Be you Friend or Robot??

Welcome back, and the break has been a long one but here we are again.

After reading a few things on BBC news online, plus some existing general opinions, I'd thought I'd discuss the future.

The article I read which got me thinking was one concerning the possible rights that robots could inherit when they become sophisticated enough. Many fiction writers have predicted the collpase of human life as we know it, through a robotic force that will become so deeply embedded into our societies, and then rebel against their creators and cause our demise.

In my final year, I actually did a module on Mobile Robotics. Alas, it was all thereotical, we didn't actually get to build one ourselves. Anyways, the introductory lecture, like a lot of them, discussed topics of the emergence of robots etc. One particular footnote to the lecture, not at all to do with the course, was the origin of the word "robot". Apparently, it comes from a Czech word meaning slave, if I remember rightly (I cba to dig out my notes, just to make this entry slightly more correct). The word featured in a play from the 1920s (you know what, maybe the guy that wrote it was Czech instead?!?), and the story went along the lines of these faithful slaves eventually rebelling against their masters and destorying mankind.

Now that storyline seems pretty common amongst fiction nowadays. A few examples come easily to mind, those of the Terminator and Matrix films, which have a post-apocalyptic future where mankind is the verge of survival in a war against robots.

Bearing this in mind, is anyone else slightly worried about where the future will lead us? It could be neive, or perhaps even terribly wise to say that nothing is impossible, and that it is just a matter of time before we achieve what is considered the unthinkable today. Technology is already rife in today's world, and well probably not in my lifetime (although computers came from their first roots to what they are today in my grandparent's lifetimes) but one day it could be very feasable to have robots of some kind helping us in the jobs we do today.
There are many things, we as a race have achieved. Copying nature to make flight possible, prosthetic limbs, open heart surgery, beating diseases etc are all great achievements, and the sky is really the limit.
It would be foolish to say that robots will not be a reality, and probably quicker than we may expect. It is well known that Japan are technology nuts, and a number of companies are investing astronomical budgets to developing robots.

Following in another piece of Science Fiction that I am a big fan of is the Stargate series, and the development of the new galactic enemy, the replicators. A race of techo-bugs (that may be an O'Neill quote actually, wouldn't be that suprising, lol) that are hell bent on increasing their numbers. Now this is pure science fiction, machines composed of tiny "blocks" which can be used to form anything and possessing a shared consciousness through subspace. But stepping back into reality, again an article I read on BBC news online had revealed progress made in nanotechnology. Researchers had successfully created a type of worm/snake robot, made of blocks, which was programmed to recreate itself. Mmm, worrying stuff. And it can only get worse really.

I am being a little "doomsday-ish" in the tone on how robots will be our demise, predicted numerous times in science fiction, but perhaps it's worth mentioning the positives to the improvements gained from sophisticated robots. Robots will undoutably make our lives easier, assisting in both our professional and personal lives no doubt. To go back to scaremonging, they could eventually replace the need for us to work, or at least reducing the number of employed people - most probably becoming technicians to maintain the new army of robots. Back to the predictions in science fiction for one moment, one of the most famous is the use of geostationary satellites being placed into orbit to be used for communication purposes. If I was properly researching this, then I would mention the piece of fiction that the idea was born in.

The human brain is considered the most complex thing in the natural world, and surely it will only be a matter of time before it will be emulated, and then surely, free will artificially created in robots will be inevitable, and then we are probably boned. Although, if we reach a point of technical ingenuity where we can successfully emulate a brain, then hopefully they will be able to weild some kind of control over these robots, but this is all speculation, and pretty hollow speculation at that. Saying this, whatever happens in the future concerning the development of robots, the level reached where free will is possible will probably not occur in my lifetime. The wonderment is will I be completely dumbstruck as a lot of the older generation are today, technology wise, or is it truly a unique time, where this is such a technology gap between generations. Will my children be trying to explain to me how to use a new bit of technology, or explain a new socialising medium - we'll see...

Here's looking slightly afraid at the future.
J-Man.