Comment on FROM ROBOTS TO SENTIENT MACHINES by jdarling

I completely agree that movement / body language also have a place on the uncanny valley graph. The image of the robot cuddling up to a human in All About Robots (http://ift.tt/1CpybWM) gives me the same shudder even though the appearance is very robotlike.
And it’s not just robots that set off the reaction. The ear in the petri dish is just as bad (http://ift.tt/166l66T).
As robots become more prevalent do you imagine that humans will lose this reaction towards them? If we don’t, how could this affect their future development?

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Week 3 overview: globalisation

Technically it is true that the internet allows digital artefacts to be everywhere (Hand, 2008) , however, in practice, it is only ‘there’ once it becomes part of a ‘node’ in a network and is discoverable.  That is, the internet contains a vast amount of information, most of which, I could access. But it is only after it has been indexed by a search engine that it becomes discoverable to me, or after it has been shared with me through a personal network such as Twitter. Even then, there are other factors affecting discoverability, such as the algorithms used by search engines.

Mind also raises the issue of communities arising around shared concerns through the power of the internet, and influencing governmental or political authorities. An example of this is a recent, national, news story involving an Academy applying a rule to a pupil who had contravened it. The story got out on the internet and traditional paper based media, and a community formed against the school decrying the indiscriminate application of rules; the Academy has since reconsidered its stance (The Independent). Authoritative bodies, including educational institutions, are now having to consider how they apply their policies more carefully, as they are more likely to be held to account.

Mind considers the vertical structures of organisations to be in the past, with a progression towards networked structures. Information will flow through these networks in many directions.  Potentially anyone could become part of a network and be empowered by the information they access, and in turn, influence the network, creating a feedback system.

To my mind, there is a flaw in this type of reasoning. Information is disseminated freely to all; informed debate may occur but this could be overshadowed by the vast majority of uninformed commentary.  On the other hand, any discussion is better than no discussion at all.

Hand, M. (2008) Hardware to everyware: Narratives of promise and threat. In: Making digital cultures: access, interactivity, and authenticity. Aldershot: pp. 15–42.

 

Week 2 overview: Ethics

The more I look at ethics the more fascinated I become.

The world is changing at such a pace that the law just isn’t keeping up, and we desperately need a moral imperative to keep us on the right track. It’s easy for a company to keep on designing and building new tech without any regard for how it will be used in the future. This has become apparent with the recent stories of drones being used to smuggle drugs and other contraband across prison walls and borders.  And the companies that are replacing their human workforces with computers.

But can we just stop developing new technologies because it could have a negative impact on humans. What about the good it can do? Such as robots that can be sent into disaster zones that are unsafe for humans to enter.

Fortunately, some governments are beginning to take notice of the new technologies and their ‘downsides’, and are proposing new legislation or ‘ethics frameworks’.

 

 

 

Anon (2015) Drone carrying drugs crashes near US-Mexico border. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-30931367 [Accessed 23 January 2015].

Gillmore, D. (2013) With robots and data, can Google keep to its promise not to be evil?. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/19/google-robots-data-boston-dynamics-possibilities [Accessed 25 January 2015].

Lo, A. (2015) Debate over artificial intelligence raises moral, legal and technical questions | South China Morning Post. Available from: http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1690723/debate-over-artificial-intelligence-raises-moral-legal-and [Accessed 25 January 2015].

 

 

 

Visual Artifact

Ethics and digital technologies

final book cover

It started with designing my own book cover, which was really difficult as I wanted to make it too wordy, and finding images that expressed my feelings took some time.

And from there I wanted to create a collection of some of the debates that are currently happening around the world.  And try to show how different problems are being approached. I realised that different countries are experiencing the same problems but are at different stages, for example, drone technology is more apparent in Australia and America than in Europe, hence they are beginning to legislate for them.  Whereas in the UK, it seems to be the view that government needs to lead the way in their own use of technologies and become models of good practice.  The debate is already starting in education, for example, with electronic assessment and how to make it ‘fair’.

But, for me, the really interesting topic is when new technologies become the subject of considered ethical discussion.  At the development stage by engineers and inventors? Or, at the end stage by users? What do you think?

 

Comment on FROM ROBOTS TO SENTIENT MACHINES by jdarling

Interesting video; robots have been part of human imaginings for so long and now they are becoming reality.
Some of them really make me shudder though. The childlike one in particular. For me, this falls below the line of the ‘uncanny valley’ (http://ift.tt/f36xSY). What do you think? Do any of them make you feel uncomfortable? Which ones?

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