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Why the US Consumer Doesn't Deserve A Decent Robot
SkinnyGuy writes "PC Magazine has up a lengthy look at how differing cultural approaches and expectations for robots are setting the stage for Amercian consumers to miss out on the best robots have to offer. The first paragraph is kind of funny:
'Someday the robots will rise up and kill us all. They'll record our lives, obliterate our privacy, set off nuclear war, and eventually turn on us and eat our brains. If any of this ever did happen, it would serve us right. We, at least American consumers, don't deserve the future that robots really have to offer.'"
I consider android-esque robots to be both fascinating and utterly terrifying. It's an impressive technology, and the uses for it are nigh endless. However, putting robots into the hands of the average american? America has been a DIY nation from the start, so it's feasable that the technically savvy/wealthy crazies out there would be able to modify or buy modified robots. They could make armed robots with a skin (ever seen those "real dolls"?)that could resemble a human from a distance or to a glancing eye, or who knows what else. I don't think they'll rise against us, I just don't want people to have them.
Show me some evidence that Americans have an aversion to robots. You can't, because it doesn't exist. What it really proves is that Americans don't have a particular cultural desire for "robot buddies" as the Japanese seem to.
But the bigger issue is that we don't have any real robot technology that can do anything useful. And we won't have that until we have a real science of Artificial Intelligence, which doesn't exist right now.
Create a consumer a humanoid robot maid that can do all household chores, and Americans would buy millions of them without a qualm. Of course, the next step would be sex robots disguised as maid robots because of the social stigma of sexbots. When we have *that*, we'll have robots everywhere.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Going on what you said, I don't believe that we as humans will see robots move out of the realm of managing and executing repetitious and/or dangerous tasks for several generations. This will be for a couple reasons. First, everything you said. Second, the general public will look at robots with general fear and uncertainty much like they do with the idea of cloning.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing- the wisdom of ignorant crowds is often underrated- they KNOW they are not ready for robots or androids yet thus they look at them with fear. Sort of like giving a kid a gun and telling them to do what they please without any training, this is the general public and whether they know this or not, they effectively are "dumb" enough to intervene.