Unmanned Robots in Society

I don't think that this is a good idea. First, robots would be created to perform the jobs of individuals. Second, this decrease in the number of jobs would lead to a gradual decline in the economy. Third, once most things are automated, there would be no reason for humans to exist at all, except for the human who were left to design the robots. But, this too could become a problem. Once we create robots, who's not to say that the robots could somehow find a way to reproduce, evolve, and take over the small population of humans left on the planet. The only reason I see to have robots is to fill new niches in technology where human labor did not exist before and to control the abilities of the new robots. They should only be used for specialized labor tasks.

I know this sounds like a doomsday scenario, but hey, I think anything is possible.

unmanned robots pt.2

Katies asked:

How is that (being nervous of putting our lives in the hands of a robot) different from putting our lives in the hands of another human, say, a pilot of a plane or the engineer of a train, or (scarriest to me) the driver of a bus? Wouldn't it make sense that if used in the comercial field, unmanned vehicles would mean fewer human-error accidents?

I think that a licensed pilot or train engineer could definately benefit from advancements in technology, but to consider replacing them with technology seems farfetched. As far as I know, robotics is no where near able to create a free thinking robot, which is the only thing other than a human I would trust flying my airplane. Of course a robot can make less mistakes and be more efficient than a human in some aspects of life, however my life is something I would prefer to put in the hands of someone who has spent years learning how to ensure it's safety.

unmanned robots

Going back to the unmanned robot post, I had a couple questions I wanted to answer...

Andy asked:

aren't robots always unmanned, by definition, and haven't we therefore had unmanned robots for years? Do you mean that the prospect of unmanned automobiles unnerves you, rather than unmanned robots per se?

First of all, yes, it is more unmanned automobiles than anything else that unnerves me. I would have trouble putting my life in the "hands" of unmanned automobiles because I think there are too many judgement calls it could not make. Just as an example, imagine if unmanned cars were programmed to not swerve if a small animal like a fox happened to jump out into the road where the speed limit is high. Now imagine again if instead it was a small toddler who had found his way onto a road (maybe his house was along the road), and the car acted upon what it had been programmed to do and simply treated it as it would any other creature on the road. Although this is a very specific example of what could go wrong with these vehicles, I believe there could be too many ways for a driverless car to screw up.

Urban sprawl redux

In the Arizona desert stands Acosanti, an incomplete ecological city that is being looked at by some as a model for making cities cleaner and reducing the standard of living depreciating effects of urban sprawl through self-suffiency, pedestrian travel and clean energy.

This is of interest to China, who is already in the process of building their first "eco-city" to accommodate their rapidly expanding populace.

As the human population swelters and we run out of livable real estate on Earth, it's an interesting and possibly necessary concept for cities to be mapped out and their resources managed instead of the philosophy of almost unchecked expansion and consumption many larger cities seem to live by now.

It's not like we're moving off this planet anytime soon.