This week was very interesting because we continued with our discussion of ethics and applied it to topics that really forced us to think about how our society functions. We began by talking about the ethical situations brought up in The Caves of Steel. I really enjoyed this book because it challenged the idea that robots will eventually turn against mankind and try to destroy humanity. The reasoning behind this common belief is that humans feel threatened by other intelligent beings. Humans are often characterized as a species that needs to be in power and be superior. This could be seen as an internal battle because the human race is also focused on progression. This is evident in history with the Industrial Age and the Space Race.
Another parallel to America’s history is the fact that the robots are treated as slaves. Just like the robots, African Americans had to fight for their freedom to be fully accepted by other humans. We were shown a portrait of Olaudah Equiano, who was a freed slave that supported the British movement to end the slave trade. When put side to side against a portrait of George Washington, you could clearly see the similarities. The clothing, posture, and hairstyle were signs that he was trying to assimilate and be accepted by the white society. This reminded me of when Andrew in The Bicentennial Man, wanted to wear clothes like the humans. This shows a weakness in humans that make it difficult for us to be considered ethical. One of the biggest issues when talking about ethics is the issue of who should have the authority to determine what is right and what is wrong. Another tangent that this led to was the discussion of machine metaethics. I had never heard of this, but the main point is that ethics can be made computable, Innovations to make programs that enable machines to act as ethical advisors to humans. Again, I think this is not probable because there are too many factors to consider when writing the programs. Or, it would just take a very long time and be very meticulous because there are many situations that the robot would have to process. This led us to our ending conversation of whether or not we are ready to introduce robots into human society. I think that we are not ready because we have historically shown that we do not fare well with change. With gender inequality, racism, global warming, and many other pressing issues that we do not have a handle on, I don’t think we could handle another one. The integration of robots would pose a lot of tension and conflict because some people would want to treat them as slaves, while others would argue that they need rights as well because they are intelligent beings. Even though there would be good intentions to begin with, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work out. The results would be very unpredictable. Lastly, I think that having robots would make society more inclined to not work as hard because the robots would do most of the work. It would makes us feel displaces and have no purpose because we are so used to working all the time. We wouldn’t know what to do with all of our free time. The only solution to this problem I think, is time. Over time, we may accept the integration of robots and the role they would play. But, as of now, our world has too many problems to consider another one that would drastically change the way society functions.