Robots will take over!

Many technological researches and development were meant to make people’s lives easier. Car travel faster than a horse carriage, printing is more practical than hand writing and so on. But later in history of developments machines became so advanced that it replaced the human worker, and that what we can call a Robot. The word robot can be defined as “A mechanical device that is capable of performing a variety of tasks on command or according to instructions programmed in advance” Link.

The word robot was first used in a 1920 Czech play called RUR (Rossum`s Universal Robots) in which mechanical slaves rebel against their human masters. The playwright, Karel Capek, borrowed the world robot from the Slavic Robota, meaning a forced laborer.

Science fictions always raise the concern that robots or machines would take over. But in reality machines took over long time ago with our full consent! In 1962 the first industrial robot was online in General Motors automotive factory in New Jersey (Link).  That first use of robots in mass production lines meant that many people lost their post for the new comer whose multi tasks, fast and much more functioning. American author and entrepreneur Marshall Brain, wrote a paper about this subject: Robotic Nation, he talks about how ATM and self services checkout line is practical from a customer standpoint. however  he also argued that: “robotic system will eliminate jobs in massive numbers. In fact, we are about to see a seismic shift in the American workforce. As a nation, we have no way to understand or handle the level of unemployment that we will see in our economy over the next several decades” Link.

National Intelligence Council released a report titled “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World” Link. The report talks about how military and economic challenges that will face the U.S from other countries would play a huge role in the development of robots workers. Also the report talks about some benefits such as robots taking care for the elderly, and the fear that the robots eventually will disturb the unskilled labor markets.

Intelligent planes without pilot are used in Afghanistan and other areas by the U.S. Army. It is mainly small planes designed for surveillance but it can also drop bombs. The idea of military robots claimed to reduce causalities, but a Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Noel Sharkey warns that “Terminator-style machines that decide how, when and who to kill are just around the corner” Link. Professor Sharkey believes that their use is likely to make conflict and war more common and lead to a major escalation in numbers of civilian deaths.

Finally, David levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher released a book called “Love and Sex with Robots” Link. Levy predicts that human will love and marry robots by 2050!