We, as Americans, are always looking for an easier way to do basic everyday things. Robots have been thought of as a way to better the world and our lives. In “Alone Together”, Sherry Turkle talks about her various encounters with our modern day robots. She wrote about a lot of different stories and examples to give you a good idea of the opinions from the people who tested the robots. The chapter I read, “Love’s Labor Lost,” has a few studies describing reactions of robots tested in nursing homes. While some people felt like robots could not substitute for human interaction, the majority of the elderly people in the nursing home enjoyed the company of the robots and even grew attached to them. This sparked a debate among the people. Turkle …show more content…
I think it is a great idea, but it also has some adverse side-effects. If senior citizens in nursing homes no longer feel the need for human interaction, this can create a problem for the family of the elders. Despite the fact that the elders may feel a lot less lonely with a robot companion, human interaction is still important. One of the most amazing things to me though, was when Turkle talked about the bonds the study participants created with the robots. They treated the robots like people and even gave them names. Many of the participants explained that they talked to the robots and liked how they could tell them private thoughts without being judged. This provided them with an outlet even when they didn’t have any visitors.
Robots have been widely viewed and seen as “the future.” Although they can definitely have their downfalls, robots can change the world as we know it. Providing care for the elderly and sick is just one possibility. Imagining a world filled with robots can be scary, but realizing the potential that can come with that is exciting. Even though it may not happen in the near-by future, robots will make a prominent entrance. We, as the people, have to decide what we want for the future
In the video, the manager of the nursing home featured admitted that the family members of some of the elderly were disconcerted to see that their loved one believed that their robot companion was real. This is a legitimate concern because the members of the family may not want this for their elders. In contrast, these robots are proven to give comfort to those that use them. Elena Shoto conveys that robotic pets “...lowered stress levels and increase happiness.” This may be true, however it does not change the fact that many people are unsettled by robotic toys. As can be seen, they just aren't the same as flesh and blood
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
From my perspective, what really causes these concerns is people’s over-independence on these robots. We tend to think that robots are intelligent and efficient enough that can replace our own mankind, making us too anxious to transfer the important work to the robots, and to accept and serve at a subordinate position. And this situation is really easy to happen. For myself, if something or someone can help me deal with my work, I will be so delighted to give away my work. This may also cause people hard to concentrate and start to lose their abilities since there is no need for people to do it themselves. This may lead to the results above and we will have nothing to do about it ultimately because it is we that first give the initiative to the robots. It is we that let them do so and at that time, we will have no strength to fight against these robots. So if we can avoid being over-independence on the robots, this will be less concerned.
I became bored reading certain parts of the book. I feel like the author could have sequenced it better. The author precedes some chapters or sections with a point and reinforces it with interviews from many research participants and interview quotes. I find myself skipping some parts just because I didn’t want to read every person’s reactions to a new robot, there were just too many. For example, in the book Turkle talks about the robot AIBO (53), and interviews research participants. Most of them reinforce her point: Humans have the possibility of developing some sort of emotional attachment to robot companions. She didn’t have to include all of the research participants’ interviews that she did. Although it is bad to include one interview to prove the point, but there comes a point where it becomes too much, which I ended up skipping. I also did not like the research that was done. There should have been more statistical facts instead of just a few research participants’ interviews and stories. I have a hard time believing that a few people who she researched can be a basis for the trend. I would’ve liked to see more evidence.
Instead, technology is continuously used and the users are so distracted that they do not see any harm being done. Technology is always updating and producing new things, the reason for this is because technology is not perfect. So this means that there is always room for change and improvement. There are still flaws in technology, including things such as printers jamming, internet crashing, and phone calls dropping. Why is it that, even with all of these flaws, people still turn to technology excessively? Turkle talks about people having the desire to have a robotic relationship in place of a real human relationship. She discusses a girl who wanted to “trade in her boyfriend ‘for a sophisticated Japanese robot’ if the robot would produce what she called ‘caring behavior’... She was looking for a ‘no-risk relationship’ that would stave off loneliness.” (Turkle 269-270) This may make you question, the same way that technological devices always need improvement, won’t the robots need improvement at one point. The robot may make a mistake or even be missing the new and improved characteristics of a human being. These characteristics can include the ability to have a meaningful conversation rather than a conversation limited to a scripted vocabulary. The individual’s personal abilities are being limited by dating a robot. A human to human
Schimelpfening, Nancy. Robots for Humanity: Restoring Function to the Disabled Through Technology. 21 December 2013.
“The day may come soon when we are forced to share this status with a new kind of being, one whose intelligence is of our own design (alumni.berkeley.edu).” Robots are coming, in fact, they are already in our lives today. There are, currently many self-cleaners in households around the world. Before we know it, robots will be driving cars, taking care of old folks, and in use in many more ways. What’s after that? Something too intelligent for their and our own good, a robot that is either as smart or smarter than the human race. One of the most important points in these creations is, the robots knowing right from wrong. At what point does the robot become too smart and how can we stop this from happening? “Right now all modern technology is designed to bring the world to you; phone, radio, television, internet, but if trends continue, robots will soon bring you to the world, everywhere, and at the speed of thought. (theguardian.com).” This statement by Mark Tilden, robot physicist, is interesting as it states the robots will bring us everything, but these are all things humans are able to do themselves. If the robots become smarter than everyone, how will the world
Nowadays, technology is a dominant feature in the lives of people around the world. Most of daily life activities involve the use of technology which is expanding every day through scientific innovations. However, such innovations do not always occur in every part of the world, but mostly in technologically developed countries, such as South Korea, the USA and Japan. Presently, the development of robotics science has become a subject of considerable attention in those countries. According to Weng, Chen and Sun (2009, 267), “Technocrats from many developed countries, especially Japan and South Korea, are preparing for the human–robot co-existence society that they believe will emerge by 2030.” The word “robot” was introduced in the beginning of 1920th by the Czech playwright Karel Capek from the Czech word “robota”, meaning “forced labor” (Robertson 2007, 373). According to Robertson (2007, 373), robot, in practical usage, can be defined as an autonomous or semiautonomous device that is used to perform its tasks either controlled by human, fractionally controlled and with human guidance or regardless of external actions that are performed by people. Regrettably, the majority of robots in the past centuries could not operate without human control and intervention. However, the progress in robotics over the past few decades enabled humanity to achieve soaring results in creation of autonomous humanoid robots.
Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, allows a machine to function as if the machine has the capability to think like a human. While we are not expecting any hovering cars anytime soon, artificial intelligence is projected to have a major impact on the labor force and will likely replace about half the workforce in the United States in the decades to come. The research in artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly at an unstoppable rate. So while many people feel threatened by the possibility of a robot taking over their job, computer scientists actually propose that robots would benefit a country’s efficiency of production, allowing individuals to reap the benefits of the robots. For the advantage of all, researchers and analysts have begun to mend the past ideas of human-robot interaction. They have pulled inspiration from literary works of Isaac Asimov whom many saw as the first roboticist ahead of his time, and have also gotten ideas of scholarly research done by expert analysts. These efforts have began to create an idea of a work force where humans and robots work together in harmony, on a daily basis.
Scientific progress makes huge milestones toward developing new advanced technologies which are more and more present in human lives. Today robots replace people in many spheres such as health care, security and military, industry, education, entertainment and science. Role of robots becomes more significant because they are able to do the job which people are not able to perform well. Sometimes people are too lazy to do some routine work, due to such situation those tasks could be delegated to machines. People’s life become more technology based what makes demand for efficient robots larger. Engineers say that today robots look like machines, but in near future robots will have more human appearance, today they do some simple job, but in near future much more complicated tasks would be trusted to them. History of robotics goes far to the history when the ancient Greeks describes first devices that people were projected to fly to the sky like birds. In fact, heart of any robot is some program that direct the device and control it actions. Robot cannot perform the tasks that was not programmed in it and this if the factor what makes it quite limited in its actions. Current studies in robotics are aimed to remove those disadvantages and make robots more functional and universal through development of artificial intelligence that can operate independently. Curiosity of world community to robotics increase every day what make all the research and inventions in robotics more demanded. History of robots, resent achievement and future perspectives of robotics have to be studies and researched to understand what machines can give to humanity and what pros and cons exist in the r...
Robots are made to run without flaws and can outperform the average worker. This is because there are fewer employees working that need to get paid. This is not a good thing as it might seem. In China, robots almost completely replace human workers to save money.
Turkle does represent great credibility from the start. First, she is writing for The New York Times, a very well known and well thought of news paper. She always went to Harvard and early on in her article states, “Over the past 15 years, I’ve studied technologies
In 2010, robots are very different from the expectations set in 1965. “The latest advances in technology have led to robots that look very much like humans but are mostly able to perform only limited functions.” (Bar-Cohen 12). Yoseph Bar-Cohen and David Hanson’s book ‘The Coming Robot Revolution” is very clear ab...
...if I had a robot that would clean the house, do my laundry, cook dinner, and run errands for me, I would probably be sitting around a lot more than I do now.
... major hurdles in the field right now, but when they are jumped over, the sky is the limit. Robots are starting to emulate humankind the best that they can, and soon, they will be like humans, with the ability to think, and the ability to decide. That world will come soon, but now, we can only wait and try our best.