The truth is no stranger than fiction when it comes to robots https://theconversation.com/the-truth-is-no-stranger-than-fiction-when-...

Academic rigour, journalistic flair

The truth is no stranger than fiction when it comes to robots

August 20, 2013 2.10pm BST

Author

Kathleen Richardson
Research Associate Department of
Anthropology, UCL

Killer robots, a problem as old as voodoo. x-ray delta one

Robots represent the cutting edge in science. For decades we have been promised a bright future in
which these human-like machines will become so advanced that we won’t be able to tell the difference
between them and us. But are technologists really dabbling in the unknown in their work or merely
ripping a page out of their favourite sci-fi novel?

Robots existed in fiction long before science made them a reality. In the 1920s, Czech playwright
Karel Čapek wanted to create a character that could reflect the dehumanisation of society, the
obsession with production and the jubilant celebration of technological progress that often resulted in
the horror of the battlefields.

Having already experimented with using different non-

human characters like newts and salamanders to reflect on
human life and existence, Čapek made “the Robot” a central
character in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots).
The Robot was a particular kind of “other” who looked and

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acted like a human being but lacked something unique -

feelings. It was not the product of a mother and father but of
Rossum’s Universal Robots. fortinbras a production line. For Čapek, it seems, the robot is an
inherently political character, a revolutionary even.

But even this was not the first time that artificial beings had been used by creative writers. The
cultural narrative of creation goes back to a time when humans first began to craft objects from
material things. Some of these objects were shaped to look like humans. Take the Venus figurines that
date back at least 35,000 years, or dolls, which have long been more than just innocent playthings for
children in some cultures. Dolls can be magical talismans and, for some, the miniature representation
of the human form was a useful way to control the human adult it was supposed to represent. The
particular ways in which humans are represented is culturally specific but the desire to represent is,
and always has been, universal.

So what is the modern technology of robotics doing that is so different from all these fictional
exercises in imitating the human form? The roboticists and technologists of today would have you
believe that their work is grounded in scientific reality when they seek the next big breakthrough in
artificial intelligence. Cyberneticians and futurologists make claims as if the issues they address were
never before considered in human society. But they are in fact more swept up in fantasy than ever
before.

All attempts to represent the human form tap into a timeless motivation to know who we are: the
mystery of life, reproduction, childhood and attachments to other humans, animals and nature.

What is exciting about AI and technology is that these provide new ways of representing the human
form. But the debate about what that means is so confused and ridiculous at times it can leave
futurologists lost in their own fantasies. In the 1960s, Marvin Minsky was so optimistic about the new
field of AI, he believed that, by the end of the 20th century, machines will outsmart human beings.
This is, in part, what inspired Arthur C. Clarke when he speculated about the future of intelligence in
2001: A Space Odyssey.

Ray Kurzweil is another case in point. In books such as The Singularity is Near: When Humans
Transcend Biology, Kurzweil is forever predicting that we will merge with machines and be able to
upload our “complete” consciousness into machines. This idea is emerging as the next big challenge in
robotics but it could equally be viewed as a basic feature of human cultural existence.

I’m “uploading” my consciousness right now into this article. A visual artist, when she paints is also
“uploading” her consciousness. Consciousness is just another way of saying psychic life - the life and
impulses of the individual as a member of a family and collective. Arguably, any human being that has
ever created anything has transferred aspects of their consciousness to artificial materials.

The fiction is now being created by the scientists. AI roboticists are given a free reign to project any
fantasy they like about their technology and how it will irrevocably change what it means to be

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human. We have been asking the same question since the beginning of time in different ways. The
only difference now is that those building the robots and AI systems believe their work is unique
rather than part of an ongoing process and also stand to acquire a lot of money in the process.

Artificial intelligence Robotics Science fiction Robots

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