The Development of the Robotic Technology and Its Impact on Our Lives

Categories: Computer Science For Progress Robotic Technology Technology

Essay, Pages 4 (883 words)

Views

149

Today, robots perform a lot of duties, for example they can do surgeries, shoot people, fly plans, drive cars, and a lot of other jobs. They may not perform some tasks as well as humans do but robots are improving rapidly. With that in mind we as a society will need to adapt to the new risks and responsibilities that seem to concern many people with the Safety and Errors, Law and Ethics, and Social Impact.

Society is in a race with itself when it comes to roboticists and computer scientists. We are trying to create something that is a perfect piece of very complex software. When it comes to technology, there are usually millions of lines of codes, which has to be written by a programmer. Within these lines of code, there could be errors and vulnerabilities that can lurk. Something as small as a flaw in a machinery, especially in a car or a robot can result in fatalities.

Another could be hacking; hacking is an associated concern because a robot is useful because of its strength and ability to access and operate in difficult environments, but it could also be turned against us. The reason there is a high risk because robots are becoming networked and more indispensable to everyday life. Already more than fifty nations have developed military robotics, and as well as the United States selling older military aerial drones to North Korea. These can raise questions in what are the tradeoffs using this kind of military power.

One question that is still unclear is the fact is who is responsible for any resulting harm if a robot makes a mistake? Product liability laws are essential, even though we continue to evolve in a direction that releases manufacturers from responsibility. It may be plausible to assign responsibility to the robots itself, considering robots are becoming more autonomous. Building robots can have major consequences for the future of robotics. 'If we do implement a way that allows us to assign responsibilities to the robots, that alone wont calm people down.

People are still going to be scared of robots even if there are some systems that are reassuring to the public. Even if we can analyze and prove the reasons for their actions, we can learn to trust them and begin to become more comfortable with them, but there will always be that thought that is pushed into the back of your head of what if they malfunction and hurt someone? What about laws? Around fifty years ago Isaac Asimov devised his three famous Laws of Robotics and later added a fourth, or zeroth law. These laws are supposed to ensure friendly robot behavior. These laws are:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

Now, is it too far-fetched when it comes to ongoing work that integrates computers and robotics with biological brains? We should be able to minimizing risk of robotic harm if we are able to program them to obey our laws or follow a code of ethics. Then again that sounds easier said than done. Laws can be too vague and context-sensitive for robots to understand.

How might society change with a robotics revolution? With previous revolutions, there have been concerns with a loss of jobs. Factories use to be filled with workers, but now there is a much faster and efficient way by using machines. What about if robots prove to be better than humans in difficult surgeries? There will be loss of jobs, but also the loss of that medical skill or knowledge. This is what we call technology dependency; it causes society to be more fragile.

In a sense you could think of it as that human labor will go the way of the horse. With a study shown, robots do not have a effect on the the hours worked by high-skilled workers. As well as no significant effect on overall employment, but robots do show evidence that they crowd out low-skill, middle-skilled workers.

So many critical systems rely on computers in which we are dependent on, for example, air-traffic control and banking. It does not have to cause harm to humans, robots could also cause harm to the environment. It is called e-waste, which are heavy metals and toxic materials in the end of a product's lifecycle. Since robots are embodied computers it would increase the pressure on rare-earth elements needed to build computing devices and energy resources needed to power them.

Even though robots can perform duties, and may possibly be better at it then we are because they are replacing us in some jobs. A good example of this would be that robots are much more precise when it comes to surgeries. With robotics improving radically it raises concerns on how to approach this topic. With this upcoming change we are forced to adapt to the new risks and responsibilities.