If robots are widespread in any society, how dependent will the people in that society become upon these robots? What will that dependency mean?
Off-topic example: one of my friends at college asked me how to get to Wal-Mart since I know the area; but when we got in her car, she decided to rely on On-Star's directions instead of mine. We ended up in the next town before she would believe me when I said she had been given incorrect directions.
I think my point above is that I would be wary of a society that depends on robots if the people in that society were not aware that no technology is fool-proof. I don't think that would happen immediately in any society in which robots were introduced, but I could imagine it happening over time. A lot of people, at least in America, seem to be far too interested in their own convenience to not (eventually) become ignorant to the fact that something on which they depend to make their lives faster may sometimes prove itself fallible.
And from here, I fall into nightmares of some future totalitarian society where a small group of elite use robots to subjugate the masses. But I won't get into that now, because I'd be jumping to far too many conclusions if I did.
The past week has been my first time on Slashdot in years, so I can't really speak to trends in article quality. Maybe you have a point of which I'm not aware.
I agree with you that it's quite ridiculous for this article to put it that "the Japanese like robots more than they like people". However, I still think this article raises interesting philosophical questions; so I, personally, wouldn't turn my thumb down at it.
At that point no one cares about your race, economic status, religion, whatever, the playing field is level for you to express yourself. Now, what happens after you post -- that falls back to the current social climate and really depends on what you the individual has to express.
I think you make some very good points. My social life in high school was primarily online (as well as pen-pals all over the world I've collected offline since beginning pen-palling at age 9). In school, and in my small redneck North Carolina town, I was constantly picked on and threatened for being queer, for being pretty radical politically, for having a then-pronounced stutter; but online, I could find communities where people shared some of my views (and even if they didn't share my views, they were at least willing to dialogue with me). Without the internet and the friends I made here, on Outminds, and on Livejournal, I think I would have fallen apart and been a hell of a lot more depressed than I was.
This past semester, I was exhausted after midterm papers and afraid I'd sleep through my alarm, so I asked my mom to call and wake me up before my Ancient Western Philosophy midterm exam. I woke up half an hour before the exam wondering why she hadn't called, and I discovered I had two voicemails from her and five from my dad. Apparently my phone had not rung for any of their calls, and my dad's messages to me were him cussing and screaming at me for "deciding to sleep through my exam". I crushed the exam in 20 minutes and made an A- and decided never to have my parents act as my alarm clock again.
we are fighting terrorism. we are spreading democracy whether anyone likes it or not. if you question us, you hate freedom
a good number of americans must hate freedom, then,
as much as we're questioning this act that quenches it.
Slashdot Mirror
Off-topic example: one of my friends at college asked me how to get to Wal-Mart since I know the area; but when we got in her car, she decided to rely on On-Star's directions instead of mine. We ended up in the next town before she would believe me when I said she had been given incorrect directions.
I think my point above is that I would be wary of a society that depends on robots if the people in that society were not aware that no technology is fool-proof. I don't think that would happen immediately in any society in which robots were introduced, but I could imagine it happening over time. A lot of people, at least in America, seem to be far too interested in their own convenience to not (eventually) become ignorant to the fact that something on which they depend to make their lives faster may sometimes prove itself fallible.
And from here, I fall into nightmares of some future totalitarian society where a small group of elite use robots to subjugate the masses. But I won't get into that now, because I'd be jumping to far too many conclusions if I did.
I agree with you that it's quite ridiculous for this article to put it that "the Japanese like robots more than they like people". However, I still think this article raises interesting philosophical questions; so I, personally, wouldn't turn my thumb down at it.
I think you make some very good points. My social life in high school was primarily online (as well as pen-pals all over the world I've collected offline since beginning pen-palling at age 9). In school, and in my small redneck North Carolina town, I was constantly picked on and threatened for being queer, for being pretty radical politically, for having a then-pronounced stutter; but online, I could find communities where people shared some of my views (and even if they didn't share my views, they were at least willing to dialogue with me). Without the internet and the friends I made here, on Outminds, and on Livejournal, I think I would have fallen apart and been a hell of a lot more depressed than I was.
if evolution is outlawed, only the outlaws will evolve.
This past semester, I was exhausted after midterm papers and afraid I'd sleep through my alarm, so I asked my mom to call and wake me up before my Ancient Western Philosophy midterm exam. I woke up half an hour before the exam wondering why she hadn't called, and I discovered I had two voicemails from her and five from my dad. Apparently my phone had not rung for any of their calls, and my dad's messages to me were him cussing and screaming at me for "deciding to sleep through my exam". I crushed the exam in 20 minutes and made an A- and decided never to have my parents act as my alarm clock again.
we are fighting terrorism. we are spreading democracy whether anyone likes it or not. if you question us, you hate freedom a good number of americans must hate freedom, then, as much as we're questioning this act that quenches it.