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The reading for this week titled, The Rise of the Robots, by Martin Ford, discussed the expansion of robotics across the globe in all aspects of industrialization. Ford begins the chapter by describing a scenario of a human worker and a machine moving boxes. The human worker understands that one must remove boxes from the top first so the pile doesn’t collapse. On the other hand, the machine takes time to perceive the situation then moves the boxes. Ford states that overtime as machines become more advanced, they will be able to move a box a second while a human moves a box every six seconds. “Robots can work continuously, will never get tired or suffer back injury, and will never file worker’s compensation claims.” The article goes on to give examples of robots taking over all tasks at work. For example, at the Tesla production headquarters in Fremont, California, the same robot is able to install seats, retool itself, apply adhesive, and then drop the windshield in place. The International Federation of Robotics stated that global shipments of industrial robots increased by more than 60 percent between 2000-2012. However, the fastest growing market of robotics is in China. Robot installations grew at about 25 percent per year. Ford goes on to explain that we are currently in an, ‘explosive wave of innovation,’ meaning that humans will eventually manufacture robots that can complete tasks in any commercial, industrial and consumer area. Scientists at Stanford University developed a Robot Operating System (ROS) that is used as the platform for robotics development. This software can be modified in any which way allowing it to be applied to any robotic body. In terms of the U.S. manufacturing industry, robots have been eliminating  various jobs of human workers. As these robots become more capable of completing tasks, factories will approach becoming fully automation. Martin Ford concludes his passage by stating that as robotics are used across the country, they will threaten lower wage jobs that require modest training. Some assume the U.S. will be able to absorb all these free workers and create high-skilled, higher-wage jobs for them. Ford believes this may be false in the end.

After discussing The Caves of Steel in class, I constantly recognized the theme of racism that is both present in the story and has been present in our overall class discussion. This racial attitude is displayed both towards robots and towards women. Jessie is portrayed in the story as a delirious, hysterical figure. She makes irrational decisions and is depicted as somewhat dependent on Elijah. In addition, Elijah treats her as an inferior being, often speaking to her bluntly and disregarding her opinions all together. When she comes into the police office crying hysterically, Jessie is depicted as somewhat unstable and unable to make rational decision. Asimov points out flaws in the society he is currently writing in, where women are treated as inferior and deemed dependent on a male to rise in society. In some societies and even in the United States, this unfair attitude towards women is still prevalent, having influence on wage gaps and employment opportunities. Regarding racism towards robots present in Asimov’s novel, the Medievalists represent many of the hate groups present in society. In Spacetown, robots are treated as second class citizens and used as slave labor. And while Daneel looks almost exactly like Dr. Sarton, he still is used as his servant and follows his order directly in accordance with the Three Laws of Robotics. When Daneel arrives on Earth, he immediately senses and feels disdain from many of the commoners on Earth, causing Jessie to stay with her mother while Daneel and Elijah stay in an apartment. Constantly throughout the story, we see certain groups acting superior to others, whether it be men and women or humans and robots. This theme has characterized many of the readings this semester; Andrew in The Bicentennial Man felt the same resistance towards his quest for equal rights and human hood. While he was more innovate and could create more advance technology, Andrew wasn’t able to become a true member of society until he agreed to die. In my interpretation, granting Andrew citizenship on his 200^th birthday—which is also the day of his death—is merely a way for humans to remain on top of the food chain. Andrew may have been considered the only “human” robot, but now that he has died, the humans can go back to their normal manner of society, using robots for their own personal good and needs. Andrew’s actions may have been a win in the quest for robot citizenship, but a paradigm shift didn’t probably wouldn’t occur in that society to alter the treatment of robots. In the United States, it took years to end slavery, and we still haven’t ended racism in our society. I’m eager to keep reading and find examples of racism in future novels in the course and to witness the literary change in writing as society becomes more progressive.

Honestly, I hate ethics. There is always more than one answer, one never really better than the other. Considering the trolley example, most would say to switch tracks an let the one die instead of the five. Almost everyone would change their mind if the one was someone they loved. In ethics, there is no non-biased answer either. If you chose to kill the one instead of the many, it’s because it’s easier for you to defend and cope with, less blood on your hands as it were. The decision isn’t made using any of the ethical principles we talked about. In situations like that there isn’t enough time.

This is were the debate for robots comes in. If we were able to create artificial intelligence that doesn’t mean we have created the solution for ethical and moral dilemma’s. There are too many theories to sift through in order to make a decision and we don’t know which method, if any, is the best.

Another thing is that we are not ready for artificial intelligence that takes a humanoid form. We have enough trouble dealing with the differences in our our species, do we really think we can handle the complications that a new being creates. Right off the bat people would be fighting over the subservient behavior some would want rather than give them rights. We will never create a robot with a human like capacity. There is no way to program grief, happiness or sadness only responses that may resemble such emotions and reactions. The human race would not be able to cope with another fairly sentient life form that could preform task and out live us without major fighting first.

This week discussed deeper understandings of Asimov’s “The Caves of Steel”. We dug deeper into the understanding of how some societies interpret the use of robots and their role in society.

“The Caves of Steel” was very interesting in the way it approached the space age. The way that AI were involved in society was very “inventive”. The Outer Worlds was not something that I really was expecting to hold such importance. The story was definitely interesting but the world and backdrop was more interesting to me due to the implications of how the world progressed and expanded. The juxtaposition of femininity and masculinity we discussed in class was very obvious after it was brought up on Tuesday. So when I read the remainder of the book there was a very obvious connection between those themes. Especially due to the lack of females in the outer worlds, even when those areas are more “feminine”.

The discussion in class on Thursday was also very interesting, we worked into the ideas of progression and how our world has progressed and will continue to progress. My group focused alot on the rise of late stage capitalism and the continuing change in the economy. We discussed the next stage of the world stage in the form of centralized government and economics. It was a very interesting discussion that tied really well with our discussion of ethics.

While discussing whether our society is ready for the introduction of robots or not, it was very interesting to note the different view points people brought in class. When asked the question, I could not help but think that in some sort of way people seem ready for it because of our “obsession” with advancement in technologies. We always are wanting more of the new thing to out compete other economies, thus if the introduction of robots is the new thing in the market I think people wouldn’t necessarily be scared but curious about it. But in the other hand, it is true what we discussed in class. Our society has so many issues that introducing this new race wouldn’t be beneficial. If we do have robots, how do we classify them? Do we give them gender? Are the equal or inferior to humans? Do we allow them to integrate in our society? Do we make it accessible to everyone? These are some of the questions that I think the answers will be hard to find until our society solve these same issues that exists among humans. It will be particularly hard coming up with laws and rules that would no longer address the rights of humans and how they should behave, but would have to now relate to robots as well.  Isaac Asimov show us what a world with robots could look like and, likewise the human-robot interaction that exists in this universe, I feel like that would be the same thing we observe in earth with the first introduction of robots. People feel safe in their comfort zone thus the application of robots would do nothing but disturb this. I agree with what we said in class; with the advancements in technology, the introduction of robots ultimately will happen but people will just need time in order to get used to this change.