On the neat side, this could be a technological revolution. Instead of programming artificial intelligence, we can just plug it in! According to another site I viewed, they also intend to try inhibiting the cells in ways that resemble Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Its medically useful too!
On the downside, what are we messing with?!? What is to stop someone from putting human brain cells in there instead? Why don't we just take out someone's brain, and stick them in a robot? Why don't we have someone's brain control the robot remotely, and put guns on it so we don't have to endanger soldiers? Who is to say that the robots won't say, "Hey, why do we have to keep listening to these people when we are so much more powerful than they are?" What are the moral implications of this sort of thing?
The more I think about it, the more I am scared by it. No matter how cool and potentially beneficial this might be, I think the risk is a little too high.
2 comments:
This does have immense potential for bennefits. Pretty exciting to me since I am switching into a biomedical engineering major.
I think at this early of a stage any worries about a robotic take over are just fantasies. Perhaps further down the road when they can make decisions on their own is when we truly need to worry. Until then I'm for most of it.
I'm going into biomedical engineering, too (hopefully), and ideas like this bother me. They present a huge question: Should people be allowed to mess with humanity in such a way to not only limit it to humans? While I think robotics is great and would be a great way to solve many of the world's problems, I also think it would create many problems by just existing. If robots can make their own decisions and morals, whose morals or ethics will they abide by? It's disturbing to me, and I think I'll try to stick to less mind-robot stuff.
On the upside, I did hear in my genetics class that they are creating Parkinson's and Alzheimer's cells from stem cells, which means that they can follow the progression of the diseases and maybe find a weak point of the timeline to attack the diseases. :)
Also, I did like Lord of the Rings. They were long, but action-packed. :D
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