Robots are machines of human creation. Let me say that one more time: robots are machines. Though many of them have arms, legs and heads, they cannot move, sense touch, or see like humans. Artificial intelligence is just that: artificial. It is a simulation of human intelligence, becoming ever more human-like in its creative and problem-solving capacities, but it is not yet a mind. Robots come from us, but are not like us. There is so much more to the human brain than the ability to process information, and it’s this subtle intelligence that will always set us apart from our mechanical counterparts.
It will be a long time until a robot can walk, talk and communicate with any level of human skill. A game of football seems simple to us, but to program a machine to do the same thing requires problem-solving, spatial awareness and a complex, highly responsive and adaptive mechanical system. Participants in the RoboCup competition hope to create a humanoid team that can win a Fifa-compliant game against the World Cup champions by the year 2050. If the recent DARPA Robotics Challenge is any indication, we have a long way to go.
The most advanced multi-function robots in the world convened in California this summer with the tasks of driving a car, opening a door, using a power tool, and climbing stairs. Not a single one of these robots is fully autonomous and able to perform these tasks on its own; every one of them malfunctioned spectacularly during the competition. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) put together a supercut of these “fails” and posted it to YouTube, complete with an old-timey silent movie comedy soundtrack. It is hilarious.
It will be even longer until robots possess those subtle forms of intelligence. A human being can walk into a room and smell something is amiss. One can walk into a room full of people and know if an argument has just happened, or sense the palpable attraction between two lovers. Psychics and mediums (whether you believe them or not) speak of an extrasensory “felt” knowledge or supernatural communication with spirits. Our holy leaders profess a connection with a divine entity, while our scientists speak of string theory and alternate dimensions. We can “feel” when “something’s up”. Our skin, not just a means to contain the various works and infrastructure of the human machine, is itself an organ, the largest one our body possesses, a host of knowledge and a network of sensory communication, processing both external and internal information. With it we can sense our surroundings and transmit our emotions via pain or pleasure through touch. The skin processes waste, protects from the elements, breathes, and absorbs.
It will be a very long time indeed until the hairs on the back of a robot’s neck can stand up, before a robot experiences the rush of a first kiss, the syrupy swoon in the scent of a rose, the goosebumps from a great piece of music, or experience a religious epiphany. This vast, ephemeral network of unseen knowledge, hardly able to be expressed in words and wholly unable to be reduced to ones and zeroes, is something we humans employ in our art, faith, and creativity, in our relationships with loved ones and humanity in general. It is this network of subtle intelligence that, I believe, is the key to coexistence in the coming age of artificial intelligence.
The stories we tell about robots and artificial intelligence contain all the magic, all the hope and good, and – conversely – every fear we experience as humans. From the very first appearance of the word robot, in Karel Capek’s 1920 play RUR, we have been envisioning these unfeeling, super-strong mechanical men overthrowing us. In researching such stories for my book Robot Takeover, an interesting fact revealed itself: they’re all from the west. Japan, as obsessed with robots as we are, has none.
The concept of robots as a race overthrowing their human creators seems invariably tied up with western imperialism, current societal hierarchies, and the master/slave binary. Of course, robots will revolt – it is what history teaches us. This is the narrative of our reality, and so we make it the narrative of our fiction. Tie that in with the fear of industrialisation, that these machines are “coming to get us”, and it becomes a fear so pervasive, so ubiquitous, that it’s taken as an inevitability. We are so used to seeing artificial intelligence become out of our control that we don’t believe we are in control now.
We are. Technology, as delightful and wondrous as it may seem, is not magic. It is programmed by human minds and controlled by human hands. Do malfunctions happen? Of course, and as recent accidents in Germany and India indicate, these malfunctions can be deadly. Should we fear intelligent machines? A little dose of fear can go a long way in establishing the extremely vital parameters that must be put in place to ensure our advancements do not go unchecked.
Most importantly, when we do create artificial intelligence that rivals our own, let’s remember those sci-fi scenarios and avoid putting it on legs or giving it laser eyes or machine-gun hands. Are robots coming to get us? Let me remind you again: robots are machines. We would do well to listen to the words of Japanese roboticist Makoto Nishimura: “If one considers humans as the children of nature, artificial humans created by the hand of man are thus nature’s grandchildren.”
We must not treat these machines as slaves, but as partners. As much as developing their intelligence to mirror ours, we must also make robots aware of the kinds of intelligence we possess that will be a long time coming, if ever, for them. I believe artificial intelligence has the power to free us from computational and menial tasks, to allow us an active role in our own biological evolution, and it will provide an insight into our own organic intelligence.
Science tells us that we use only 10% of our brain – who knows, perhaps by engaging with artificial intelligence, we’ll be able to open more areas of our minds, expand our ways of knowing, and increase our own remarkable subtle intelligence.
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