Article Date: February 17, 2011
By: ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Eric Talmadge, Associated Press
To make it more fun and entertaining to the reader and maybe even encourage them to comment on it, I decided to blog differently. Although my article is still purely technological, it is a bit colourful and I would like to add a little spice to it. Aside from what this article means in terms of science and MONEY, I’d like you to think about what it means in terms of society and human relationships as well.In 2013, Japan’s space agency is planning to send a humanoid robot to the International Space Station. These robots will monitor the health and stress level of astronauts, take care of the mission during their sleep, and communicate via twitter from space to Earth. Furthermore, they will provide “comfort and companionship” to astronauts. These humanoid are human-like, have facial expression and could talk with them. Since Japan has a growing rate of aging people with one of the world’s longest life expectancy, they would like to produce these humanoids on mass to help Japanese elderly in the near future.
This is absolutely great news for businesses. The article does not mention when it will become available to the public and how much it will cost. No doubt the price will be astronomic. If the humanoids are as responsive as the article claims, imagine what other services it can provide besides taking care of the elderly. It could be used in any kind of employment probably other than the medical profession (e.g. doctors, surgeons...) for now. I don’t know of any employer who would not want to employ a humanoid if it means he/she does not have to pay for salary, benefits, retirement plans, taxes... There will be no need for them to follow labour laws, no overtime. There is a huge possibility that tasks will be done even better and mistake free. I hope by the time that they become available on the market, there will be some other variety of jobs available for humans!!!
Although this is a groundbreaking innovation in technology, I should say the day it becomes mass produced will be a sad day for humanity and world population. Why does it feel like every one step forward for the technology means ten steps back for the human kind? Are they really able to provide “comfort and companionship” to people? If yes, there is a good chance that human relations as we know now will change forever. Who needs friends they cannot trust? Who needs cheating spouses? Your old parents are alone and sick, the humanoid will take care of it, no need to visit them in the weekend or spend your holidays with them.
My advice: think twice before introducing it to the market.
Shabnam
This is an interesting development. It’s been a long time coming now; the age where robots will replace human beings and render us obsolete. It’s like something out of Terminator. I think Japan is always a little too concerned with advancing in technology and getting ahead, when they don’t quite consider all downsides and negative aspects of their projects. These humanoids can be useful, but obviously they could not take the place of a living and breathing friend, spouse, or even a store clerk. Personally, I think letting robots deal with the elderly lacks a little morality, as a machine would not be able to provide sufficient affection for them. I believe the only jobs these humanoids can possibly be useful for are jobs that human beings don’t often want to take on; dirty jobs like cleaning a septic tank, or a dangerous job like repainting the Golden Gate Bridge. I certainly would not want these humanoids behind the cash register; the cold and heartless atmosphere alone would prevent me from shopping at place that could afford and employ these machines.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that humanity has advanced robotics technology so far in the past decade. The promise of a robot that is capable of providing human like interaction is a bit far-fetched. It is at the current moment impossible to create a program that mimics human behaviour in a non awkward way. This is primarily because of how machines are programmed and how a human brain functions. Programs need set rules and parameters but humans self learn and do simple things that are very difficult for machines to emulate. It is possible for machines to self learn in sense, it something similar to what Watson the Jeopardy playing supercomputer. Watson learns by looking at thousands of examples of something and therefore comes to understand things by having many reference points. Watson is very large and takes up whole server room, so having an AI capable of performing such actions would be not very feasible at this point in time. Overall I think that robots and computers will be not able to satisfy human need of interaction and companionship.
ReplyDeleteAs for robots stealing our jobs fear not. Even if these robots get advanced enough to take on jobs that humans normally do, jobs will still exist in maintaining these robots. People are still needed in some way or form. I am just not sold on what the article promises all of it is potential that lacks substance in its current form. Humanoid robots around every corner will not happen in the near future. They are simply too expensive and are quite limited machines in their current incarnations.
Hayel N.
We saw so many movies already about launching robots in everyday life and what it could lead to. So it is not surprising that the best minds are working in that direction and invent more advanced technology each time. No doubt it is big step forward and we could not stop this process. Our primary goal is to improve the standard of living and well-being. It seems like a good idea to use robots in our lives. There are so many jobs what are so boring and repetitive and require low skilled workers for that. But with the increasing education level of population it is becoming hard to find people desiring to work there. Using robots is a great solution. Even using robots that will monitor old people is really good idea. As if something happens to them robots could immediately respond and this person could receive help on timely basis. But it will never replace the human relations between each other and sons and daughters still will visit their parents on weekends. But now they could be sure that their parents would not be alone and could receive help while they are not with them.
ReplyDeleteWe can see that the world standard of leaving and well-being increased considerably in the last 60-70 years. Information technology became undistinguished part of our everyday life. We see how new technology entered our life with surprising speed. And there is nothing bad in this. Because it is also creates a lot of new jobs which did not exist even ten years ago. And it changes every day. And I don’t think there is any threat from the implementation of robots in our life as they could never develop with such a speed as human mind.
Ksenia B.