Preface, anyone who thinks I am promoting the future described below should know that I have definite fears we will plunge into such a future without the deep careful planning it requires. And before you think I'm personally inclined to the predicted scenarios given then perhaps you should think deeply about the fact that I don't even have a cell phone or a pager and that statistically you do.
The reason that humanoid robots creep us out is due to our natural competitiveness and defensiveness as a species. The minute a robot can take our job, outfight us in a humanoid manner (think boxing, not guns which we already accept are superior in combat), or make us obsolete in an intellectual manner, we feel threatened.
If androids and robots wipe out humanity it will be because we start to choose them over other humans for love and companionship, not because of any Terminator scenario. We humans love a nice safe universe that tailors itself to our most hidden desires; hence the explosion in video games that offer virtual worlds. Now add to that phenomenon one of the more disturbing conclusions from a study that focused on the effect excessive viewing of sexual materials had on men. The study claimed that men are less likely to want real sex after viewing such materials rather than more. This is due to the perfection of the models' bodies when compared to the real love partners of the men who participated in the study. How can a real woman compete with such beauty when it is often altered by surgery and enhanced by expert photo retouching? Can you imagine the effect on society of a physically perfect, obedient, tireless, android love partner that modeled its "personality" to your every secret desire? Sex would move out of the bedroom into the laboratory of the newly formed Department Of Preserving Humanity (note: there is no such department now). There would even be databases of downloable techniques to upgrade your silicon love partner. How can a mere human compete? And if that's not bad enough, enter the cyborg.
Article comments
1 - Xenia
Wow. Scary.
2 - Caroline Hagood
This fascinating article is just one more reason that I'm glad I joined BlogCritics. So good.
3 - Jraz
I can relate to the cell phone scenario. I see it all the time. What on earth is going on that needs to be said 24-7? I just don't get it.
4 - Tom
You guys are all complete luddites. oh, the robots will take our jobs! the robots will take our lives!
you really have no idea how limited robots are, or how your fellow humans work. do you know that being fat used to be widely considered sexy? all of a sudden it became too easy to become fat, with the advent of modern civilization, so we switched our desires to something more difficult. humanity can adapt. you old fogies are too myopic to see it, but our generation is already adapting to the influx of images of perfection available. perfection has become, mentally, too easy to find, so "Real" people with imperfections are benefitting from a backlash against the "fake-looking". I can't think of anything more unappealing and ridiculous as the "perfect woman" of the previous generation.
this will simply increase as the availability of easy sex robots becomes easier. humans prefer what comes with a difficulty rating, it's built into our genes.
as for this labor concern, we have been LONG overdue for a major revolution on this front anyway. the long and short of it is that we have way more manpower than we know what to do with, hence: unemployment, underemployment. a robot workforce might very well be the extra push we need to transition fully to a society of abundance. only a few people need to work all the time anymore to keep this society running, and the average job is getting paid for meaningless busywork to pay for other people to get paid for meaningless busywork. it can't last forever.
in short, reconsider your assumptions about society for a while, your knee-jerk reactionary side is showing.
bonus.