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Question of the month for April 2025

CaddmannQ

CaddmannQ

Will TIG for Food
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Since the Tesla is essentially a rolling robot, who can see and steer and avoid obstacles and start and stop, it won’t be long before the laws of robotics start coming in to be as was predicted by the venerable Isaac Asimov.

But what will they be in our future society?

Remembering, of course, that any robots are still extremely expensive.

Will the law allow a robot to defend itself against a human just because that robot happens to look like a rolling Kelvinator?

An Asimov robot could not be forced to injure a human, disobey a human, or harm itself, unless any of those things caused the robot or the human(!) to be harmed. Typically they would try to run away, or lock up and burn out.

But what if it only talks to the Internet, and it doesn’t have arms or legs, and it doesn’t have a face, but it is an autonomous computer with teargas emitters, or something lethal perhaps?

Will it allow itself to be damaged by a human or will it run away? If it’s cornered and it can’t run will it fight back?

And what will it do in defence if there is a human inside of it?

If it thinks it’s human passenger is about to be injured, will it drive over a protester to get away? Who would be at fault if fault was to be found?

“Oh we’re very sorry Mr. Jones . . . But that was a robot error. Our computer guy is trying to correct that right now.”
 
Advance automation and robotics + artificial intelligence. Life will eventually imitate art - just like Skynet and the terminator series. My family thinks I'm nuts, but I can see this happening.

I think of what Stephen Hawking said about AI: "The question is not who gets to control AI.......the real question is whether it can be controlled at all."

Some of the more advanced Quantum computers have had their plugs pulled by Google and others because some VERY scary things were happening.
 
And when the robots go out of control and become a threat to humans then what will be the legal ramificationss regarding disabling or killing the robot?

I'm not sure AI, unchecked, is a great benefit to man. We still need to have a human in the loop because not everything is ones and zeros, nor black or white.
 
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Ernst said:
And when the robots go out of control and become a threat to humans then what will be the legal ramificationss regarding disabling or killing the robot?

I'm not sure AI, unchecked, is a great benefit to man. We still need to have a human in the loop because not everything is ones and zeros, nor black or white.
Click to expand...

In the world of Isaac Asimov’s robots, what happened was called “the crazy years” when people on earth went out and destroyed every possible robot. They were made illegal on the planet earth and robots were only allowed in space or on other planets thereafter.

When the time came that humans actually did need a robot, they had to import one from another planet and it was disguised completely as a human.

Unfortunately, after an extended conversation, humans could always tell they were talking to a robot; and so they had to limit contact between ordinary people and the humanoid robot to avoid a riot.
 
People dream these things up but you know when you look at them that those people are not mechanics. Imagine trying to keep the dirt out of all of those tiny pivots.

You can’t hardly keep the bushings on a tractor smooth and those dang things are huge.

I’ve seen these robots out of Boston and I always wonder right away how long those things run before they need maintenance other than just normal battery charges.
 
Maybe it's engineering that will ultimately be the demise of AI. Like the guys that put starter motors in the valley under an intake manifold. Exquisite engineering that will be impossible to maintain.
 
“Amazon is forcing Echo users to make a couple of tough decisions: Grant Amazon access to recordings of everything you say to Alexa or stop using an Echo”

This makes me happy I never bought one.

There’s a modern racket for you:
Sell people an expensive device, then threaten to misuse or disable it remotely after the sale.

Why is this legal?

This is why I won’t buy a Tesla or anything similar.
 
I can't imagine why anyone would have one of these devices in their house that monitors and records every word you and your family say plus all the sounds within the house.

Computers which track everything you write, read or even look at are bad enough. And then we have cell phones that monitor and record every move we make.

Intrusion at it's worse! Big brother is watching! Hello big brother!!!!!!
 
Ernst said:
I can't imagine why anyone would have one of these devices in their house that monitors and records every word you and your family say plus all the sounds within the house.
Click to expand...

My cousin is one of those bleeding edge adopters of technology. :rolleyes: Yet another lunatic walking around talking to himself... :D
 
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