RoboLove
Mankind has a "demi-urge." That is to say, we have a long fascination with the idea of creating a new form of being. The early Jews posited the Golem, clay men which, when brought to life, did the bidding of the animator; the ancient Greeks liked the idea of fighting men that sprang from planted dragon's teeth; Mary Shelley wondered what would result if a man was stitched together from corpses and reanimated; today we ponder the possibility of cloning a man from a few of his cells.
A subset of this desire to play Creator is the robot. A robot isn't alive, but possesses many of the characteristics of a living creature. The purpose of the robot, however, is to do the bidding of its maker.
According to an excellent set of criteria listed in Wikipedia, a robot:
From Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the basis for the brilliant film, Blade Runner); to the moral complexities of Battlestar Galactica's God-fearing Cylons; to the deeply human emotions of StarGate Atlantis's Replicators, writers have pondered when the line between man and machine gets crossed, and what is our responsiblity for that.
Should we fret about this question? Not immediately. But just take a look at these robots from Boston Dynamics. With their ability to sense their environment, and "make decisions" about how to encounter that environment, we're getting a glimpse - however distant - of possibilities that are no longer only in the province of fiction.
A subset of this desire to play Creator is the robot. A robot isn't alive, but possesses many of the characteristics of a living creature. The purpose of the robot, however, is to do the bidding of its maker.
According to an excellent set of criteria listed in Wikipedia, a robot:
- Is artificially created.
- Can sense its environment, and manipulate or interact with things in it.
- Has some ability to make choices based on the environment, often using automatic control or a pre-programmed sequence.
- Is programmable.
- Moves with one or more axes of rotation or translation.
- Makes dexterous coordinated movements.
- Moves without direct human intervention.
- Appears to have intent or agency.
From Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the basis for the brilliant film, Blade Runner); to the moral complexities of Battlestar Galactica's God-fearing Cylons; to the deeply human emotions of StarGate Atlantis's Replicators, writers have pondered when the line between man and machine gets crossed, and what is our responsiblity for that.
Should we fret about this question? Not immediately. But just take a look at these robots from Boston Dynamics. With their ability to sense their environment, and "make decisions" about how to encounter that environment, we're getting a glimpse - however distant - of possibilities that are no longer only in the province of fiction.
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