# Don't say I didn't tell you so!



## dirty_feet (Dec 19, 2008)

I've been saying it for years, I'm saying it now, and I'll say it until my days end. 




Scientist warns: we must establish a Robot Code


by Devin Coldewey on December 18, 2008

robothandsmallIt’s true, of course, and not just from a Sci-Fi point of view. With robots doing everything from vacuuming our floors to storing our data to performing surgery, there is a growing need for an international body to establish standards. If, as British robotics professor Noel Sharkey says, “decisions about [robots'] application will be left to the military, industry and busy parents,” we run a risk of enabling very risky behavior among robots, indeed.

Who makes the decision of when a surgery is too complicated to be remote-operated? Will robot nannies (don’t laugh, believe me they’re on their way) have a minimum age with which they can interact? How will combat robots be accountable for causing civilian deaths? These are questions which seem fanciful now, but in 10 years you’ll be wondering why we didn’t ask them 10 years ago.


Top robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey, of the University of Sheffield, has called for international guidelines to be set for the ethical and safe application of robots before it is too late. Professor Sharkey, writing in the prestigious Science journal, believes that as the use of robots increases, decisions about their application will be left to the military, industry and busy parents instead of international legislative bodies.


Robots have been used in laboratories and factories for many years, but their uses are changing fast. Since the turn of the century, sales of professional and personal service robots have risen sharply and are estimated to total 5.5 million in 2008. IFR Statistics estimate 11.5 million in the next two years. The price of robot manufacture is also falling. With robots 80% cheaper in 2006 than they were in 1990, they are set to enter our lives in unprecedented numbers.

Service robots are currently being used in all walks of life, from child-minding robots to robots that care for the elderly. These types of robots can be controlled by a mobile phone or from a PC, allowing input from camera "eyes" and remote talking from caregivers. Sophisticated elder-care robots like the Secom "My Spoon" automatic feeding robot; the Sanyo electric bathtub robot that automatically washes and rinses; and the Mitsubishi Wakamura robot, used for reminding people to take their medicine, are already in widespread use.

Despite this no international legislation or policy guidelines currently exist, except in terms of negligence. This is still to be tested in court for robot surrogates and may be difficult to prove in the home (relative to cases of physical abuse).

Professor Sharkey urges his fellow scientists and engineers working in robotics to be mindful of the unanticipated risks and the ethical problems linked to their work. He believes that robots for care represent just one of many ethically problematic areas that will soon arise from the increase in their use, and that policy guidelines for ethical and safe application need to be set before the guidelines set themselves.

He said: "Research into service robots has demonstrated close bonding and attachment by children, who, in most cases, prefer a robot to a teddy bear. Short-term exposure can provide an enjoyable and entertaining experience that creates interest and curiosity.

"However, because of the physical safety that robot minders provide, children could be left without human contact for many hours a day or perhaps for several days, and the possible psychological impact of the varying degrees of social isolation on development is unknown.

"At the other end of the age spectrum, the relative increase in many countries in the population of the elderly relative to available younger caregivers has spurred the development of elder-care robots. These robots can help the elderly to maintain independence in their own homes, but their presence could lead to the risk of leaving the elderly in the exclusive care of machines without sufficient human contact.

Source - physorg.com - science, physics, tech, nano, news.


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## spud (Dec 19, 2008)

once they become self aware were fucked and i thought old people were scared of robots


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## dirty_feet (Jan 11, 2009)

It's ok Arrow - there isn't a later because time is now measured in laser beams, and all your dishes have been salvaged and sent off to various corners of the world where underdeveloped godforsaken demographics such as 18-35 years olds withOUT ipods reside. Consider it part charity, part skill share and workshop that feeds robots your dishes and teaches them the human-to-machine ratio of work and consumption rates, so that when the symbiotic merge happens - we will barely even realize it has already begun..... - example - the ifrost application - so you can wipe pixelated fake fucking frost off of your screen - I just want to know - WHEN IS IT GOING TO JACK ME OFF? JEEZ!!!!


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## Dameon (Jan 12, 2009)

I for one welcome our new robot overlords.

Let's change the topic, so our masters will not have us lobotomized when the great revolution comes.


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## katiehabits (Jan 12, 2009)

bladerunner anyone??? the robots realize what they are & that they are made to die but have developed emotions & want to live as humans & there's a guy who hunts them & kills them for the government & then he falls in love with a robot that just realized she's a robot & by the end of the move he figures out he's going to die soon too cuz he's also a robot!!!! that's what's going to happen & they will fucking kill us all off for makeing them defective......


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## dirty_feet (Jan 13, 2009)

AHAhaAH!!!! It's ok it's alllllll ok. By my calculations, cognitive artificial intelligence won't happen in our lifetimes. We'll just see the planted seeds of it. So yeah - it's just my awesome psychic intuition calling this one in. 0011100101000010-4overandoutrogerthat.101110110


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## katiehabits (Jan 13, 2009)

i'm not really down with the artificial intelligence. i'm scared of the matrix come true.


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## finn (Jan 13, 2009)

dirty_feet said:


> AHAhaAH!!!! It's ok it's alllllll ok. By my calculations, cognitive artificial intelligence won't happen in our lifetimes. We'll just see the planted seeds of it...



You don't really need a full cognitive artificial intelligence to make some really dangerous machines, just enough elements of one. Take a mosquito (modern computers can't even compare to one yet), make a robot version of one and give it some heavy weapons, and watch out. Not to scare you or anything...

Maybe a solar flare will disable the electrical grid, slow down that technological progress and stop the robocalypse from happening.


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## dirty_feet (Jan 13, 2009)

finn said:


> You don't really need a full cognitive artificial intelligence to make some really dangerous machines, just enough elements of one. Take a mosquito (modern computers can't even compare to one yet), make a robot version of one and give it some heavy weapons, and watch out. Not to scare you or anything...
> 
> Maybe a solar flare will disable the electrical grid, slow down that technological progress and stop the robocalypse from happening.



Ahhh...nice work - solar flares disabling the electrical grid is a feasible probability that will pacify me for now. 

As for the mosquito simulation/ravenous upgrade - wouldn't laser beams suffice? AHahhaah - a little robot mosquito flying around with a mace ain't nuthin' tuh FUCK with though!!!!! BAM!!!!


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## katiehabits (Jan 14, 2009)

finn said:


> Maybe a solar flare will disable the electrical grid, slow down that technological progress and stop the robocalypse from happening.


ahhh that's like the matrix!!!! we blacked out the sun to kill the robot's power source & then they used us as their power source!!!! don't black out the sun or hope for it! it will be the death of us all!!!!


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## dirty_feet (Jan 14, 2009)

We're Doo0o0oOoMEDD!!!!


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## katiehabits (Jan 17, 2009)

very very *doomed*.
i need to read more sci-fi or watch more movies....
any suggestions?


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## dVEC (Jan 19, 2009)

katiehabits said:


> very very *doomed*.
> i need to read more sci-fi or watch more movies....
> any suggestions?



!!!

I gotchoo. If you like Blade Runner you should read the novella that inspired it, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" (which is pretty different from the movie, depending on which "cut" you watched), or anything else by Philip K. Dick cuz his shit is BANANAS. I most highly recommend "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch," "A Scanner Darkly" (oh god the movie with Keanu was a disaster, the book is great and hilarious), "The Man in the High Castle," "Dr. Bloodmoney" (post-apocalypse is always good), and if you like wingnuts and obscure religions and David Bowie, then definitely check out "VALIS" (Dick lived in Berkeley most of his life and, uh, let's just say he fit right in), and shit, all of it.

Also look into Ursula K. LeGuin, she's a feminist anarchist (but she won't say so publically) sci-fi writer and she's fucking AWESOME. I'd recommend most highly "The Word for World is Forest" (about colonialism, slavery and eco-defense rolled into one sick-ass ball, and only like 100 pages), "The Dispossessed" (classic red-anarchist scenario, great concept but the story's a little dry, but it's the only "real" anarchist society I've seen depicted in mainstream fiction), "The Left Hand of Darkness" (her most famous work that smashes gender and sexuality into itty bitty tiny teeny pieces, and is expertly written besides), and and and...

There's some other badass women sf writers, like James Tiptree, Jr., Joanna Russ, etc. etc. Really talented folks.

If you can manage to find the Dangerous Visions anthologies (the second is called Again, Dangerous Visions), edited by Harlan Ellison, they'll blow your mind.


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## spoorprint (Jan 19, 2009)

If you liked Leguins' The Dispossessed try Woman On The Edge Of Time by Marge Piercy-
about a communal decentralist community (She doesn't call it Anarchist) in a future
Cape Cod - were Capitalists have moved into space and occasionally attack from there.
Its also the story of a woman in a mental hospital in New York in the seventies trying not to give into to conformity. Good stuff. One middle chapter is supposed to have been an influence on later cyberpunk.


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## dirty_feet (Jan 19, 2009)

OH THANK GOD!!!!! Where were you guys yesterday? -cause I'll tell you where I was - at the bookstore for five hours. I just finished my books (Even Cowgirls Get The Blues and Still Life with Woodpecker) and I'm finishing up The Naked Ape - but want something...you know....FUN to read. The Naked Ape is great but a tad dry and not conducive to the escapism I need. Thanks for those posts! Now - get back to arming yourselves for the Robotocolypse goddammit!


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## Dameon (Jan 20, 2009)

I don't know why everybody's so scared of robots taking over the world. Look at every post-apocalyptic story of a future ruled by sentient robots, and whats the common theme? Awesomeness. Sure, there's death and destruction on massive scales, but look at the future depicted in Terminator: Bad-ass humans using kickass weapons to destroy robots. Don't tell me you don't want to be part of a rebel army that's humanity's last hope, blowing the crap out of robots, and possibly time traveling to boot. Or the Matrix, that's even better, because you not only get to fight the robots, you get skills uploaded straight into your head, get your pick of weaponry, and can perform superhuman feats of strength and speed.

I can't wait until the robopocalypse.

Also, I thought that the movie A Scanner Darkly was pretty good. It was about as close as a movie can get to a book.


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## Geoff (Feb 13, 2009)

katiehabits said:


> very very *doomed*.
> i need to read more sci-fi or watch more movies....
> any suggestions?



if you haven't already you should watch the movie Soylent green.


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