INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

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Topic 7: WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS

A number of technological devices can be easily found inside the home, the
most accessible place to anyone. Because of that, it can also be easily inferred that
these technological devices are some of the most popular and most commonly
used types of devices across all age groups. People all over the world used these
technologies every day to accomplish different purposes.

As was discussed in the previous modules, historical technology included the

development and use of machines and tools. As man progressed, he was able think
of more complex things, and was able to address his increasingly complex needs to
make his life more comfortable through technology – the use of devices, software,
the Web and social media, among others. For each development in science and
technology, there were always concerns regarding the possible dangers of its use,
and the possibility of the replacement of man by the machines they created.

This module presents two technologies that raise human rights and ethical
dilemmas: mind reading and robotics. Discussed further after each technological
advancement are possible ethical issues regarding these.

In his book, Physics of the Future (2011), Dr. Michio Kaku, a professor of
theoretical physics in the City University of New York, wrote about how the lives of
people will be run by technology until the year 2100. He divided the century into
three parts: Near Future (Now to 2030), Midcentury (2030 to 2070), and the Far
Future (2070 to 2100). As a physicist, he made sure he got firsthand experience in
all the technological advancements he had mentioned in the book (he himself
underwent through the machines and interacted with the robots), he interviewed
300 scientists, thus presenting an insider’s perception on the future. All the
technologies he mentioned already existed by the time the book was published.

The technologies and ethical dilemmas presented in this module were

summarized and interpreted from his book.

Mind Reading

Japan, US and India have been using an equipment that to locate accurately
what part of the brain a thought was processed. This is the functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, which uses echoes created by radio waves to
pinpoint the location of brain signals, which then gives 3D images of the inside of
the brain.

The fMRI scan can locate the presence of oxygen in the blood’s hemoglobin, and
this flow of oxygen that was detected allows the flow of thoughts in the brain to be
traced, up to a resolution of 0.1 millimeter.
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Scientists at the Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Computational Neuroscience Laboratory

in Kyoto, Japan made use of a fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) brain scan to record where
the brain stored an image. This development would lead to taking a snapshot of a person’s memory.

The machine was used by Kendrick Kay and his colleagues at the University
of California at Berkeley. They did fMRI scans of people who looked at pictures of
food, animals, people and other common things of various colors. Using a software
program that they created, the objects have corresponding fMRI patterns. The UC
at Berkeley team observed through the software program, that the more objects
the people saw, the better these objects were identified in their fMRI scans (120
pictures, 90% identifiable, 1,000 pictures, 80% identifiable by the software
program). Kay stated that “it would soon be possible to reconstruct a picture of a
person’s visual experience from measurements of brain activity alone.”

The method used by Kay and his colleagues thus enables reading of the fMRI
patterns translate what object a person is thinking about. In the future, if thousands
of fMRI patterns can be interpreted, one may be able to know a person’s stream of
thought.

Ethics of Mind Reading

Nobel Prize recipient David Baltimore, former president of the California

Institute of Technology (Caltech) worries about the ethics of mind reading. He
stated,” Can we tap into the thoughts of others?... I don’t think that’s pure science
fiction, but it would create a hell of a world. Imagine courting a mate if your
thoughts could be read, or negotiating a contract if your thoughts could be read.”

The possibility of photographing daydreams and dreams may come true one
day, but the clarity of the pictures may not be as good. Furthermore, the methods
done by Kay and his colleagues at University of Berkeley, and Japan’s ATR (see
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picture on the previous page), requires close contact with the person, so it is
doubtful, at this time, to read someone’s mind from a distance.

Also, laws may eventually be passed to limit unauthorized mind reading, and
devices may be created to protect people’s thoughts from being read through
jamming, blocking or scrambling of the brain’s electrical signals.

Robotics

In Greek mythology, Vulcan, the blacksmith of the gods, could create an army
by breathing life into metal soldiers he forged (the term vulcanizing was named
after him). Man, have been making robots made of alloys and containing programs
stored within silicon chips for many decades, resembling Vulcan’s ability. Evidences
of the robotic revolution is the Predator drone, a pilotless robot plane that hits
terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan with great accuracy, driverless cars, and
ASIMO, considered as the most advanced robot that can do humanlike movements.

Though pilotless, the 27-foot Predator drone is actually human-controlled,

by a person who sits in front of a computer screen and selects the targets, much
like playing video games. The driverless cars are actually following global
positioning systems (GPS) stored in their memories that enable them to make
decisions as they drive themselves.

Dr. Kaku (2011) had firsthand experience with Honda’s ASIMO. He shook
ASIMO’s hand, waved to him, and ASIMO waved back. He has a revelation.
People see an intelligent robot. But the reality was, it took 3 hours to record a 5-
minute segment of Dr. Kaku interacting with ASIMO: this robot fetching him juice,
conversing with him, dancing with him. All throughout, ASIMO was programmed
and reprogrammed by its handlers through their laptops - its motions would have
to be programmed before a scene would be shot.
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Honda’s ASIMO the Robot

(Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility)

Two Types of Robots

There are two types of robots according to Dr. Kaku: the remote-controlled
and programmed robots, and the truly autonomous robots. The first type, as it
was named after, are controlled by humans (see Predator and ASIMO from the
previous pages), or have programs stored inside their memories (as the case of the
driverless cars). The second types, the truly autonomous robots, are the ones that
think and decide by themselves without human intervention or control. It is these
second types that artificial intelligence (AI) researchers and scientists were still
trying to construct.

Below is a brief historical timeline of AI robotics:

YEAR or PERIOD ACHIEVEMENT in AI ROBOTICS

 Machines that could pick up blocks, play checkers,

1950’s, Post solve algebra problems in the US and Britain.
World War II

 Criticized that the machines could do only those

mentioned above, the US and British governments cut
1974 off funding.
 The smart truck was built by the Pentagon (the US
military establishment) for reconnaissance, rescue of
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1980’s US troops and return to headquarters by itself. It was

a failure because the smart truck always got lost in its
way.
 Japan launched its Fifth Generation Project, a
computer system that could speak in multiple
languages, have full reasoning ability and anticipate
what humans want by the 1990s. It was quietly
stopped without explanation.

 International Business Machines (IBM)’s Deep Blue

computer program beat world chess master Gary
Kasparov. It could compute 11 billion chess operations
per second, yet it scored 0 on an IQ exam. It was also
1997
quietly stopped.

The error in AI

Kaku (2011) pointed out the error that the AI researchers have been
committing in the last 50 years ago: the human brain was interpreted as a large
digital computer.

Digital computers and AI robots are controlled with programs that enable it
to function, yet these have no learning ability. The intelligence of these uses the
top-down approach, wherein all the rules of intelligence were pre-programmed
into them.

A human brain is not wired in the same way. The brain is made up of a more
complex “neural network”, neurons that are interconnected and have the ability to
rewire itself. It is through this design that humans are able to learn. Neural
networks use the bottom-up approach, learning the way a baby does: by bumping
into things and learning by experience.

When a digital computer loses its central processor or a transistor is removed

from its CPU, it fails, it would not function. If a chunk of the human brain is damaged
or removed, it can still function, as the other neurons will take over for the missing
pieces.

Digital computers calculate nearly at the speed of light (3 x 108 meters per
second), while nerve impulses of the brain travel only at 200 miles per hour, which
is 89.39 meters per second. Yet, the human brain is parallel, which means, when a
person thinks, 100 billion neurons operate at the same time. Think of this riddle: If
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Bulanao Norte, Tabuk City, Kalinga
Email add: isapkalinga2011@gmail.com
Mobile Number: 09637620243/09563482179

one cat can eat a mouse in one minute, how long does it take for a million cats to
eat a million mice?

Problems with Robots

Form the comparisons given above, we can see the limitations of computers
and robots. They are not able to accomplish two key tasks that humans can do:
pattern recognition and common sense.

Pattern Recognition

Robots can see clearly, but they do not understand what they are seeing.
When a robot glides into a room, it sees objects as interconnected dots and lines,
and matches these with the objects stored in its memory. When a human walk into
a room with a chair in its center, instantly, that human knows that is a chair.

Common Sense

Read and think of these phrases:

 Children like sweets but not punishment;

 Strings can pull but not push;

 Sticks can push but not pull;

 Spinning makes people dizzy.

As humans, we know that these statements are true. Not for robots. Though
they may hear very clearly, they do not understand what they are hearing. Robots,
since they are programmed with the top-down approach, had to be coded with a
lot of programs to be able to have the common sense of humans. A robot may see
a child eating a candy, but it would not register that the child likes eating candy.

These two limitations of computers and robots are stated precisely by Dr. Hans
Moravee, a former director of the AI laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University:

“To this day, AI programs exhibit no shred of common sense—a medical diagnosis
program, for instance, may prescribe an antibiotic when presented with a broken
bicycle because it lacks a model of people, disease, or bicycles.”
 INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Bulanao Norte, Tabuk City, Kalinga
Email add: isapkalinga2011@gmail.com
Mobile Number: 09637620243/09563482179

References:

Javier, M. CONTENT-SCIENCE-TECH-SOCIETY-PhilSCApdf/

Cabaddu, Mark Angelo, (2019). Science, Technology and Society Module.

Retrieved from: https://www.scrib.com/document/429431394/science-
technology-and-society-module.

Estardo, Anna Maria Gracia. When Technology and Humanity Cross. Retrieved
from Slideshare.net

“EDUCATING THE MIND WITHOUT

EDUCATING THE HEART IS NO
EDUCATION AT ALL.”

- ARISTOTLE