This blog post may be a little pessimistic as a forewarning.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m going to focus on Rodney Brooks and, more importantly, his view on life.\u00c2\u00a0 Thinking of life as a combination of simple processes is not a horrible disservice to mankind.\u00c2\u00a0 True it may be a gross oversimplification but it is tangible.\u00c2\u00a0 We relate the consciousness of others to our own.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s say that I love the taste of steak.\u00c2\u00a0 If someone doesn’t like the taste, then they are insane to me.\u00c2\u00a0 I define my own reality and it can be grossly different to the reality of someone sitting inches from me.\u00c2\u00a0 Rodney Brooks has put the theory of evolution into context of his reality.\u00c2\u00a0 People, to him, may be just a series of simple responses to certain stimuli.\u00c2\u00a0 If our hand touches a hot stove, we remove it as long as our nervous system is functioning.\u00c2\u00a0 At a past time, our list of possible responses may have been smaller than it is now.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe they were the same in quantity but are now different.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s very interesting, and I suppose a little undermining to what makes us “human.”<\/p>\n
But what makes us human?\u00c2\u00a0 Our intellect would be my guess.\u00c2\u00a0 We feel that we are the smartest creatures on Earth.\u00c2\u00a0 Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control<\/em> is all about us being smarter than the Earth.\u00c2\u00a0 The lion tamer is all about appearing stronger than the lions.\u00c2\u00a0 The mole rat guy takes the mole rats out of their natural environment and studies them.\u00c2\u00a0 The topiary gardner shapes plants into shapes of animals and limits their growth to maintain shape.\u00c2\u00a0 And then we come to Rodney Brooks.\u00c2\u00a0 He tries to imitate human movement and eventually intellect.\u00c2\u00a0 Brooks does not try to perfect his robots, saying that he designs them to be able to fall.\u00c2\u00a0 Brooks studies human\/animal behavior and bases his creation on them.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he programs robots from what he observes, it is natural for him to think of humans as a series of simple processes.\u00c2\u00a0 One could think of humans as an incomprehensible complex machine and I’m not offended to think of myself in that way.\u00c2\u00a0 Some people believe God created life and everything around it.\u00c2\u00a0 It is egotistical for humans to create themselves and play God, but isn’t that what makes us human also; striving to pass on our life experiences and name?\u00c2\u00a0 Who is to say that at some point we will not be able to replicate ourselves 100% along with free will and all.<\/p>\n One could argue that you can’t program free will.\u00c2\u00a0 I say no one would want to program free will.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t even have free will.\u00c2\u00a0 We have social inhibitions and intellectual restraints.\u00c2\u00a0 To program those sets of rules into a robot, could they not function like a regular member of society?\u00c2\u00a0 And if we have defined things that are real as things that act as they should, would these robots who act like members of society should not appear as real and sane?<\/p>\n If we eventually find a way to program robots with free will, how would they act?\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t act that way.\u00c2\u00a0 Would that make them more “human” than us?\u00c2\u00a0 Scary stuff.<\/p>\n CUT to shot of a man balancing a large object on his forehead.\u00c2\u00a0 (NOTE: mood music may be a little overwhelming but none the less effective)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This blog post may be a little pessimistic as a forewarning.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m going to focus on Rodney Brooks and, more importantly, his view on life.\u00c2\u00a0 Thinking of life as a combination of simple processes is not a horrible disservice to … Continue reading