To start out the week, we watched a very intriguing episode of “Humans” that left me wanting more. “Humans” is set in a world where humans have introduced anthropomorphic robots called “synths” that are used as servants. It examines how socially, culturally, and psychologically transforming the effects of being dependent on the synths are. The idea of integrating the synths into society is being heavily pushed and is becoming normalized. As a consequence of Asimov’s three laws, the robot slaves are being used to do our bidding. In the first episode, we follow a family where the mother is not home a lot because of work, an elderly man whose wife has passed away, and a scientist that has implemented consciousness somehow into four synth robots and is being hunted for that reason. In the family, the robot synth is brought into the family dynamic by the father because he cannot manage the household chores without the mother. The mother is horrified by his decision because she believes that they are unnecessary and teach her children to feel like they are entitled to feeling lazy. She is very wary to their robot servant and is uncomfortable with its presence and how it interacts with her children. The robot-human relationship is shown in another light when the elderly man is due for a new model of a synth, but he refuses to let go of his because of the relationship he has created. He treats him as if he were his son and it also seems like he is holding onto the synth because of all the memories it has stored of his wife that has passed away. The synth represents a part of his wife and he desperately wants to hang on to those memories. Lastly, the scientist and the few robots that he successfully made conscious are in hiding because their true identities render them dangers to society. This iterates the fact that humans fear being the inferior species. This is why the synth robot company is taking violent action to capture the conscious robots and make sure that they function like any other robot in society. With their human-characteristics plus consciousness, the robots have the ability to assimilate into society. Just like in Asimov’s short story “The Bicentennial Man”, society is hesitant to accept these robots and fear the possibilities of what they would be capable of.
This brings us back to the question of whether we can create a robot as a free moral agent. In this parallel universe portrayed in “Humans”, it seems like society is straying away from giving robots freedom and rights. We are simply treating them as slaves and using them as a means to an end in order to complete the tasks that we do not want to do. They are used to make humans’ lives easier and less stressful. If we are to integrate the synths into our lives to the point where we are incredibly dependent on them and we feel as if there is no point in applying ourselves because a robot can be programmed to do that job, then we have to have a lot of trust in them. To be a big part of our lives, we give them our trust to make the right decisions. This could be scary because they are programmed to make certain decisions, but instinctive humanistic values could alter which situation is best. It is hard to match human decisions because we can be very irrational and inconsistent.