Part
III: To Assist or to Replace...The Future of the Robot
The outcome of my
question, whether robots have been created to replace or help humans, depends a great deal
on how they are used. There are many potential applications for intelligent,
self-motivated machines.
In the Star Wars
Trilogy, we can see a wonderful example of the robot as a personal assistant.
R2-D2 acts at various times as a message carrier, a co-pilot, a navigator, and a
confidante. At other times he carries weapons for the heroes, picks the locks on
doors, and gathers information from computer systems for them. Don't you want one?
The three robots in Silent
Running play much the same roll. They ease the workload on the garden's
caretaker, carrying tools from place to place as well as messages. Additionally,
they perform most of the simpler chores, such as watering plants and weeding. What
gardener wouldn't want one?
Gort, from The Day
the Earth Stood Still is another good example of a robotic aide. Gort appears
to run most of the ship's systems for its master, as well as defending the ship. In
several scenes we witness Gort manipulating the ship's controls both of its own volition
(presumably because of prior instructions) and under direct orders from its master.
But robots can be used
in more ways than just supplementing humans...They can be used to replace humans in some
jobs. Returning to the Star Wars Trilogy, we can take a look at C-3PO.
C-3PO acts primarily as a translator, removing the need for a person to perform in
that respect. Programming a robot to act as a translator would be faster and cheaper
than training a human to do the same job, as it would simultaneously eliminate the time
needed for training and the cost involved. A robot's translations would also be less
suspect than a human's, since they would not be colored by personal beliefs and biases.
This could also have a downside, since his translations might be less accurate due
to missing the emotional nuances of many languages. C-3PO also acts as a go-between
for humans and other machines that can't speak in anything other than a binary language.
The Replicants from Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner were most certainly
designed to replace humans in certain roles. The story speaks of combat models,
designed specifically to be completely fearless in battle, stronger than normal humans and
more vicious. It implies the existence of "pleasure models," which
probably act in a style similar to prostitutes, but without the possibility of passing
disease or getting to old to work. The question of Deckard's humanity raises another
interesting question of robotic replacement for humans...In the field of law enforcement.
R. Daneel Olivaw, from
Isaac Asimov's Robots novels, raises a similar question. His creator states
at one point during Caves of Steel that Daneel was sent to Earth for two reasons.
Firstly, because no Spacer (a human not born on Earth) would be willing to work in
Earth's extremely crowded conditions. Secondly, because his creator was curious to
see whether or not a robot could indeed do the job of a human policeman. Daneel does
manage to successfully act in a manner consistent with human law enforcement, and to
diffuse a potentially dangerous situation without harming anyone...But would a robot ever
be versatile enough to handle EVERY situation it was confronted with?
This raises yet another
interesting question. What sort of controls would humans "need" to keep
robots from becoming dangerous?
Blade Runner
tackles
this question head-on, introducing a breed of policeman trained specifically to deal with
out-of-control robots. So does Michael Chrichton's movie Runaway. In
that movie, we also see that a specific department has been set up within the ranks of the
police to deal with runaway robots. The characters in that movie even have special
equipment to deal with robots, ranging from suits of clothing that keep robots from seeing
them by blocking the electromagnetic spectrum, to high powered laser weapons designed for
pinpoint accuracy to burn out a robot's engine without doing too much damage to the robot
itself.
Another interesting
question was raised by Isaac Asimov in The Robots of Dawn. What if a robot
spontaneously displayed telepathic abilities? In the case of a Three Laws robot, it
is suggested that telepathic ability would at first allow the robot to better serve
humans. Eventually, however, the robot would be caught in lies as it tried to save
humans from insignificant or embarrassing lies. A more sophisticated robot, such as
R. Giskard from The Robots of Dawn (who does indeed turn out to be telepathic),
might have the ability to overlook these things, and use the ability to the benefit of
those around him, though not without a great deal of deliberation. As Giskard
himself puts it to Elijah Baley:
"Sir, I do not lightly tamper with minds...I let the matter continue for a great while, during which I pondered on which action would best fulfill my First Law needs. Finally, I decided on the proper manner to correct the situation. It was not an easy decision." (Asimov, The Robots of Dawn, 1991)
In recent years, science fiction authors have found Asimov's original Three Laws of Robotics to be increasingly constrictive. To combat this, they asked for and received Asimov's permission to revise the original Three Laws, and to add a fourth. The Revised Laws of Robots are:
- A Robot may not injure a human being.
- A Robot must cooperate with human beings except where such cooperation would conflict with the First Law.
- A Robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First Law.
- A Robot may do anything it likes, except where such action would violate the First, Second or Third Laws.
By modifying the Laws of Robotics, science fiction authors have given themselves a great deal of leeway with which to allow robots to continue their evolution. Who knows where they'll go next?