Vol. 220. No.2. August 2011
Us. And them.
Author: Chris Carroll
It is a very catchy subtitle; "Robots are being created that can think, act, and relate to humans. Are we ready?" I was chilled when I read only this subtitle with a picture, taken by Mas Aguilera-Hellweg, of an android which is very alike a human except wires and chips coming out from his back head (shown above). Are we ready for what? For accepting such a human-like creature in our daily lives?
Carroll introduced some short stories about androids that are under development for different kinds of use: for an elder care, a babysitter, a house work, and army. He calls such robots a social robot, because they interact with people in a way that they self-govern and alternate their behaviors according to people's reactions and responses in unexpected/non-programmed situations. This feature gives a crucial difference from industrial robots, which are programmed to carry out a specific function in a well controlled environment such as assembling or painting cars in a factory. On the other hand, social robots must identify, for example, a difference between a milk and a juice and pick up a correct one from someone's untidy refrigerator.
This article also focuses on people's emotional and ethical aspect toward the android. According to Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, people feel positive toward human-like androids but feel suddenly disguised when robots become too alike to human. Also, one experiment done by psychologist Peter Kahn, University of Washington, revealed that people treat the android as fair as they do for other humans. For instance, in his experiment, most children and adolescents agreed on unfairness when the android, with which they played card games, was treated unjustly.
If it is succeeded to attain human attribute of ethical aspect, a researcher, Ronald Arkin of the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that it is possible for such androids to fight in a war. He claimed that the difficulty of this is to program criteria and limitations when to fire with a proper choice of arm. However, if this programming achieves a practical level, Akin believes that such robots will be able to make a better decision than human soldiers do in a chaotic battle field, because human tends to make a wrong decision due to a rage and a confusion under the tumult environment.
Are we ready for having self-governing androids in the near future? The answer might be yes for some cases and no for some other cases. Personally, it is very beneficial to have such robot in my apartment to do all house works while my husband goes out for work and I go out for school. The extra time made by the robot can then be spent by us, human beings, for a leisure. In this case, I am more than ready to have the robot if I do not need to care about the cost to own it.
On the other hand, I have to ask myself if it is ok to use such robots for an elder and baby/child care. Even though such androids are autonomous and are able to carry all tasks, taking care of people might not limit to the physical cares. Through interacting with people, we, human beings, build a reliable relationship that means a love, a trust, a friendship, or more. This relationship might enrich our lives in a way that we can feel our existence is worthy enough for ourselves and for others. I wonder if robots can truly obtain such human attributes. If they can, my answer for the question changes to "yes, I am ready." It is much safer to own such care-giving androids than to hire human care-giver, because the androids have no danger to cause a possible child abuse or crucial mistakes which human care-givers might do. However, it is very hard to imagine that an android is capable of understanding other's feelings such as happiness, sadness, and pain that are necessary to build the relationship between people. Thus, at this point, my answer for the question stays "no," because it is too sad to isolate baby/child and elders from human contacts that might be essential in order to enrich their lives as human beings.
National Geographic
It is a very catchy subtitle; "Robots are being created that can think, act, and relate to humans. Are we ready?" I was chilled when I read only this subtitle with a picture, taken by Mas Aguilera-Hellweg, of an android which is very alike a human except wires and chips coming out from his back head (shown above). Are we ready for what? For accepting such a human-like creature in our daily lives?
Carroll introduced some short stories about androids that are under development for different kinds of use: for an elder care, a babysitter, a house work, and army. He calls such robots a social robot, because they interact with people in a way that they self-govern and alternate their behaviors according to people's reactions and responses in unexpected/non-programmed situations. This feature gives a crucial difference from industrial robots, which are programmed to carry out a specific function in a well controlled environment such as assembling or painting cars in a factory. On the other hand, social robots must identify, for example, a difference between a milk and a juice and pick up a correct one from someone's untidy refrigerator.
This article also focuses on people's emotional and ethical aspect toward the android. According to Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, people feel positive toward human-like androids but feel suddenly disguised when robots become too alike to human. Also, one experiment done by psychologist Peter Kahn, University of Washington, revealed that people treat the android as fair as they do for other humans. For instance, in his experiment, most children and adolescents agreed on unfairness when the android, with which they played card games, was treated unjustly.
If it is succeeded to attain human attribute of ethical aspect, a researcher, Ronald Arkin of the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that it is possible for such androids to fight in a war. He claimed that the difficulty of this is to program criteria and limitations when to fire with a proper choice of arm. However, if this programming achieves a practical level, Akin believes that such robots will be able to make a better decision than human soldiers do in a chaotic battle field, because human tends to make a wrong decision due to a rage and a confusion under the tumult environment.
Are we ready for having self-governing androids in the near future? The answer might be yes for some cases and no for some other cases. Personally, it is very beneficial to have such robot in my apartment to do all house works while my husband goes out for work and I go out for school. The extra time made by the robot can then be spent by us, human beings, for a leisure. In this case, I am more than ready to have the robot if I do not need to care about the cost to own it.
On the other hand, I have to ask myself if it is ok to use such robots for an elder and baby/child care. Even though such androids are autonomous and are able to carry all tasks, taking care of people might not limit to the physical cares. Through interacting with people, we, human beings, build a reliable relationship that means a love, a trust, a friendship, or more. This relationship might enrich our lives in a way that we can feel our existence is worthy enough for ourselves and for others. I wonder if robots can truly obtain such human attributes. If they can, my answer for the question changes to "yes, I am ready." It is much safer to own such care-giving androids than to hire human care-giver, because the androids have no danger to cause a possible child abuse or crucial mistakes which human care-givers might do. However, it is very hard to imagine that an android is capable of understanding other's feelings such as happiness, sadness, and pain that are necessary to build the relationship between people. Thus, at this point, my answer for the question stays "no," because it is too sad to isolate baby/child and elders from human contacts that might be essential in order to enrich their lives as human beings.
Vol. 220. No.2. August 2011
Us. And them.
Author: Chris Carroll
It is a very catchy subtitle; "Robots are being created that can think, act, and relate to humans. Are we ready?" It gave me a chill when I read this subtitle with a single picture, taken by Mas Aguilera-Hellweg, of a human-like android with wires and chips coming out from his back head (shown above). Are we ready for what? For accepting such a human-like creature in our daily lives?
Carroll introduced some short stories about androids that are under development for different kinds of use: for elder care, babysitting, house work, and the army. He calls such robots social robots, because they interact with people in such a way that they self-govern and alternate their behaviors according to people's reactions and responses in unexpected/non-programmed situations. This feature makes social robots distinct from industrial robots, which are programmed to carry out a specific function in a well controlled environment such as assembling or painting cars in a factory. On the other hand, social robots must identify, for example, the difference between milk and juice and be able to pick the correct one from someone's untidy refrigerator.
This article also focuses on people's emotional and ethical response toward the android. According to Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, people feel positive toward human-like androids but feel suddenly repulsed when robots become too much like humans. Also, one experiment done by University of Washington psychologist Peter Kahn revealed that people treat the android as fair as they treat other humans. For instance, in his experiment, most children and adolescents agreed on unfairness when the android, with which they played card games, was treated unjustly.
If androids can attain ethical human attributes, Ronald Arkin, a researcher of the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that it is possible for such androids to fight in a war. He claimed that the difficulty would be the programming criteria and the limitations of when to fire and choosing the proper firearm. However, if this programming achieves a practical level, Akin believes that such robots will be able to make better decisions than human soldiers do in a chaotic battle field. Humans tend to make wrong decisions due to rage and confusion under the/a tumultuous environment.
Are we ready to have self-governing androids in the near future? The answer might be yes for some cases and no for some other cases. Personally, I think it would be very beneficial to have such a robot in my apartment to do all the house work while my husband goes out for work and I go out for school. The extra time made by the robot can then be spent by us, human beings, for leisure. In this case, I am more than ready to have the robot if I do not need to care about the cost of owning it.
On the other hand, I have to ask myself if it is ok to use such robots for elder and baby/child care. Even though such androids are autonomous and are able to carry all tasks, taking care of people might not be limited to a physical task/ the physical. Through interacting with people, we build reliable relationships such as love, trust and friendship. These relationships might enrich our lives in a way that we can feel our existence is worthy enough for ourselves and for others. I wonder if robots can truly obtain such human attributes. If they can, my answer for the question changes to "yes, I am ready." It is much safer to own such care-giving androids than to hire human care-givers, because with the androids there would be no danger of potential child abuse or fatal mistakes which human care-givers can make. However, it is very hard to imagine that an android is capable of understanding the feelings of others such as happiness, sadness, and pain that are necessary to build relationships between people. Thus, at this point, my answer for the question is still/ would still be "no," because it is too sad to isolate babies/children and elders from human contact that might be essential in order to enrich their lives as human beings.
It is a very catchy subtitle; "Robots are being created that can think, act, and relate to humans. Are we ready?" It gave me a chill when I read this subtitle with a single picture, taken by Mas Aguilera-Hellweg, of a human-like android with wires and chips coming out from his back head (shown above). Are we ready for what? For accepting such a human-like creature in our daily lives?
Carroll introduced some short stories about androids that are under development for different kinds of use: for elder care, babysitting, house work, and the army. He calls such robots social robots, because they interact with people in such a way that they self-govern and alternate their behaviors according to people's reactions and responses in unexpected/non-programmed situations. This feature makes social robots distinct from industrial robots, which are programmed to carry out a specific function in a well controlled environment such as assembling or painting cars in a factory. On the other hand, social robots must identify, for example, the difference between milk and juice and be able to pick the correct one from someone's untidy refrigerator.
This article also focuses on people's emotional and ethical response toward the android. According to Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, people feel positive toward human-like androids but feel suddenly repulsed when robots become too much like humans. Also, one experiment done by University of Washington psychologist Peter Kahn revealed that people treat the android as fair as they treat other humans. For instance, in his experiment, most children and adolescents agreed on unfairness when the android, with which they played card games, was treated unjustly.
If androids can attain ethical human attributes, Ronald Arkin, a researcher of the Georgia Institute of Technology, says that it is possible for such androids to fight in a war. He claimed that the difficulty would be the programming criteria and the limitations of when to fire and choosing the proper firearm. However, if this programming achieves a practical level, Akin believes that such robots will be able to make better decisions than human soldiers do in a chaotic battle field. Humans tend to make wrong decisions due to rage and confusion under the/a tumultuous environment.
Are we ready to have self-governing androids in the near future? The answer might be yes for some cases and no for some other cases. Personally, I think it would be very beneficial to have such a robot in my apartment to do all the house work while my husband goes out for work and I go out for school. The extra time made by the robot can then be spent by us, human beings, for leisure. In this case, I am more than ready to have the robot if I do not need to care about the cost of owning it.
On the other hand, I have to ask myself if it is ok to use such robots for elder and baby/child care. Even though such androids are autonomous and are able to carry all tasks, taking care of people might not be limited to a physical task/ the physical. Through interacting with people, we build reliable relationships such as love, trust and friendship. These relationships might enrich our lives in a way that we can feel our existence is worthy enough for ourselves and for others. I wonder if robots can truly obtain such human attributes. If they can, my answer for the question changes to "yes, I am ready." It is much safer to own such care-giving androids than to hire human care-givers, because with the androids there would be no danger of potential child abuse or fatal mistakes which human care-givers can make. However, it is very hard to imagine that an android is capable of understanding the feelings of others such as happiness, sadness, and pain that are necessary to build relationships between people. Thus, at this point, my answer for the question is still/ would still be "no," because it is too sad to isolate babies/children and elders from human contact that might be essential in order to enrich their lives as human beings.
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