Originally published January 24 2005
Robots of science fiction have not arrived yet, but ethicists are gearing up
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Humanity is still far away from creating a world that is overrun -- or served well -- by robots like those portrayed in science fiction. But some people are already busy considering the ethical questions that robot fantasies demand. Should robots eat? Should robot labor be regulated? Are robots entitled to intellectual property rights? Those are just some of the interesting, if not strange, issues that scientists and scholars are seriously discussing these days.
Should we treat bots like the rest of us?
These marvelous machines, optimists hope, will follow Moore's law, doubling in quality every 18 months, and lead to a Jetsonian utopia.
Or, as pessimists fear, humanoid bots will reproduce, increase their intelligence, and wipe out humanity.
The artificial intelligence to animate robots remains several orders of magnitude less than what's needed.
We have to master either software engineering or self-organization before our most intelligent designers can dare play in the same league as Mother Nature.
They cannot comprehend Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics to protect and obey humans before preserving themselves.
In case you missed them, today's most popular robots are ATMs and computer printers.
While our hopes for and fears of robots may be overblown, there is plenty to worry about as automation progresses.
The risk is not humanoids running amok, but that as these electronic puppets become more lifelike, they become door-to-door spambots who trick people into buying snake oil and junk bonds.
We are nearing an age in which humans and computers may be connected via direct neural interfaces, technology indistinguishable from telepathy and telekinesis.
In the output direction, humans might be trained to think in distinct ways so that sensors and software could classify thoughts into signals to control equipment.
When cars were invented, no one imagined that hundreds of millions of them would spew carbon monoxide into the atmosphere.
A telerobot is an electronic puppet controlled across a wire by a human using a PC and devices like joysticks and gloves.
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