Essay On The Consequences Of A Robot

1546 Words4 Pages

Why is it that we have an underlying fear that robots will eventually take over the world? Is it plausible that perhaps robots are superior to humans; or rather, that a creation will eventually rule its creator? Despite the frightening rate of technological improvements, the robots that we create do not exceed what we are as humans because those robots cannot “think” on their own. Specifically, robots have no ethics, creativity, nor sense of self. Can a robot “feel”? In other words, will the consequences of a robot’s actions affect the robot or its future actions in any way? In short, no. First, consider what a robot is. Most generally, a robot is a device that assists humans. A robot is programmed by humans to do a specific job that would …show more content…

In the novel, the character Rachel, who we can almost consider as a robot, constantly strives to be a “normal person” and thinks of her robotic nature as her being a “broken woman” (123). In fact, Rachel is actually pretty well off – she has a steady income, and she is both smart and attractive. Why then does she want to be anything different and be normal? Why does she want to be “relegated” to a mistake-prone “normal” human being? Facing the facts, machines do beat us in the fact that they don’t make mistakes when functioning properly, while humans make tons of mistakes, even when they are at their best. However, Rachel wants to be “human” simply because like a robot, she is isolated from everybody else. Even though “normal” people make lots of mistakes, they learn from them and adapt for the future, and communicate with others as a group so that they can learn without making the same mistakes. Although mistakes aren’t desirable, it is what connects us to everybody else and makes us a human. The same could be said about sharing feelings, which Rachel doesn’t have. What truly separates man from machine and puts man just a cut above? Connection – whether it be connecting to one’s inner being in the form of a sense of self, connecting to the abstract in the form of creativity, or connecting to the outside world in the form of social norms; connection is the one thing that humans have, but machines will

Open Document