"Also-robots posess intellect (intelligence, whatever), do they know that they are inhuman? Or, do they, like the woman, see themselves as human? If they do, shouldn't they have the same rights and liberties as humans?"
We're thinking about it the wrong way. Robots dont "think" or "feel" they simple carry out a series of functions.
For example:
Do you know that robot which looks like a face and you can interact with it? When you make a noise it moves its eyes to where the sound came from, and when you get up in its face quickly it backs away. Well the robot isn't curious about where the sound came from at all, it simple perfroms a pre-program response. It's just like when you use a phone which has voice recognition on it, when you say billy, it rings billy's phone; on this robot, when someone says billy, it doesn't ring billy it moves its eyes. When you get up in its face and it shrinks back, it isn't frightened, it is simply carry out a pre-programmed function. Have you seen those Eye Toys for PS2? When you move your hands in the air, you can hit things on the screen. Same thing with the robot, but instead of moving things on the screen (which it doesn't have), it shrinks back. No-one thinks that this robot is "alive" or has "feelings" or "idependent thought" because its responses are limited and its apperance is very "un-natural". In the future, however, when we can build robots which look like people and have HUGE memories big enough to store billions of activites, then people might start to believe that they are alive, have feelings and indepandent thought, simpley because they look and act LIKE us.
No Osama Bin Laden. No WMDs.
Way to go George!
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tangowhiskeymike
20 years ago
I know what you mean, but this isnt what is going on. These robots are past the point of doing what they are programmed to do. These robots are self aware, and can think for themselves. The machines no longer needed programs to tell them what to do.
Example: The machines had humanity on the brink of destruction, but they knew that they needed a power source, so they turned to humans. Do you think they were programmed to enslave humans in order to survive? I really doubt it.
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Ron_Mc_Don
20 years ago
Yeah, I dont know. It's very complicated. Today we have programs which create other programs because they can do a better job at it than humans can: they are quicker, more efficent, "smarter", and eliminate human error. The machines in The Second Renaissance also create new and better AI. Maybe they just got so smart and were able to perform so many functions that it appears that they have free choice. And what does it mean to be "self aware" and "able to think for themselves"? Is this just that they can perform so many functions that they are programmed to choose the most suitable? Again, the machines we have today can do this on a simple level.
You raised a good point with regards to them enslaving humanity though. I have to admit that I dont have a definative answer. My only guess could be that they are programmed to surive, and it was nessesary to defend themselves against humans in order to do this.
It's fuuny talking about this, because it's half based on possible futuristic facts and half based on fiction. The point where which I think the facts end and the fiction takes over is where the machines become "self aware". I dont think that this could ever happen in reality. I personally believe that human research into AI is mostly pointless. It's very expensive and weilds very few results. Maybe one day a thousand years from now a robot will find a cure for cancer, but until then we have a LOT more important things to be focusing on, like making peace and eliminating poverty.
What do you think is more important: everyone in the world being free and healthy, or a few rediculously rich people having a robot?
No Osama Bin Laden. No WMDs.
Way to go George!
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dandl-1
19 years ago
In a concise nature, you are correct, but you seem to exclude the concept that human minds and artificial minds operate in identical manners. Was not preprogramming for said artificial minds, formed off of the basis of a human mind, performing mechanical functions.
Humans create choices in their life time, choices that are limited by emotions, but still they decide a certain action, and enact in such. Machines act in the same manner; for they enact the action that was programmed for them to do, only in the absence of emotion, these actions are limited by numerical data.
Both minds are the same, restricted by instinct developed at conception and development. Some simply refuse to witness this as it would state that we are equal to our creations. Ironic, in a sense; for they were structured to perform actions that would ease our own lifestyle.
May the death of humanity act as the harbinger for indifference, and hence...serenity.
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