David Diamond's The Love Machine

An American futurist Thomas Frey, made a prediction that robots will have taken over two billion jobs worldwide by 2030. (Gillis, p.480) In “The Robot Invasion” by Charlie Gillis, the topic of the article is how robots are becoming more apparent in people’s everyday lives. The author is skeptical about the robots that scientists have been creating to become more like people. As well as, informative of the newest products roboticists have been making, which has been to create robots to do small tasks and have human characteristics. (Gillis, C. p.477-481)

Another interesting point that was discussed in the lecture was that with the advancement of technology, there is actually robots that attend to peoples need when they are lonely and they are actually being sold now. For example, like the amazon mini robot that is used to help remind people about different tasks that they have to perform throughout the day. Than there actually is a human size robot that can even cook for you, be their when you need to talk to someone and so forth. It’s really interesting how technology has improved and the things that we can perform with it in this time and

Jerry West’s article “Robots on Earth” talks about robots that, unlike books or movies, aid people simplifying their lives and health. As robots don’t need specific conditions; they are perfect for performing jobs that might be harmful to humans. Like the R2 humanoid at the International Space Station, which completes dangerous and mundane tasks for astronauts and frees their time. They also boost our health; they are working with scientists to create an exoskeleton for quadriplegic people. Robots aren’t evil, they’re useful machines that have so much to offer and make our lives safer.lives

While technology is commonly thought of as inventions and gadgets, anything that humans have developed for specific purposes or to accomplish certain goals, such as methods or models, must also be correctly categorized as such. In Cathy Davidson’s essay “Project Classroom Makeover,” she discusses a few unconventional forms of technology such as the educational classroom paradigm and standardization. Similarly, in Steve Johnson’s essay “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” he presents procedural technology, such as self-organizing systems, and conceptual technology, collaborative intelligence. He then utilizes another conceptual form of technology, the complexity theory, to interpret these systems’ seemingly uncoordinated patterns. Sherry Turkle branches off of Davidson and Johnson’s ideas by discussing the consequences of questioning what makes a robot alive in her essay “Alone Together.” This narrative highlights the technology’s effect on humans and the reality of robots either improving or diminishing an individual’s quality of life. Besides the slight apprehension of its future usage, humans are mesmerized by the promising potential technology presents. Additionally, structural or paradigmatic technology is deeply intertwined and inherent within society’s functioning, making it impossible to separate technology from human existence.

Throughout “Love and Sex with Robots,” author David Levy explores the topic of human intimacy, and how it has developed throughout history. While his book begins with discussing human-to-human relationships and intimacy, he explores modern technological intervention like dating websites and electronic sex toys. However, like the title suggests, Levy uses the the majority of his book to convince the reader that the use of sex robots are an inevitable evolution of robotic intimacy, and will be especially useful for minority sectors of the population like misfits and the sexually inadequate (291).

In his 2011 The Chronicle Review article “Programmed for Love” Jeffrey R. Young interviews Professor Sherry Turkle about her experience with what she calls “sociable robots”. Turkle has spent 15 years studying robotics and its social emergence into society. After extensive research and experimenting with the robots, she believes that soon they will be programmed to perform specific tasks that a human would normally do. While this may seem like a positive step forward to some people, Turkle fears the worst. The article states that she finds this concept “demeaning, ‘transgressive,’ and damaging to our collective sense of humanity.” (Young, par. 5). She accredits this to her personal and professional experience with the robots. Turkle and her

“Love on the B-Line” by Adam Kraar gives us an understanding of how to write a play. He gives us great examples of structure, character development, and dialogue that can help young or novice writers understand the basics of making a play.

Turkle speaks about her occupation at MIT where analysts experiment with robots by propelling its capacity to be instructors, home associates and closest companions which focuses on specific age groups but particularly to the elderly (2015). According to statistics there is no position available in this field to take care of the old due to the population of less younger people. Therefore, researchers at MIT trusts the making of ‘caring machines’. For this reason, Turkle indicates roboticists are not by any means the only individuals with this thought, there has been chatter from others that is not in the robotic world (2015). Therefore, humans trust the idea of having robots taking care of the elderly rather than people. The reasons is that humans are thought to be cruel where the overseer can steal or be abusive (Turkle 2015). Strangely enough, this shows grown ups have turned out to be so contributed with technology, believing a robot can talk and care a for a person. Additionally, it demonstrates a discrimination against mankind, due to not trusting the ability of a human being. Furthermore, this creates the lack of living life and facing reality. As a result, artificial intelligence has driven into the adults’ minds where they trust that contact with robots is great yet it is definitely

Not only that, these sociable robots inadvertently change the way we view reality around. In today society what was once taboo like talking to an inanimate object is now acceptable because of new technology. Even the

In a world that continues to advance technologically machines titled “sociable robots” acquire life-like characteristics once exclusive to humans. They are able to express artificial emotions that seem real to the user. In “Alone Together” by Sherry Turkle we see how sociable robots interact with children. They begin to feel emotions that were once exclusive to human interaction. In the narrative “An Army of One: Me” by Jean Twenge we see how prominent the generation gap is. Those under the age of thirty-five tend to focus more on themselves and making sure they feel worthy. Twenge appropriately titles this generation as “Generation Me,” highlighting the fact that boosts of “self-esteem” leads to a rise in individualistic focus. Parents expose their children to toys that industries manufacture to fill the emotional needs children have at a young age. This consequently decreases the need for human interaction. As technology develops and become more “alive,” researchers are able to find what children desire and are able to give those desires to them in a toy. These new toys shape how children think and grow, directly affecting them for their entire lives. By changing the notions of aliveness, sociable robots “cultivate” behaviors representative of Generation Me by manipulating values important to one’s well-being through their expression of life-like emotions and behaviors.

The idea of universal love is one that is prevalent in the media. With the news filled with grim stories and horror many people are calling to the idea of loving everyone. Tensions are high concerning race relations, gender discrimination, and sexual orientation. Many in the general public are calling for humanity to embrace humanity. Many in the general public are asking “why we can’t just love one another”? Stephen T. Asma tackles this idea of love in his article published in the New York Times. Asma discusses two different ideas about universal love before offering his own take on the subject. Just as Asma states, universal love is a myth and closer personal relationships should be favored.

Sharkey explains the advantage points of his argument by explaining how the Japanese and South Korean companies are creating child-like robots that can be good for “video-game playing, conducting verbal quiz game, speech recognition, face recognition, and conversation” (Sharkey 358). He describes how robots have the ability to provide alerts when children move out of range. However, he brings up a crucial point in their programming on how robots can’t provide the proper care that human adults can give to their kids including: contact, touch and caring from other humans. Though robots can provide safety, children may not have contact with other humans for days, which according to Sharkey, can cause a “psychological impact of the varying degrees of social isolation” (358). His claim was based on animal studies. For example, during an experiment with monkeys, according to Sharkey, “severe social dysfunction occurs in infant animals that are allowed to develop attachments only to inanimate surrogates” (358). Like a child would do with a robot, the monkeys would grow too attached and their behavior would likely change. People today need to realize that they need to reconsider the idea of having robots care for their kids and start being the responsible ones.

In “Alone Together: The Robotic Movement,” Sherry Turkle explains some of the negative effects that robots are having on our lives. She also explains how they can have a negative effect on our daily lives without us even noticing. I am someone who knows a great deal about technology, however I had no idea that close human-robot interaction was happening at such an inappropriate level. There are many different examples Turkle uses in the article, however, I will only talk about two. I agree with Turkle not only that there are ethical problems with human-robot interaction but also that a lot of other forms of technology might be doing more harm than good.

Andy Clark, in Natural-Born Cyborgs, offers an extended argument that technology’s impact on and intertwining with ordinary biological human life is not to be feared, either psychologically or morally. Clark offers several key concepts towards his line of reasoning. Clark argues that a human being thinks and reasons based on the biological brain and body dynamically linked with the culture and technological tools transparently accessible to the human. This form of thinking and reasoning develops new "thinking systems" that which over time become second nature thoughts and reasons and are the basis of even newer "thinking systems." It is a repetitive cycle that continues forever being built upon previous systems.

Lately there have been more and more smart machines that have been taking over regular human tasks but as it grows the bigger picture is that robots will take over a lot of tasks now done by people. But, many people think that there are important ethical and moral issues that have to be dealt with this. Sooner or later there is going to be a robot that will interact in a humane manner but there are many questions to be asked like; how will they interact with us? Do we really want machines that are independent, self-directed, and has affect and emotion? I think we do, because they can provide many benefits. Obviously, as with all technologies, there are dangers as well. We need to ensure that people always