Created in our image

Photo by Steve Wheeler (3D printed robots)

There is no doubt. Robots are going to feature significantly in our future. They are already overtly embedded in manufacturing and retailing (e.g. see Amazon), and also feature in other sectors of society in more discrete forms.

At the supermarket checkout, you now have a choice. Either you elect to have your goods checked out by a human or you go to a robot checkout. The queues for the human checkout can be longer, but the conversation is usually better. (How often have you found yourself annoyed with the robot checkout? Unexpected item in the bagging area!)

We now have machines that can do all the boring, repetitive and also hazardous and undesirable tasks that we can't or don't want to do. This seems to be a legitimate application of machines, whether they resemble humans or not. Ever since the idea of automated work emerged, there have been objections. From Luddites to Saboteurs (mill workers who would throw their clogs or sabots into the machinery to stop it working), right up to the modern day objections of robots stealing our jobs, most of the issues can be distilled in one word - deskilling (see for example Harry Braverman's deskilling thesis that focused largely on the march of technology and its degrading effects on human labour).

Society seems to have come to terms with this problem in recent years and there are arguments that even if robots do replace humans in certain aspects of work, there are other aspects that cannot be replaced. Another argument is that new jobs are being created to support the growing robotics industry, and this in some way balances out the problems of deskilling. The real problems emerge when we create robots in our own image. 

The word 'robot' derives from 'robota' from the Czech meaning 'forced labour'. It was coined in 1920 when it appeared in a play by the writer Karel Čapek. It is a useful description of the early concept of machines that could do the bidding of humans. However, in recent popular culture, robots have taken on a more sinister connotation, representing malevolent force in movies such as The Terminator, Ex_Machina and I, Robot. This trope can be traced back to novels such as Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and ultimately, the classical Greek myth of Prometheus. All of these stories portray creations that in some way are designed to resemble humans, but then deviate from the pathway their human creators made for them. In so doing, the creature transgresses boundaries and becomes a threat, not least because it possesses more strength and/or intelligence than its creator.

In recent years, robots have again featured in the media, with stories such as the humanoid robot Sophia, which responds to complex questions, can smile and frown, and maintains an intelligent conversation (Sophia so impressed 'her' hosts that 'she' has since been awarded citizenship of Saudi Arabia). It has also been proposed, rather controversially, that in the near future sex robots will take the place of a human partner. Such erosion of distinctly human roles and activities undoubtedly produces consternation, and as machine intelligence is advanced, we are likely to encounter robots more and more in society. Do we treat them as 'new life forms', and offer them human rewards, such as citizenship, or do we see them merely as machines that can do our bidding?  It is human nature to anthropomorphise objects and machines, affording them human characteristics so we can feel more comfortable with their presence. But does this natural propensity ultimately open us up to new pathologies and problems that have never before been encountered? What a world we are creating for ourselves and for our children....

As ever, the comments box below is open for your views on these issues.

Created in our image by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.