Robots : Our Future Or Our End

[amit nigam 0]

Though right now only industrial robots are used except a very nominal percentage of population who have robotic pets etc. , it will take just about 20 or so odd years before they will become part of our daily lives.

 

The one thing that comes to the mind as soon as hearing the word robot is that , how safe will they be. Thanx to the sci-fi flicks of hollywood most of us have created a negative image about robots.

 

I m a very great fan of science and i dont like it when people speak in negative sense about science. But in this field i have a different opinion. As i m also doing computer engineering therefore i know that how often bugs in small codes can make them function in a dangerous manner. Therefore to make the enormous coding required in making an intelligent robot foolproof is i think next to impossible.

 

Also the other thing that can be dangerous to humans is the greed of humans themselves. In these competing world, it will not take much time before a company in its race to become the best, crosses the danger line, whether unknowingly or knowingly.

 

This seems like a topic which does not need any attention right now but i think this topic needs to be discussed right now before the companies and the stakes related to this become so high that the governments of the world will not be able to handle.

[PmH 0]

Don't get lost in recent Hollywood science fiction. I'm sure whatever robot we create will be thoroughly tested so that if there is something wrong we can fix it.I can almost gaurantee that we will not create robots with a "soul" like in the movie IRobot... which I may add was a horrible movie.

[agentblade 0]

Though the benefits of robots are numerous.. and it seems unlikely that robots will take over the world like in iRobot.. it doesn't mean that the dangers of over-reliance on robots is not there..Robots, like any human made stuff has the tendency to break down and malfunction.. If we over-rely on them, if they do break down it might pose a danger to us or cripple us in a way too.. If you think its not possible think about the computer. We're so reliant on a computer that the moment is breaks down we have no way of doing our work. It's like some part of us died, cannot check email, cannot go online, etc.. Also people are trying to humanize robots, so they can act as teachers or maids.. That's dangerous, the reason why humans are the best teachers is because we have soul and moral standards.. Teaching and looking after the young is about building relationships, robots cannot build real relationships even if they can its so weird and unnatural.. imaging a child falling in love with a tin-can..

[Blue Lightning 0]

Well when robots gain the benifit of artifial intellegence I think that we would easily be able to rid ourselves of aggressive robots. But the chance of robots ever trying to kill is is super unlikely since were not that supid. Well hopefully.

[FLaKes 0]

If they would ever be created to harm humans, it would be just like the nukes. By that time inteligence would be so superior that it would almost be impossible to do something illegal without being noticed. I bet the whole world would go to war with someone threatening with these types of weapons, and if there are some national defense or police robots or something, if they get infected with a virus or something making them act a different way, the creators would have obviously see this coming and they should already have something worked out.

[Artem ZHI 0]

I think, that robots may be very dangerous, if it have agressive programm. The peoples dangerous, signifies dangerously and that they do. Each new day robots become more complex, but I do not think that this can be as person

[rvalkass 5]

Simple robots like the robot dogs and things like that are very unlikely to do humans any harm, but no doubt that at some point a robot will end up being incredibly dangerous to people, whether that be unintentionally or intentionally.For example, there have been programs on TV that show robotic guns and military hardware. It would only be a matter of time before some of that hardware fell into the wrong hands and we could have a major Worldwide problem.Developing "intelligent" robots could also have bad side effects, especially if they learn as they go along. Intelligence can be a very dangerous thing and I'm sure that you would get people who would manage to either program their robots or make them learn bad things, but I don't think there would be any sort of uprising like the one in I, Robot.

[Your wrost nightmare 0]

Well in the future if the robots to join the army they could turn against us and try to kill us so there would be a big war. But there is other types of robots lik vachime cleaner and maid ones which couldn't turn against us.

[Sprnknwn 0]

Humans are aggresive to humans, so when it comes to robot programmed by humans, of course they could be dangerous for humans. We kill each other so in the future robots will surely be used to kill. Sounds scary and apocaliptic but logical. In fact probably the main use for robots will be wars. It would be ok if there were robot wars... and no humans dying but poor countries won?t be able to afford those kind of mechanical troops and there will be lots of blood within metal and circuits.

[spy_charly 0]

Yep i think the same as amit_nigam, robots are just machines and they are like things, but lately companies want to own most of the human activities with many devices....each time much more intelligent.Altought i think it will be reasonable impossible to make a robot think as a human in the next 5 years, they will for sure ask questions such as why they were created exactly for? and such as a human they won't like doing the hardest works....I personally don't think i will enjoy working for a robot and honestly i preffer they remain as they are now, just as simple pets.

[matto 0]

haha. it's been though about before. Check out this Google Author Talk, of the book "How to survive a robot uprising."
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[amhso 0]

there's always terminator...they got totally owned by robots.

[Cerebral Stasis 0]

It's impossible to anticipate every possible situation that could happen, since there are infinate possibilities. Therefore, the only way we could create an intelligent machine would be to model it after an infant, so that it slowly learns from the world and people around it simply by experience, giving it a unique personality, just like any human being (so close to being a human being, it almost seems pointless to attempt it, instead of building a duplicate of ourselves). As for malfunctions that cause fatal rebellions, how often do random computer program errors cause the computer to electricute someone, insult their messenger buddies, and email bad rumors about them over the internet on it's own? When softeware has a problem, the software performs an error and thus breaks down - it doesn't continue on in an intelligent fasion.

[wild20 0]

Hey guys. Great topic. I like it because it is thinking more into the spiritual and intelectual thinking we should all do. Let me remind everyone of something first. We have a body and soul. We think by ourselves and make whatever actions and deal with the results. We have a brain that has no "set" program. We were given a brian by God, and we use it how we choose with the results either good or bad. Robots on the other hand, can't have that,..that level thinking. No computer can do that. Everything a robot does has to have a prgram to do it. You know these "learning" robots, that will actually learn more about their surroundings? They have to have a program to do that. Even if there was a program to let them learn everything until they were capable scholars. They don't, cannot, and never will have a descernment of good and evil. They may learn so much about the world, but they can never have feelings. They are like walking, talking, mindless, dictionaries. So don't sorry guys. Of course, they could always be prgramed for evil, but taht is in the eye of the creator.

[amit nigam 0]

no, my dear friend. The idea here is that at that level of programming its not that someone will program it for evil and then it will be harmful.The point is that first we must understand the basic concept of robots. a robot is programmed in such a way that it has some kind of a , you may call, virtual brain. a robot that just goes on according to programming will not remain a robot but will be a toy.For eg. suppose that you ask a robot to through a apple to a dustbin. then it is not written in the program specifically that what he must do . he has to apply his virtual mind to decide what he has to do. If the robot will not have that features then it will be useless. machines also do programmed work but they are not called robots because of this inherent difference of , virtual mind.now the point is that upto what limits this virtual mind can go is hard to calculate even for the programmer.I m not saying that it is not possible to build safe robots, but what i m saying is there is a high risk probability involved.