The robots are not so much coming; they have arrived. But instead of dominating humanity with superior logic and strength, they threaten to create an underclass of people who are left without human contact.
The rise of robots in the home, in the workplace and in warfare needs to be supervised and controlled by ethical guidelines which limit how they can be used in sensitive scenarios such as baby-sitting, caring for the elderly, and combat, a leading scientist warns today.
Sales of professional and personal service robots worldwide were estimated to have reached about 5.5 million this year – and are expected to more than double to 11.5 million by 2011 – yet there is little or no control over how these machines are used. Some help busy professionals entertain children; other machines feed and bathe the elderly and incapacitated.
Read entire story at The Independent.
Robot Care
dw- Which would be worse? Loss of human contact, or being consigned to a county home where caretakers may not be of the highest regard, or being abandoned totally with someone eventually finding your decomposed body in your home. A machine may not have human qualities, but it could have the ability to notify authorities if things become dire.