Critical Thinking Post #5 - The Promise and Peril of Robots in Film, TV and Real Life: Friends or Foes?

        For this blog assignment, the first video I chose to write about was “The Touch Bionics i-Limb Hand. REMARKABLE!.” This video is interesting, because it shows both the benefits and flaws of robots. It shows that the robot is being used for good, however there are some things it is incapable of doing (ie. moving the hand to the mouth; when attempted, it wiggles around trying to bring a drink to the mouth). It is a beneficial technology, overall. It is a good way to look forward to robotics in our future, because they can help people with missing limbs possess them once again, and in the near future these limbs will be perfected to work as regularly as the real thing. However, the fact that the robot doesn't have the capability to listen to per for certain commands worries me. When you look at a robot that may be massed produced, you don't want to see that they are disobedient and this may bring out fear in some people. 

        Another clip shows more direct disobedience by a robot named HAL. The clip, named “Hal wont Open the Pod Bay Door,” is about a robot who does not listen to, and actually goes against, what man is telling the robot to do. In doing this, he shows not only that he is capable of being disobedient, but that he is against the intentions of the humans. It is import ant to note that this is fiction, however possible it does seem. This film shows us the possibility of betrayal by robots, with many films on its side. However, unlike the arm-bot, HAL is artificial intelligence. There is a difference between the two, because HAL has the capability to think for itself, whereas the arm does not. 

        Looking at these two clips has made me realize that while some people may still fear robots, we are growing more towards a future involving such technology. Most people are used to having a ‘robot' in their pockets nowadays (think Siri, Galaxy on Androids). We are rapidly looking towards a future with robots because they are useful to us. Perhaps we don’t fully understand the technology well enough to risk our lives in being hopeful in technology. With this view, though, we can only be sure of one thing: Humans and robots will coexist. The only question is which will be the master of which.