Week 3 post

Since the creation of robots society has continually evolved. When I refer to robots though I am not talking about the ones that walk around and look like humans, those are commonly referred to as cyborgs as professor Vesna points out. The word robot, in context of our society, refers to any automated device that replaces human effort. These are the kind of robots that affected society and provoked industrialization.

One of the great creations of robots and technology was the assembly line, originally created by Gerald Ford making cars. Another one of the great creations was the computer. Both of these provoked industrialization, and society in return became more efficient. Society was now able to do more with less, for example less hours worked and more product being circulated in the economy. Charlie Chaplin made a movie called “Modern Times” which showed how the assembly line had started to make people feel as if they were robots themselves, or cogs in the machine.

Right now we are on the brink of another robotic breakthrough as cyborgs are starting to be created that show emotion. They’re still in the early stages of evolution as explained by David Hanson in TED talks, but it kind of makes you think about the future. For me I start to think of the movie iRobot and how robots began to develop their own emotion and were able to make their own decisions and turn on us. So is there ever a point in time when the progression brings about danger to our society?

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_hanson_robots_that_relate_to_you.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/rodney_brooks_on_robots.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/hod_lipson_builds_self_aware_robots.html

"Robot." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.

"Charles Chaplin." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.