Have you seen the sci-fi film Eva? Well, the idea of an adopted robot child is not so far-fetched as they are already under development.Why commit yourself to 30 years of responsibility when you can enjoy the toddler years, again and again... but switch your child off when you want a good night's sleep?
Here are 3 videos of baby robots. You only need to see the first couple of minutes of each to get the idea.
- QRIO interacting with human toddlers watch the last part, where they hug and tuck in their new friend
- CB2 used to model child development notice that the child feels and reacts to touch as a human would
- iCub learning as a child you can see how it 'learns' to interact within its own environment
Would you have a baby robot in your home - as company or as a playmate? Will children of the future interact with computer friends?
The first thing I would like to talk about is the fact that a human being will never be the same that a computer or electronic device. It is impossible to create live, as live is created by nature but in a controlled and natural way. I think that creating robot children is okay since adopting children has turned up very difficult and expensive and lots of people will think about adopting a robot.
ReplyDeleteRobots have to be very complex and perfectly made, otherwise they will seem a toy to play with for little children, as the ones they have now but even more complex. I also disagree with the fact of being able to turn them off, because this is totally unprecedented as if it is supposed to be a human, it has to have human real characteristics.
If robot technology improves a lot, it is possible that on the future the robots will be controlling us and we will live submitted to a world governed by robots against the one we will not be able to fight against, in any way, as they will be created by us to make a better way of living and if the robot technology improves that much, robots could end up being totally perfect.
I would understand totally that families prefer to adopt a robot although just being to have something to play with and pretend to be a child, but it will never be as it is impossible. Anyway, as adopting children is very difficult it is normal that people would think about adopting robots, it should be tried and see how it goes.
The main problem in my opinion is the fact that people will end up being tired of it because they will not be able to grow, and people will not know what to do with them when they have already been too much time with them. A child can’t be thrown away, so this is a very interesting discussion.
DAVID VILALTA
I completely agree with David.
ReplyDeleteWe must always bare in mind that a robot is fundamentally a robot. Though they may be designed to act, speak, and even look like us they will never, ever be human.
Just so you get a general idea of my strong personal beliefs on robots, I am going to say something which will sound quite depressing: I'd rather be dead than live in a world where robots roam the streets.
I mean, the whole idea is freaky! Seriously, it scares me quite a bit.
Going back to the topic of having a baby robot as a playmate, I think this is totally ridiculous!
First, the robot would proablly be more expensive than actually adopting a child and second, why not give that love and care to a human being who would otherwise suffer?
Besides, why spend so much money on a computer when that money could be dedicated to helping the poor, or be invested in combating global warming?
Unfortunately, I think it is quite possible that children in the future will grow up with some sort of computer as a friend.
Devastating as it is, I'm afraid we won't be able to stop this as technology is advancing so much.
Will robots make us happier in our day to day life? I think not!
I absolutely agree with Alexia and David because having robot babies is actually a stupid idea in the way that if you want to give love to someone, why a machine? I mean, if couple can’t be able to have babies why don’t they adopt? In that case, those babies won’t be suffering and they would have someone who shows love for them.
ReplyDeleteI can’t imagine myself taking care of a robot as my baby. They could never replace a human, so I don’t understand why the people that creates those robots is so worried about making them look like humans.
Will they teach them how to have feelings? Probably, but those robots won’t understand why they are doing that.
I hope what Alexia says about “live in a world where robots roam the streets” doesn’t happen because it’s my bet that if it happens, we will have a revolution where robots will dominate the world.
Also, another thing that I guess could happen is the possibility of making your baby as you want it to be (Smart, with all the concepts they will need, polite, good looking,...) but that would lead to separation of the society in different parts.
Sincerely, I guess Technology should stay as it is, to avoid problems in the future.
Alejandra Séculi
I have similar thought to alexia, but not to such an extreme. Rather than finding scary and creepy the idea of all having robots present in our lives as if they were persons, I think it’s sad. If this becomes true, it means that we don’t have enough loving our family and friends but we need machines to supply them. It will mean that for a person another person is not a good company, and the most important thing that there is in our life are the people around us.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I don’t think that no one would really get to love a baby robot as much as a human baby, can you imagine yourself taking care of a little robot? You would have to take it to the park to play with his friends, to school… But this wouldn’t be possible, and what’s more: what would you do with your baby after 10 years when it is exactly the same as when you first had it? You couldn’t throw it away, after all it is you baby.
This is why I can’t imagine a society where people have baby robots, if this were true our species would end up extinguished and we wouldn’t exist anymore in the future.
Gemma Roig
I think its both scary and amazing how technology is outpacing us. It is our nature to fear the unknown and to fear the usurper. In our modern times we fear ourselves less and less as our own technology becomes our fear.
ReplyDeleteWe fear the fact that history may repeat itself. Meaning that the robots would be like a new race, and they would strive and eventually be better than us.
The fear of robots is similar to the fear of aliens. People are rationally afraid of what they perceive as above them. We are on the top of the ladder of intelligence. If some entity were to be a step or two above us we would react badly. And this robot does not have true intelligence. That's why they call it artificial. You can worry when it learns past the boundaries we create.
And as David said, robots will never be more than that. On they outside they may look like humans but on the inside they are just filled with technology. They can’t feel or think. And the one thing that differentiates us, humans with the rest of the animals is something we have and they don’t, intelligence. Robots don’t have it either, therefore they could never be like human beings.
We as humans think in diverse ways, in context and out of context of the problem in hand whereas the robots machines only thinks in terms of binary, Yes or No. Therefore if they face any problem out of their programmed system they would not be capable to work out the solution to the problem.
Focusing more on the baby robots, I have to to say that I don’t agree to the fact of having robots as children. A machine will never be able to replace a natural human being, we are very complex and because of that it’s almost impossible to create such a complex machine. Maybe someday we will be able to call into existence this complex machines. But I personally don’t think we will never treat them as part of our family. That would mean to have feelings for a machine, but we would not be getting the same feelings back from it, so what’s the point of caring for “someone” who will never care or love us the same way we are? Although I don’t agree to the fact of having them as our own children, I don’t reject the idea of having them as a distraction for children, think about it, some parents which only own one child and don’t want more, but don’t want them to feel lonely, can give them this robot to play with. For the child it will feel like if its another child with whom they can play with, meanwhile parents don’t have to develop any kind of feelings towards them.
But other than to do this, I don’t see any further more advantages this robots can have in our daily lives.
I think technology should focus and develop more in other areas such as health care and medical issues which are much more important.
Andrea D-V