Visions of the FutureRobots, are they created or born? I believe they are incredible creations born from the

imaginings in science fiction. They are now reality and a part of our lives, in our living rooms

doing the vacuuming such as Roomba. The robotic orange machines on wheels are now in

Amazon warehouses, stocking shelves and scanning products. Once unthinkable, they are

now reality and could surpass humans in strength and ability. Robots are indeed clever

imitators of life… but can they be trusted? Can they show mercy? Do they have a soul? Are

they capable of independent thought? I feel their ability might only limited by humans. As

the science fiction author, Christian Cantrell, stated, “It’s not technology that limits us.

We’re the limitation. Our technology is an expression of our intelligence and creativity.”

In I, Robot the main issue was that robots were creating robots, which could lead to

dehumanisation and for me, I questioned what it might mean to be a human in technology’s

future. If being a human is to feel, see, touch, hear and taste, then to be human is to have

electrical signals being sent from our body to our brain. How then are humans different

from robots who also use their electrical signals to interact and communicate? Sonny was a

robot and yet able to express the human quality of emotion through gestures and

intonation of voice. So what differentiates us from them? What do we have that they do

not? What happens when they start to surpass us? Will they help us, just like Spooner’s

mother’s personal robot, or will they harm us through control just as VICKI did in the movie?

Robots, are they to be feared or revered? Are robots able to evolve? If so, are they able to

evolve and adapt faster than us? I believe that there is potential for robotic evolution and

that now it has become a future vision. For now they are limited by our growth and

evolution speed but once they are able to evolve themselves, the fear of them dominating

us is certainly a possibility for reality.

In the present, robots most definitely contain the dreams of the future and they have the

power to turn fiction into reality. I have a dream… a dream that robots will coexists with all

human beings, reaching the unreachable and making the impossible, possible. They will be

the key that unlocks the door to a brighter and much more utopian future.

- Do they pose a threat to reality? If so why

- Greater than human intelligence

- The more powerful a robot that’s created, the more potential there is for humans

own demise.

- Is it the fear of the unknown that bothers me or is it the fear of what already exists?

When I look at the robots of today, I see two sides of the same coin. On one side they are

used to treat the ill, perform laser surgery and are part of every human beings lifestyle in

the form of cars, computers and other automated products. On the flip side, there is the

war and destruction caused by the development of robotics in the weapon’s industry such

as the creation of drones to target enemies and automated systems such as heat seeking

missiles.

Professor Noel Sharkey from the University of Sheffield is an expert at robotics. He leads the

global campaign to stop killer robots from being created due to the fact that he believes

that, “robots couldn’t determine the difference between a civilian and a combatant or

civilian property and combatants.” He also states that humans will not always control the

robots when robots kill a human, “it just says appropriate levels of judgement will always be

used, and of course appropriate levels could mean none.”

Robots have already become the greatest invention in history because robots can go into

places normal people would not ever think of such as flying into space like in NASA’s

experimental projects, or diving into a radioactive nuclear reactor such as what happened in

Fukushima, Japan’s nuclear meltdown. ASIMO, HUBO and the other robots that mimic

animals are all great examples of how they are the world’s greatest creation. They will

become what humans could never be and they will accomplish what humans could not.

They carry the potential for immortality, be it immoral or not. They are most definitely

worth the praise.

The truth is that the danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the

future is that man may become robots. If humans really did become robots, then who is left

to control them and help make them all function? Who is to blame if something went wrong

with each of these robots? Why do humans yearn to be robots? Is it because every human

being desires perfection, if so then why do we associate perfection with robots when robots

can break down, be destroyed or malfunction?

In a sense, it can be determined that as robots become more like humans, humans will start

becoming more like robots and in the end, at some point in time, maybe robots will be more

humane than humans themselves. According to the father of all robots, Isaac Asimov, “…you

just can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.” Can you? Ku ma

signing out. Message Terminated.