Politics: Can Robots Change Us?

[Spirit of Light]

Let me suggest to you that one path to more time is having robots work for us which is basically automation. That does sound scary but since I'm a computer engineer, I can suggest dangerous robots like those depicted in fiction are just that, fictitious.

By technical definition, something as simple as your coffee maker can be considered a robot. It just automates what you and I could do so we can focus on other things.

Personally i would like to still be able to do what we did before, do things my self, i dont like technology and feel uncomfortable when new things show up all the time.
Yes i do have a laptop, and i have a phone, but not a smartphone

 

[Nakosis]

That is not possible with current tech. Current tech would allow for terraforming, scouting, gathering, manufacturing and transportation. What I am asking about is if robotics become available to the average person, freeing us from manual labor and from scarcity, can it be good for us? I'm not asking whether its good for robots to go to war or if its good that cashiers are being replaced. Those things are already a done deal.

Sure, mostly tongue in cheek but I can't help thinking we are building a slave class.

If we build robots more human like, won't folks start to feel empathy for them?

While I kind of think like @Amanaki we are making humans useless and will eventually become obsolete, so what. There's no guarantee homo sapiens were going to be around forever anyway.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Sure, mostly tongue in cheek but I can't help thinking we are building a slave class.

If we build robots more human like, won't folks start to feel empathy for them?

You make an interesting observation, and I think we should not accept a situation like Asimov's fictional scenario where the robots are bound mentally by laws that make them subservient yet mentally compatible.

 

[Jumi]

It would be good, but someone would need to maintain and observe the robots. We're already at a point that if there was a will, we'd have quite a paradise on earth. Well, unlucky for us, humans rather work for their own subunits than the whole.

 

[Quintessence]

I don't disagree. Lets say we aren't necessarily making the world a better place, but we get rid of scarcity and take care of pollution. What needs to be done, next?

Hmm, I don't quite get that far. Even if I believed it was possible to eliminate either of these things - and I do not - it doesn't follow that a universe lacking scarcity or pollution is desirable. Getting rid of scarcity alone would require some pretty extreme management of human population, land use, and transit networks; managing for humans alone inevitably creates scarcity for non-human persons (and we all know I'm not a fan of the human-induced sixth mass extinction and biological impoverishment going on right now). Short of some magical, supernatural device that can create matter and energy out of literal nothingness, scarcity is not going away, ever.

Honestly, I think the human failure to accept and embrace limits - like scarcity - is a huge contributor to the kerfuffles we've gotten ourselves into. As a society, we seem to really dislike talking about limits. So much so that we can barely admit they exist at all. We instead tell stories about how Jesus will save us from damnation, or how technology will be our savior. Here and there, you'll find the alternative narratives. Stories about honoring what you have or counting your blessings. Tales of recognizing when something is good enough and stopping there. Or stories about using appropriate technology instead of energy-intensive or needlessly fancy things.

But I digress.

In any case, each path comes at cost for benefit. My role in the way things unfold is minuscule as it should be. It is usually best to mind my own immediate domain and not overreach to that which is beyond my station. Questions like the ones asked here? So very, very far beyond my station. Better for me to be the change I'd like to see and let others be the change they'd like to see. The gods'll do the rest.