When Technology

and Humanity Cross

Chapter 6 - Group 3
Contents 4
Why the Future Does Not
Need Us?

A. The Ethical Dilemmas of

1 5 Activity
Robotics

Human, Morals and

2 6 Quiz
Machines

3 Ice breaker
The Ethical Dilemmas of
Robotics
The rapid advancements in
technology that the world has
witnessed over the past century
have made a reality of many of
mankind’s wildest dreams.
One dream that is still yet to be
perfectly fulfilled by advancements
in technology is the development of
human-like and self-aware robots,
often referred to as androids.
 "ROBOT"
The term “robot” truly extends to
more than just androids.
The commonly accepted first use
of the word was in 1920 in the
form of a play written by Karel
Capek. The play was entitled
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal
Robots).
 EXAMPLES THAT
CLOSELY RELATES TO
THE SERVANT ROBOTS
SEEN IN CAPEK'S PLAY
1. The servants of the Greek god
Hephaestus
2. The stories of Pygmalion
 LEONARDO DA
VINCI’S JOURNALS

Contained detailed plans for the

construction of a humanoid
robot.
The journals in which the plans
were found date back to 1945.
ROBIN MARANTZ
HENIG
Wrote a comprehensive article in
the New York Times wherein she
discusses her experiences with
what are often labeled “social
robots.”
 SOCIAL ROBOTS RODNEY BROOKS
These robots are by no means what an expert in robotics and
the servant robots of Greek mythology
artificial intelligence.
have led many people to hope for;
rather they are infant versions, at best,
of the long-hoped-for androids.
 ARISTOTLE
Materialism: organisms are simply made
by various types of matter; thus not have
a form or soul.

- organisms have both matter and form

(hylomorphism)
- tenets that differ from materialism
- Two views at odds have a huge impact
on robotics
- Materialism also at odds with
catholicism
 Isaac Asimov (1942)
deals with the decision of
placing what level of life
robots have
introduced Three Laws of
Robotics which is published
in his short story
"Runaround"
 Isaac Asimov (1942)
First, a robot may not injure a human being or, through
inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Second, a robot must obey any orders given to it by human
beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First
Law.
Third, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
- Robot Code of Ethics arise from these laws which was
developed by multiple countries
 SOUTH KOREA
one of the most high-tech
countries in the world; leading
the way in the development of
such a code
developed Robot Ethics Charter-
- to prevent human abuse of
robots in social integration
 MARK TILDEN
(ROBOT DESIGNER)
thinks it is premature as he
describes it as "teaching an
ant to yodel"
human and technology
interactions will result to
more tragedy than utility
Human, Morals and
Machines
 Technological Nature
technologies that mediate, augment, or simulate
the natural world
Examples:
Discovery Channel
Animal planet
Video games (Zoo Tycoon)
Zoos with webcams
Robot pets
 REAL PEOPLE NOW
SPEND SUBSTANTIAL
TIME IN VIRTUAL
ENVIRONMENTS.
PEOPLE ARE REPLACING ACTUAL
NATURE WITH TECHNOLOGICAL
NATURE
Scientists are already beginning to
think seriously about the new ethical
problems posed by current
developments in robotics
Roboticists’ top list concern is safety,
as robots were once confined to
specialist applications in industry
and the military, but now they are
increasingly being used by ordinary
people.
IF THESE ROBOTS HARM SOMEONE, WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? IS IT
THE DESIGNER, OR THE USER, OR THE ROBOT ITSELF?

The ethical or moral sense for machines can be built on a utilitarian

base.
There are special cases that will require modifications of the core rules
that are based on the circumstances of their use.
Examples: Doctors, lawyers, religious leaders, and military personnel
The simple utilitarian model will certainly have overlays depending on
the role that these robots play. Simply, these robots will act in accord
with whatever moral or ethical code we provide them and the value
determinations that we set.
When faced with dilemmas, they will seek the best outcomes
independent of whether they themselves are comfortable with the
actions.
WITH ALL OTHER ASPECTS
OF MACHINE INTELLIGENCE,
IT IS CRUCIAL THAT THESE
SYSTEMS ARE ABLE TO
EXPLAIN THEIR MORAL
DECISIONS TO US.
 Emerging technologies
Artificial Intelligence (AI), augmented and
virtual reality, home robots, and cloud
computing
Drives many academics, entrepreneurs, and
enterprises to envision futures in which their
impacts on society will be nothing short of
transformative.
 ARTICLE “IS GOOGLE
MAKING US STUPID?” BY
NICHOLAS CARRS
discusses the effects that the Internet
may be having on our ability to focus, the
difference in knowledge that we now
have, and our reliance on the Internet
“The brain expects to take in information
the way the Net distributes it--in a swiftly
moving stream of particles.”
Ice Breaker
Do you think technology is making us
more or less productive?
Who should be held accountable if
someone's safety is compromised by a
robot?
What can we do to prevent humans
from abusing artificial intelligence?

PRIZE: RECITATION
 Why the Future
Does Not Need Us?
 WITH THE ACCELERATING
IMPROVEMENTS OF TECHNOLOGY,
COMPUTER SCIENTISTS SUCCEED
IN DEVELOPING INTELLIGENT
MACHINES THAT CAN DO ALL
THINGS BETTER THAN HUMAN
BEINGS.
THE MACHINES MIGHT BE PERMITTED TO MAKE ALL OF THEIR
OWN DECISIONS WITHOUT HUMAN OVERSIGHT, OR ELSE
HUMAN CONTROL OVER THE MACHINES MIGHT BE RETAINED.

Sophia, an AI robot designed to look like Audrey Hepburn

SOCIETY AND THE PROBLEMS THAT IT

FACES
 A stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system
running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them
intelligently.

Man may control certain private

machines such as cars, computers,
and bikes, etc. But control over
large machines will be in the hands
of the tiny elite.
IT HAS TWO DIFFERENCES THAT MAY HAPPEN:

IF THE ELITE ARE RUTHLESS, THEY MAY SIMPLY

DECIDE TO EXTERMINATE THE MASS OF

HUMANITY.

IF THE ELITE CONSIST OF SOFT-­HEARTED

LIBERALS, THEY MAY DECIDE TO PLAY THE ROLE
OF GOOD SHEPHERDS TO THE REST OF THE
HUMAN RACE.

Theodore Kaczynskian
American domestic terrorist
also known as Unabomber
killed three people
David Gelernter
One of the most brilliant and visionary
computer scientists
One of theodore's victim
 THE CAUSE OF MANY SUCH
SURPRISES SEEMS CLEAR: THE
SYSTEMS INVOLVED ARE COMPLEX,
INVOLVING INTERACTION
AMONG AND FEEDBACK BETWEEN
MANY PARTS.
Any changes to such a system will
cascade in ways that are difficult to
predict;;
this is especially true when human
actions are involved.

When the isthmus connecting North and

South America rose, it took only a few TEN MILLION YEARS AGO,
thousand years for the northern placental
SOUTH AND NORTH AMERICA
species, with slightly more effective
WERE SEPARATED BY A
metabolisms and reproductive and
SUNKEN PANAMA ISTHMUS.
nervous systems, to displace and eliminate

almost all the southern marsupials.

 Superior robots would surely affect humans as

North American placentals affected South
American marsupials.
Robotic industries would compete vigorously
among themselves for matter, energy, and space,
incidentally driving their price beyond human
reach.
Hans Moravec
One of the leaders in robotics research,
and was a founder of the world's
largest robotics research program.

Moravec’s view is that the robots will

eventually succeed us that humans
clearly face extinction.
A textbook on dystopia and Moravec discuss how our
main job in the 21st century will be “ensuring continued
cooperation from the robot industries” by passing laws
decreeing that they be “nice,” and describing how
seriously dangerous a human can be once transformed
into an unbounded superintelligent robot.
 Robotics, genetic
engineering, and
nanotechnology
most compelling 21st-­century Examples:
technologies. A pose a threat different Bomb
from the technologies that have come Sending and receiving
messages.
before. Specifically, robots, engineered
organisms, and nanobots share a
dangerous amplifying factor: They can
self-­replicate.
Uncontrolled self-­replication in these
newer technologies runs a much greater
risk: a risk of substantial damage in the
physical world.


Raymond Kurzweil
-American computer scientist,
author and inventor
-He sees in his robot dreams drives us
forward;; genetic engineering may soon
provide treatments, if not outright cures,
for most diseases;; and nanotechnology
and nanomedicine can address more
ills.
 WITH EACH OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES, A SEQUENCE OF SMALL, INDIVIDUALLY
SENSIBLE ADVANCES LEADS TO AN ACCUMULATION OF GREAT POWER AND,
CONCOMITANTLY, GREAT DANGER.

THE 21ST-­CENTURY TECHNOLOGIES
WHAT WAS DIFFERENT IN THE 20TH

CENTURY?

GENETICS, NANOTECHNOLOGY, AND
(WMD)–NUCLEAR,

BIOLOGICAL, AND ROBOTICS (GNR)–ARE SO POWERFUL
CHEMICAL (NBC)–WERE POWERFUL, THAT THEY CAN SPAWN WHOLE NEW
AND THE WEAPONS AN ENORMOUS CLASSES OF ACCIDENTS AND ABUSES.
THREAT.
THEY WILL NOT REQUIRE LARGE
BUILDING NUCLEAR WEAPONS FACILITIES OR RARE RAW MATERIALS.
REQUIRED, AT LEAST FOR A TIME, KNOWLEDGE ALONE WILL ENABLE THEIR
ACCESS TO BOTH RARE– INDEED, USE;; THUS, WE HAVE THE POSSIBILITY
EFFECTIVELY UNAVAILABLE–RAW NOT JUST OF WEAPONS OF MASS
MATERIALS AND HIGHLY PROTECTED DESTRUCTION BUT OF KNOWLEDGE-‐­
INFORMATION;; BIOLOGICAL AND ENABLED MASS DESTRUCTION (KMD),
CHEMICAL WEAPONS PROGRAMS ALSO THIS DESTRUCTIVENESS HUGELY
TENDED TO REQUIRE LARGE-­SCALE AMPLIFIED BY THE POWER OF SELF-‐­
ACTIVITIES.

REPLICATION.

 Common fault of scientists and technologists

Failing to understand the consequences of our inventions while we are in the rapture of
discovery and innovation
Have long been driven by the overarching desire to know that is the nature of science’s
quest, not stopping to notice that the progress to newer and more powerful
technologies can take on a life of its own.

Because of the recent rapid and radical progress in molecular

electronics–where individual atoms and molecules replace
lithographically drawn transistors–and related nanoscale technologies,
we should be able to meet or exceed the Moore’s law rate of progress for
another 30 years.
 By 2030, we are likely to be able to build
machines, in quantity, a million times as
powerful as the personal computers of today
.
These combinations open up the opportunity
to completely redesign the world, for better
or worse:
The replicating and evolving processes that
have been confined to the natural world are
about to become realms of human endeavor.
ONCE AN INTELLIGENT ROBOT
EXISTS, IT IS ONLY A SMALL
STEP TO A ROBOT SPECIES–
TO AN INTELLIGENT ROBOT
THAT CAN MAKE EVOLVED
COPIES OF ITSELF.
 GENETIC ENGINEERING?
-promises to revolutionize agriculture by
increasing crop yields while reducing the use
of pesticides;
to create tens of thousands of novel
species of bacteria, plants, viruses, and
animals;
to replace reproduction, or supplement
it, with cloning;
to create cures for many diseases,
increasing our life span and our quality of
life; and much, much more.


TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS
HUMAN CLONING, HAVE IN
PARTICULAR RAISED OUR
AWARENESS OF THE
PROFOUND ETHICAL AND
MORAL ISSUES WE FACE.

 LOVINS' EDITORIAL
Awareness of the dangers inherent in genetic engineering is beginning
to grow, as reflected in the Lovins’ editorial.

"the USDA has already approved about 50 genetically engineered crops

for unlimited release; more than half of the world’s soybeans and a third
of its corn now contain genes spliced in from some other forms of life"
-Lovins' note
 NUCLEAR NANOTECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY has clear military and terrorist uses
you need not be suicidal to release a
massively destructive
far easier to create destructive uses for
nanotechnological device
nanotechnology than constructive
such devices can be built to be
ones.
selectively destructive and affecting.
J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER.
-the brilliant physicist who made the
effort to build the first atomic bomb.

-he was not naturally interested in

politics but became painfully aware of
what he perceived as the grave threat to
Western civilization from the Third
Reich,a threat surely grave because of
the possibility that Hitler might obtain
nuclear weapons.
J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER.
-he brought his strong intellect, passion
for physics, and charismatic leadership
skills to Los Alamos and led a rapid and
successful effort by an incredible
collection of great minds to quickly
invent the bomb.

--sufficiently concerned about the result

of Trinity that he arranged for a possible
evacuation of the southwest part of the
state of New Mexico.
WHAT IS TRINITY?
 EDWARD TELLER
-Based on his calculation, he states
that an atomic explosion might set
fire to the atmosphere.

-his revised calculation reduced the

danger of destroying the world to a
three-in a-million chance.


FREEMAN DYSON

“The reason that it was

dropped was just that
nobody had the courage
or the foresight to say no.”
 Aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
- a series of waves of emotion:
a sense of fulfillment that the bomb
worked,
then horror at all the people that had
been killed
and then a convincing feeling that on
no account should another bomb be
dropped.


“IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO BE A SCIENTIST

UNLESS YOU BELIEVE THAT THE KNOWLEDGE OF
THE WORLD, AND THE POWER WHICH THIS GIVES,
IS A THING WHICH IS OF INTRINSIC VALUE TO
HUMANITY, AND THAT YOU ARE USING IT TO
HELP IN THE SPREAD OF KNOWLEDGE
AND ARE WILLING TO TAKE THE
CONSEQUENCES.”-OPPENHEIMER

In our time, how much danger do we face not just

from nuclear weapons but from all of these
technologies?

How high are the extinction risks?

JOHN LESLIE
Philosopher that has
studied this question and
concluded that the risk of
human extinction is at
least 30 percent


RAY KURZWEIL
-He believes we have a better than even
chance of making it through, with the
caveat that he has always been accused
of being an optimist.

-Not only are these estimates not

encouraging, but they do not include
the probability of many horrid outcomes
that lie short of extinction.
 VON NEUMANN PROBES

on earth and
-The fate of our species

seem inextricably
our fate in the galaxy
linked.

-Another idea is to erect a series of

shields to defend against each of the
dangerous technologies.
 The Strategic Defense
Initiative
proposed by the Reagan
administration, was an attempt to
design such a shield against the
threat of a nuclear attack from the
Soviet Union.
“Though it might be possible, at vast
expense, to construct local defense
systems that would only let through a
few percent of ballistic missiles, the
much-touted idea of a national
umbrella was nonsense.”
-Arthur C. Clarke
 LUIS ALVAREZ
-the greatest experimental
physicist, remarked that the
advocates of such schemes were
very bright guys with no common
sense.


“ALL MEN BY
NATURE DESIRE TO
KNOW.”

 Activity
GUESS THE PICTURE

Prize: Surprise
 Quiz
MULTIPLE CHOICE
IDENTIFICATION
TRUE OR FALSE
 Group 3

Thank You
for your participation