will be able to process 12 million documents a minute, smile at you, and still be me.. when I'm a 1000 years old and still going to night clubs.. if you or your decendants aren't also enhanced.. how would an un-enhanced human deserve better treatment than they've given animals?

Melissa Keir said...

I think that the idea of robots having their own thoughts is interesting, let alone emotions. I also have seen shows where I worry. But I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Sandy said...

I don't know the answer to that, Nix. One thing I know for sure after watching the science channel, Nix, robots aren't going to be anything like IBM's Watson.

Sandy said...

Melissa, we are all going to have to wait to find out what actually happens. I just don't think some of the movies, which I haven't seen, may be so far off base.

K.T. Bishop said...

I work with a lot of Robots

Sandy said...

Lol I'm assuming you're talking about real people, K.T.

The Comeback Kid said...

Why build a human robot when you can clone? Would a clone be considered a robot?

Sandy said...

I don't think so, Tom. Clone and robot are very different.