Yesterday I went with my wife to the hospital to have my leg wound
dressing done twice a week, and we saw this robotic machine mopping the long
corridors of the hospital on its own. My wife, who is not computer savvy, was
very fascinated, and told me it was very cute with even ‘eyes’ on it. She
watched for some time and saw the robotic cleaner could even charge itself
automatically when it was running out of power by returning to its charger on
the wall. She told me, the cleaner would then turn its back towards the wall
where the charger was and move backwards to plug itself into the charger. When
it decided it was sufficiently charged it would unplug itself to continue
mopping the floors.
I then decided to take a video of it here:
Robot floor cleaner in Kuala Lumpur Hospital
https://youtu.be/wpJ-VuFBuDY?si=iJYrlEi-_GsfuAp4
Here’s what I encountered, my own experience.
When I faced this robotic floor cleaner to take its pictures it stopped for me to video it. See the video in the link above. You may think it was intelligent enough like a human being to stop when they are being photographed. But actually, that robot stopped for several seconds because it faced an obstacle with me standing in front.
It was quite patient
with me for several seconds hoping I would go away. But when I
adamantly stood in its way and refused to move, it turned towards the
wall on its right hoping to get a passage through. But when the wall too
didn't move, it took an almost 180 degrees turn to the opposite side to avoid
both of us, and moved on. It did not put up a fight with me for blocking its
way. When I tried to stop it from going away, I could not. It was very strong. It could have rammed me down for trying to stop it from moving away. Instead, it avoided me and kept moving on. It was not programmed by humans to fight with humans. Had it been a human
worker, he would have argued and fought with me. But what if these robots become intelligent enough to program themselves to fight with humans? We shall discuss this briefly shortly.
I have had the privilege of communicating with Artificial
Intelligence over the one or two weeks and have written a few articles of my
dialogue to challenge them on medical and immunological issues here in this
blog post.
Then now comes this robotic floor cleaner that made me write this
article when I went home from hospital. Read on.
I often think about computers without wondering whether we will ever be
taken over by Artificial Intelligence and robots. I once lived during my
university student days where there is no computer, not even an electronic
calculator for me to calculate out mathematical equations in astronomy,
problems in physical chemistry and biochemistry, dosages of medicine and in
pharmacology, and later when I went higher up into medical research, I needed
to deal with data analysis in biostatistics. During those times when I was a
student in school and even in universities, I had to deal with mathematical
calculations manually as taught to me in school. Thanks to the current era of
computers and electronic scientific calculators that made my obsession in
mathematics and science so much easier and faster.
Today we have the convenience of computers and smartphones to write,
send and receive information across the world at lightning speed.
I have this nagging thought if robots like this simple one of a robotic
floor cleaner mopping the hospital corridors I saw yesterday whether they will
one day replace us, to make us obsolete, and get rid of all those tools we have
been using all along?
If we imagine computer-like brains inside the metal imitations of human
beings that we call robots, the fear is even more unshakable. Robots look so
much like human beings that their appearances may give them treacherous ideas.
This problem faced the world of science fiction in the 1920s and 1930s,
and many were cautionary tales written of robots that were built that turned on
their creators and destroyed them.
We accept that human beings were and are constantly building machines.
And that robots are just one of our ingenious technological inventions. Since
all machines are dangerous in one way or another, humans since time immemorial
built safeguard features into them to protect us from harm during usage.
These machines have been built so that they may not threaten us but were
designed in such a way they only perform certain functions to make us safe.
Accordingly, there are three laws of robotics we programmed into them,
using our own human intelligence to make sure they are benign machines. We made
these laws ourselves.
The first one we put into them is, a robot must not injure a human being
or, though inaction, allows a human to come to harm.
The second law is a robot must obey the orders given to it by human
beings except where those orders would conflict with the first law.
The third law one is to ensure a robot must protect its own existence
except where such protection would conflict with the first or second law.
These laws are programmed into the computerized brain of the robot.
But what about the work being done now on computers and artificial
intelligence? These machines are now built that begin to have an intelligence
of their own. We then ask if these three laws of robotics are also programmed
into them, or will they program themselves with their own laws over us?
We believe they would, assuming the computer designers have the least
bit of intelligence. What’s more, the safeguards will not merely be like the
three laws of robotics but will be the laws made by robots themselves, no
longer ours.
In fact, these three laws have already been in place since man started
to invent machines. Just think, instead of the 3 laws of robotics, we replace
the words as the 3 laws of tools to read as:
1. A tool must be safe to use, such
knives have handles, and swords have hilts. Any tool such as an electric wire
without a rubber insulator coat on it that is sure to electrocute its users,
and it will never be manufactured or used by anyone, let alone the wires will
short-circuit each other.
2. A tool must perform its function,
provided it does not harm its users and does this safely.
3. A tool must remain intact during
use unless its destruction becomes necessary for the safety of its users, or
unless its destruction is necessary, such as medicines that need to be
destroyed after an expiry date, or surgical dressings need to be discarded once
used.
Unfortunately, no one has ever thought of these three laws of tools.
Most of us take them for granted, but if they were told and reminded,
they will agree.
Compare then the Three Laws of the Tools with the Three Laws of
Robotics, we can clearly see they are exactly the same when humanity started to
invent tools for their convenience and safety since Homo erectus
used fire 500,000 years ago, and iron tools were invented and used 3,000 years
ago.
This is the same as whether we use a computer
to write as I do now, or a robotic floor cleaner I saw in the hospital
yesterday. They are just nothing but human tools except they are now more
intelligent that can take over our mundane tasks without harming us.
But are safeguards in machines sufficient if we ourselves are careless.
For instance, cars are built with a lot of safety features. But consider the numbers of MVAs (motor
vehicles accidents) due to our human carelessness, errors and negligence.
These kill hundreds of thousands of humans and even animals on the road
too every year worldwide. Consider also securities put in place in banks, yet
we have human scammers and robbers draining out the savings of others. We can
make computer programs safe to use, yet there are humans with better brains
than computers to undo their programs into the dangers we face today in
computer frauds.
Computers, nevertheless, if we can design them intelligent enough to
take over our tasks, may no longer need these Three Laws. Instead, we may be
able to design them in a way that they keep us safe, guard over us and protect
us from harm. We can clearly see the hospital robotic floor cleaner when
blocked by me when taking its video, it just remained still, and when I refused
to move from its path, it just avoided me, and moved away in another direction.
It did not argue or fight with me as human cleaners would if I were to block
them from their jobs. As it is now, they are truly benign and patient.
Others may disagree with me by arguing that these computers and
robots may become too intelligent and aggressive one day to destroy us instead
and take over this world. In such an event they will no longer be benign and harmless. Really?
In that case I am afraid if we are wiped out by robots and highly
intelligent machines, it shall be a world of robots and other animals without a
soul. It shall be a soulless world, a planet without any spiritual purpose.
Nevertheless, we are already beginning to have a soulless world of human
animals among us without a soul and a godly spirit, and this number is growing
each day with humans seeking only material gains, devoid of being spiritually
intelligent while their hearts are still beating, and lungs still breathing,
selfishly and absolutely sharing nothing with others, except wanting only to
receive. Searching our own hearts will do.
But even before that becomes looming, we can also look at the way we live our lives, multiplying uncontrollably like cancer cells in a body, using up all the naturally resources exponentially in tune with our increasing human population, to each our own without benevolence, each trying to outdo the other in social, political and economic strives resulting in wars. This itself will be an impending scenario that will wipe ourselves out from the face of this planet before computers, artificial intelligence and robots could take over this job.
For further reading pleasure see also here:
Robots that Don't Die to
Colonize this Earth and Yonder
https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2024/
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