Technology and robotics - philosophical questions

Unlocking the secrets of robotics has been the goal of many scientists for decades. Ordinary people are also fascinated by robots. Many of us are now acquainted with Roomba, our new household friend. There is even a Roomba Community featuring "Roomba news and updates."

Fact and fiction have raised important questions about what part robots will play in our lives now and in the future. Lt. Commander Data, an android, is one of my favorite characters on "Star Trek: The Next Generation". In 2003 "Hal 9000," from 2001: A Space Odyssey, was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame. Quoting from the story,

HAL is capable of speech recognition, natural language understanding, lip reading, and thinking well enough to beat humans at chess. Along with all these capabilities comes the capacity for malevolence. HAL kills its astronaut crew. The audience is left wondering whether HAL is right, wrong, evil, or mad. An astronaut decides to shut down HAL 9000's higher cognitive functions, an experience equivalent to death for HAL. HAL's central core is depicted as a room full of brightly lit computer modules mounted in arrays from which they can be inserted or removed. As the astronaut removes the modules, HAL's intelligence degrades.
HAL has had a lasting effect not only on fiction, but also on the real world. It has inspired astronauts, scientists and philosophers. Scientists ask how its capabilities can be duplicated and philosophers have asked whether HAL was responsible for the murders of the astronauts. All of us ask whether we want to create intelligent machines that may someday endanger us.

The current Discovery space shuttle mission has demonstrated that robotics is essential to the furtherance of science and learning. The robotic arms have proven to be indispensable to the work of both the shuttle and space station crews. The robots serve as camera mounts, space walker mounts, trollies, eyes and cranes. USA Today carried this fascinating article on July 10 focused on the current robotic arm work in space, from which I quote,

The arm work during Discovery's mission is "as complex a robotic ... ballet as we've ever done in history," says Chris Hadfield, chief of robotics for the astronaut office. "And they only get more complicated over the next four years."
Space station construction calls for large amounts of difficult arm work, Hadfield says. Soon the station will gain two more robot arms and a sensitive robot hand for the current station arm, placing even greater demands on the astronauts that will operate them.
Even now arm drivers have to contend with monotony, bad visibility and the knowledge that if they mistakenly slam the arm into the shuttle or station, their lives and those of their crewmates are at risk.
Hadfield says there aren't too many things in space that could move and kill the crew while in orbit. "The arm is one of those structures," he says. "If you pop a little hole (in a spacecraft), everybody's dead."

Like our own human arms, the Canadarm robotic arm is multipurpose and vulnerable to injury. With parts named shoulder, elbow and wrist, Discovery's arm underwent an ultrasound exam after a mishap earlier this year, for example, according to Spaceflightnow. However, scientists departed from the human anatomy with the last part of the arm, which they named the "end effector." We call our appendages hands or fingers. But it is very easy to blur the lines between humans and robots, and that is where philosophy must come in.

Philosophical questions - Kevin Kelly's The Technium of March 14, 2006 asked the question, "Will Spiritual Robots Replace Humanity by 2010?" To quote KK about robots:

I chose to answer the question by examining each word in the question . . .
Robots: In general, I like Hans Moravec’s formulation that these are our children. How does one raise children? You train them for the inevitable letting go. If our children never left our control, we’d not only be disappointed, but we’d be cruel. To be innovative, imaginative, creative, and free, the child needs to be out of control of its maker. So it will be with our mind’s children, the robots. Is there a parent with a teenager who is not concerned, who does not have a bit of worry? It took us a long time to realize that the power of a technology is proportional to its inherent out-of-controlness, its inherent ability to surprise and be generative. In fact, unless we can worry about a technology, it is not revolutionary enough. Powerful technology demands responsibility. With the generative power of robots, we need heavy duty responsibility. We should be aiming to train our robotic children to be good citizens. That means instilling in them values so they can make responsible decisions when we let them go.

Space.com explores this same question in an article entitled, "Man vs. Machine: Are Robots Getting the Upper Hand in Space Exploration?" by Tariq Malik. To quote,

Astro-helpers and Robonauts
In the future, Robby-like robots may accompany planet-hopping astronauts to Mars or places elsewhere, serving as assistants for base construction and other tasks.
"You could even send robots as a precursor to set up habitation and science bases before humans even get there," Schenker said. "Once astronauts get there, the robots can be used as assistants."
Schenker estimates that these robotic taskmasters won't be available until 2025 or so, although NASA has already made some headway with its Robonaut automaton for the International Space Station (ISS). Last month, astronaut Nancy Currie successfully assembled a metal truss with the help of two Robonauts, dexterous robots that could participate in future space station construction.
"Robonauts are highly specialized in terms of their intelligence capability," Tunstel said. "They are meant to solve specific problems in tool manipulation."
I, Robot . . .
The expectation of robot servants around the house, though, is farther off, since there are still hurdles to overcome in the fields of autonomy and artificial intelligence. Some robot experts also think the creation of a robot servant class may be a bit misguided in the first place.
"The one thing that worries me is the creation of another slave race for humans," said Arkin, adding that there are ethical use issues should be addressed before pressing intelligent robots into servitude. "So I would rather see robots be partners and peers to humans as opposed to servants and slaves."
Tunstel said those ethical issues are just beginning to come under NASA study, where researchers are trying to decide how much intelligence and independence their space robots should have. The difficulty lies in learning how to quantify exactly what robotic systems are capable of and establishing standards that would allow comparison across different platforms, such as comparing the intelligence of NASA machine against one from Georgia Tech or Europe.
"But it will be advancements in artificial intelligence that is truly going to make us jump to the next generation of robots," Tunstel added.

As long as we remember to ask the questions, we remain safe as flesh and blood exploratory beings on an adventure. Like those on the starship Enterprise, we need not be afraid to "go where none has gone before."
Tags: commentary science and technology space shuttle robotics NASA philosophy optimism Star Trek

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