by Brian Post
Cyberhumanity: Integrating Robots and Robotics into Future Human Society
As computer technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology continue to advance at an astounding rate, the corresponding boundary between possibility and reality becomes progressively thinner. Robotics, artificial intelligence, and miniaturization technologies are working together to transform our current human society into a transhuman one where the citizens are a mix of robots, humans, and cyborgs. The ability to use technological devices to either augment or replace human parts will become more and more commonplace as society transcends into the future. Robots will gain a type of consciousness through advanced artificial intelligence, and robot-human interactions will become as important as human-human interactions are in today's society. Through the exploration, explanation, and social and ethical analysis of several of the technologies that are breaking down the boundaries between man and machine, one can make educated assumptions about the future of the human race. Modern robotics, prosthetics, and educated predictions are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg when attempting to form an accurate picture of the future.
There will be many benefits to the advanced integration of robots and robotics into our society. Robots and robotics will allow people with mobility related disabilities to function identically to the rest of society. Wheelchairs will become obsolete, as neurally controlled robotic legs replace unusable human legs with the same, or perhaps more, functionality. Allan Bergman, CEO of the Brain Injury Association, says that "As technology is making things smaller, faster, and more personal. . . I think the opportunity for technology to create an environment for self-reliability and self-control for people with disabilities has never been higher."(i) In addition to robotic human assistance, robots will handle most or all of the jobs that are intrinsically dangerous to humans. Currently robots are used wherever possible, such as in bomb removal, automotive construction, and lava-flow research, where they can accomplish the same tasks as a human. Conceptual designs for modern robots surpass currently available technology, which is insufficient to create a robot that would serve as a human replacement in many situations. As our technology advances, robots will be able to usurp a growing portion of the dangerous occupations from humans until human lives are no longer intentionally endangered in the workplace.
The Honda P3 Robot, a predecessor to the robots of the future, represents an important step towards the development of humanoid robots. In development since 1986, the P3 represents Honda's commitment to humanoid robot research and development. Honda started the program with the concept that the robot should "coexist and cooperate with human beings, by doing what a person cannot do and by cultivating a new dimension in mobility to ultimately benefit society."(ii) The bipedal P3 can already open doors and climb stairs in a human fashion. The P3 robot is weighted much like a human body, with similar proportions of its overall weight in the robot's arms, torso, head, and legs. Its body contains gyroscopes and sensors that simulate the human inner ear to give it a sense of internal balance. Situations like climbing stairs require this sort of balancing because the robot could simply fall over backwards if it did not compensate by shifting weight. Hopefully other companies will follow Honda's lead in the development of humanoid robots and continue to make insightful discoveries about the human body and its interactions with external forces in the process.
Humanoid robots like the P3 will eventually manifest themselves in homes and workplaces around the globe. These robots, in addition to performing repetitive and simple daily tasks like feeding a pet or mowing the lawn, will encourage the growth of a new industry where remote operators can control them to accomplish more difficult tasks. Plumbers, gardeners, electricians, and others will no longer need to make physical visits to the job site in order to perform their duties. Instead, they will be able to manipulate the household or workplace robot and perform their contracted tasks from a remote location. This method of remote labor will have numerous benefits over the current system of physical labor. No stranger will ever need to physically enter a person's house or a company office. The humanoid robot, under remote operation by the individual responsible for the job, will have access to only a limited portion of the home or workplace, and the homeowner or office workers will be able to manually override control of the robot if required. Costs will be reduced because the individuals contracted for the job will never travel unless the job requires a special tool. This reduction in travel time will allow businesses to accomplish many more tasks, since they have more time to spend in performing jobs. Productivity will rise, thus decreasing costs for the consumer and increasing profits for the company. The robot alone would have sufficient built in programming to accomplish simple home maintenance and repair tasks, allowing the remote operator companies to focus on more important and profitable jobs and eliminating cost for the consumer.
Current day prosthetics are already starting to use microprocessors to more accurately mimic a human limb. These microprocessors can interpret the movements of the person using the prosthetic and anticipate adjustments for these movements. This allows the person to walk like any other normal human by eliminating their concern about the limb's possible reactions. The company that developed this technology, called the T-Evolution Knee Socket, says that it ". . . enables patients to walk with natural movements without having to consciously think about each step."(iii) Robotics will eventually interpret neural signals directly from the human body and transform them into instructions for the prosthetic to perform. Several leading research institutions are already making advances towards this end. Melody Moore, a research scientist at Georgia State University, is currently working on interfacing computers with human neural signals. In Moore's research, "the key technology involved is called a neurotrophic electrode, which is about the size of a ballpoint pen, and is designed to be directly inserted into a brain so it can interface with neurons."(iv) People will hopefully be able to manipulate a robotic limb or other enhancement with normal human neural signals. Directly enhancing the information processing of our brain with synthetic circuits is focusing at first on correcting the glaring defects caused by neurological and sensory diseases and disabilities.(v)
The predictions made by several prominent figures in both robotics and artificial intelligence can help to interpret the future of human society. Raymond Kurzweil is perhaps the most prominent person in the field of artificial intelligence. His predictions for the future have been published in several of his books, most notably The Age of Intelligent Machines and The Age of Spiritual Machines. "In a Kurzweillian future, the world would become a very strange place, where converging advances in nanotechnology, biotechnology, and computer science combine to propel humanity to its next stage of evolution."(vi) Kurzweil sees robotics and robots as a way for humans to enhance themselves, possibly merging with robots into a new life form. These same predictions have prompted other people to voice their own educated opinions about the future of human society. Bill Joy, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, was so alarmed by a conversation with Kurzweil that he wrote his own piece on the future of humanity entitled "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us". Joy has a much more pessimistic outlook than Kurzweil, although either professional's prediction is a future possibility. Joy, however, is more worried about what he perceives as a refusal to take control of technology. He says scientists are taking a passive attitude toward technology, abdicating their moral responsibility to make intelligent and ethical choices.(vii) Rodney Brooks, director of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, feels that eventually humans will merge with robots. Brooks feels that humans need to forget the fear of robots produced by decades of science fiction films and books. "We don't have to fear robots taking over from us because there will be no 'us' to take over from. . . we will have become one with our machines."(viii) Many religious individuals and organizations decry this philosophy of future society having full control over the act of creation. In their eyes, the ability to create intelligent life forms is unethical and should be left only to god. Hans Moravec is another robotics researcher who has a positive outlook on the future of the robotics industry. Moravec, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, founded one of the world's largest robotics programs and believes that computing innovation will bear the fruit of mechanical life that has been imagined for most of the century.(ix) He sees robots of the future that are built to obey the law, so that dealing with renegade artificially intelligence will be unnecessary. The installation of these laws would be mandatory in all robot software, and would be overseen by an independent body to make sure no violations were taking place.
The numerous benefits that increased reliance on robots and robotics will bring are not without consequences. Our society is becoming more antisocial every day, and robots and robotics will only add to this lack of human-human interaction. Part of what defines our humanity is our ability to interact socially with physical and verbal communication. Already, the Internet and telecommunications enable a person to get an education or hold a job by rarely leaving their home. Add the acquisition of a robot to do all of an individual's housework, and a person would have very little motivation to even leave their favorite chair. This complete lack of human-human interaction could lead to an eventual breakdown in our social and community structure. Humans are highly emotional creatures, and this emotion requires interaction with other emotional humans as stimulation. Without emotion and social interaction, we would be no better than the robots that ironically contributed to this status.
There are always going to be hardware and software glitches in robotic components and robots. As long as there are people writing the software to control these robots and robotics, flawed code will always be present. Humans are not perfect, and occasionally they will make a simple error in software that can lead to potentially disastrous situations. The same errors that are unintentionally put in software can manifest themselves in the hardware and manufacturing of robotic components. This leads to the question: What will be the solution when one of these programming or hardware glitches causes a problem? There are many legal and ethical decisions to make with regards to this question. Suppose that a person with a robotic leg is walking along the sidewalk. Some glitch in the legs processing forces the person to fall off the sidewalk and be hit by an oncoming car. Who is responsible for the accident? Would the company that manufactured the prosthetic leg take responsibility? Or would they blame the company who designs the microprocessors or writes the code to control the leg? Would it even be ethical for a company to sell a prosthetic leg if there were a chance of someone loosing their life in a situation like this? What kind of tolerances will a future company have for flaws in their robots and robotic products?
Another situation involves the use of a robot as a weapon. If a human controlled robot kills a person, what actions can be taken to track that criminal down? Will robots require licensing like pets, or will they require permits like handguns? What kinds of restrictions will be put on the everyday use of robots? As advances in artificial intelligence are made, and robots can assume more thought oriented tasks, what restrictions will be put on them? The future police force may have a special unit specifically devoted to solving robot crimes, and depending on the level of technology, this special unit might even contain several robots. Robots with artificial intelligence will be a separate subject altogether. The same questions as above will need answers, such as what will happen to an intelligent robot that kills a person or commits some other crime?
A more subtle consequence of a robotic future would be the continuation and growth of a problem that is present in our current society. The people with money, knowledge, and power are members of a technological elite elevated above the common citizen. Will the elite of the future be the only ones with access to the newest robotic technology? Will everyone with a disabled leg have access to the same level of technology, or only those in power? Only now are the Internet and the majority of computing technology becoming available to the less privileged members of society through discounted prices and specialty computers. In hospitals, staff and doctors are required to treat people equally regardless of their status or financial capabilities. In the future, will robotic limbs and other treatments be available for people who need them, regardless of financial ability? Will Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance, if they still exist in the future, cover these limb and other implantations if they can save or significantly benefit a person's life? The wealthy owners of large corporations will be more than happy to have robots doing the majority of the work in their companies, but the workers whose jobs are lost to these robots will not share that happiness. How will the economy deal with the growing number of unemployed humans? This multitude of questions represents only a tiny portion of those that will require answers, and even as some questions are answered, others will manifest themselves.
Regardless of the new problems that this robotics technology can cause, I believe that the transition to a robot-human society will be exciting and beneficial to humanity. I have an optimistic view, much like Kurzweil, and feel that the majority of changes due to this technology will have positive effects on society. Criminals will always try and find ways to exploit new technology, but just as society in the past has managed to deal with these individuals, so too will the society of the future. I can only hope that the society of the future will focus more on helping all members of humanity through technology, rather than just an elite few. Another positive aspect of a robotic future is that while the proposed benefits are all concrete, the proposed consequences are mostly hypothetical. For example, it is an accepted fact that future robotics will be capable of replacing defective human limbs; the technology only needs time to develop. However, the consequences of this action, such as a malfunctioning limb, are only hypothetical. It is possible that, however improbable, not a single replaced limb will ever malfunction. Also, if robots are able to perform every duty that a human can, than no humans will ever need to work. I can only imagine a world where a person can spend their time doing whatever activity they fancy, be it snowboarding, receiving an education, or simply thinking. I believe that much of the responsibility for what direction the future takes lies in the hands of the scientists developing the technology. I have faith that the majority of those scientists are intelligent, moral, and ethical individuals who will do their best to make the correct decisions regarding the robotic technology they create.
In conclusion, robots and robotics technologies are here to stay. Regardless of how individual humans feel about the future of this technology, nothing will stop the inquisitive minds of researchers and scientists in the development of new technology. Mankind will have to deal with new advancements as they come along, and hopefully no drastic measures will need to be made in either our social structure or legal system. As shown above, robots and robotics have the potential to do both miraculous good and tremendous harm. Only time will tell how the future will unfold, and until then, humanity can only hope that the right decisions are made by a few for the benefit of all. Assuming that all goes well along the way, humanity and human interactions as we know them today will transition into a new and wonderful cyberhumanity. Robots, some containing only simple programming and others fully capable of cognitive thought, will live alongside humans in a completely new civilization and usher in a new stage of evolution.
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