quotations about robots
Unfortunately robots capable of manufacturing robots do not exist. That would be the philosopher's stone, the squaring of the circle.
ERNST JÜNGER
The Glass Bees
The questions being raised about sex robots are similar to the conversations about the link between violence in video games or pornography. However, the physicality of a robot brings such questions to a new level as the line between fantasy or reality becomes even more muddled in the subconscious. And even though we know they are machines, it doesn't take much for us to treat robots as if they are people.
KATE DARLING
"Sex robots to become a reality", Toronto Star, June 4, 2016
Imagine workers who don't pay taxes, with no IRS worries. Who don't take lunch breaks. Or who don't get paid for overtime. Or who don't ever call in sick with a common cold. No personality conflicts, either. Now, imagine a robot on the job. A seismic shift in economic alignment with international consequences? You bet.
GREGORY CLAY
"Robots are poised to reshape war and the workplace", Las Vegas Sun, June 5, 2016
Making realistic robots is going to polarize the market, if you will. You will have some people who love it and some people who will really be disturbed.
DAVID HANSON
CNN, November 23, 2006
Sex robots are already raising ethical, legal and moral questions of consent, sexism, human biases and what our desire for them says about human psychology. The debate over them highlights one of the more controversial aspects of the increasingly social nature of our interactions with robots as they move from factories into our homes and someday, our bedrooms.
SUNNY FREEMAN
"Sex robots to become a reality", Toronto Star, June 4, 2016
I always thought the key to immortality would be, like, tiny robots fixing things in your brain.
ROBIN SLOAN
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
A machine with a specific purpose has another property, one that we usually associate with living things: a wish to preserve its own existence. For a machine, this trait is not innate, nor is it something introduced by humans; it is a logical consequence of the simple fact that the machine cannot achieve its original purpose if it is dead. So if we send out a robot with the sole directive of fetching coffee, it will have a strong incentive to ensure success by disabling its own off switch or even exterminating anyone who might interfere with its mission. If we are not careful, then, we could face a kind of global chess match against very determined, superintelligent machines whose objectives conflict with our own, with the real world as the chessboard.
STUART RUSSELL
"Should We Fear Supersmart Robots?", Scientific American, June 2016
Given the complexity of most jobs that involve critical thinking, it's hard to believe that one day a robot might become a viable option in those roles. It's true, there's no current artificial intelligence that can handle making decisions on the fly. However, technology is advancing at such a rapid pace that while the executive robot of the future has yet to be invented, it's only a matter of time. It's no longer a question of if, but when.
THOMAS SHAMBLER
"Robots are coming! How to stay relevant in an automated world", Arabian Business, May 31, 2016
The interesting thing is not the robots, it's how robots reveal things about our own behaviour and psychology that we're only just learning -- including the question of whether sex robots are going to be a healthy thing or unhealthy thing for people.
KATE DARLING
"Sex robots to become a reality", Toronto Star, June 4, 2016
Sad robot world
where you ponder leisure
created for your pleasure
Sad robot world
Machinery is sighing
I thought I heard one crying
PET SHOP BOYS
"Sad Robot World"
Why give a robot an order to obey orders--why aren't the original orders enough? Why command a robot not to do harm--wouldn't it be easier never to command it to do harm in the first place? Does the universe contain a mysterious force pulling entities toward malevolence, so that a positronic brain must be programmed to withstand it?... Today's ubiquitous, networked computers have an unprecedented ability to do mischief should they ever go to the bad. But the only mayhem comes from unpredictable chaos or from human malice in the form of viruses. We no longer worry about electronic serial killers or subversive silicon cabals because we are beginning to appreciate that malevolence--like vision, motor coordination, and common sense--does not come free with computation but has to be programmed in.
STEVEN PINKER
How the Mind Works
It's robots' increasing capacity to mimic organisms physically and cognitively that has many people scared. Although most Americans may not be apocalyptic worrywarts, they have grave reservations about automation. They're more disposed toward driverless vehicles and robot caregivers, but there's a limit how much innovation they're willing to embrace.
LES HORVITZ
"Robots want to be your friend", Digital Journal, October 27, 2017
You've got to buy the robot, but then relatively little op ex. You can work them 24 hours a day. They aren't going to join a union or get sick, and they don't expect a salary.
ALEC ROSS
"The Robots of the 2020s Will Be More Like Terminator than C-3PO", Big Think, February 21, 2016
My switch clicks on,
My eyes light up,
My motor starts the rumbles.
My cogs and gears all creak and crank.
My radar turns and tumbles.
My program data bank boots up,
It tells me what to do ...
I'm WL-3-61.
Now, how can I help you?
MARK CARTHEW
"The Robot", Vroom, Vroom! Poems about Things with Wheels
I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I'm rooting for the machines.
CLAUDE SHANNON
The Mathematical Theory of Communication
Robotics is a technology that doesn't inherently have any good or bad effects to it. You could use a hammer to hit a nail, or you can use a hammer to hurt somebody.
SHYAM SUNDAR
"Penn State Researchers Find Old People Are Terrified Of Robots", Onward State, February 24, 2016
Programmed for love, she can be quite tender
See how I'm kind, nothing offends her
She vacuums the carpet and doesn't complain
She'll walk the dog in the pouring rain
WAS (NOT WAS)
"Robot Girl"
Robotics, once the almost exclusive purview of science fiction, is now approaching a point at which it will be capable of dramatic influence over humanity. These advancements are as much a lesson in caution as in the wonder of the human imagination.
NATE CHURCH
"They Took Our Jobs: The Amazing (And Potentially Terrifying) Advance of Robots", Breitbart, February 20, 2016
Right now, no regulations are in place that say how the law should treat super-intelligent synthetic entities. Who takes the blame if a robot causes an accident or is implicated in a crime? The use of a synthetic person as a "fall guy" for illicit activity isn't outside the realm of possibility, and giving a robot rights could serve to emancipate them from conventional ownership. At that point, the entity is the ultimate independent contractor, with companies able to absolve themselves of wrongdoing even if they instructed the machine to behave in the illegal way.
BRAD JONES & KRISTIN HOUSER
"The Rights of Synthetic Lifeforms is the Next Great Civil Rights Controversy", Futurism, October 26, 2017
Humans were still not only the cheapest robots around, but also, for many tasks, the only robots that could do the job. They were self-reproducing robots too. They showed up and worked generation after generation; give them 3000 calories a day and a few amenities, a little time off, and a strong jolt of fear, and you could work them at almost anything. Give them some ameliorative drugs and you had a working class, reified and coglike.
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON
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