COULD ROBOTS BE A THREAT TO HUMANITY?
Robots have become everyday machines indispensable
for almost everyone in this era; we can find them everywhere, from cell phones to the appliances
we use daily.
Every year the computing capacity of computer processors doubles, and advances in programming
have made artificial intelligence capable of learning, something previously only organic
living beings could achieve.
Is it possible that one day, robots will be able to do everything people do or even become
a threat to the human race?
What is a robot?
When we hear the word robot, the classic image of an automated electric or electronic machine
similar to a human immediately comes to mind, capable of carrying out very specific and
even complex tasks.
But is this image of robots accurate?
The first time the term robots was discussed was in the Czech Novel Universal Robots Rosum
where we do not talk about robots like the current ones but rather improved humans like
androids or cyborgs, which end up revealing themselves against humanity.
Years later, the science fiction writer Issac Asimov mentions for the first time the term
"Robotics" in his novel "I´m Robot," where he talks for the first time about robots,
which is robotics, which is artificial intelligence, and mentions the famous three laws of robots.
Which, in case you do not remember them, are: 1.
A Robot should never harm a human being.
2.
A robot must comply with human orders, except those that conflict with the first law.
3.
A robot must protect its existence to the extent that this protection does not conflict
with the first or second law.
The first humanoid robot in history was created by Pittsburgh, Westinghouse Electric Corporation,
and was called Elektro; this was a massive robot with very little mobility weighing 170kg
and appeared in several fictional stories in 1960.
Although it was not a very useful robot, Elektro was the first jump to an automaton machine
in history.
Currently, among people dedicated to robotics, there is a consensus that for something to
be considered, a robot must have at least a totally or partially automatic computer
system.
In this sense, almost all the things that surround us today could be classified as robots,
a television, a computer, a drone, your Smartphone, a refrigerator, etc.
Etc.
As you can see we are currently surrounded by robots, but can a robot do everything a
person does?
WILL ROBOTS TAKE OUR JOBS?
Scientists dedicated to evaluating the development of societies classify this era we live in
as the era of technological revolution, an era in which we are seeing the emergence of
technologies that have never existed before.
Technologies that 100 years ago were unimaginable today are in the palm of our hands.
We have technology that allows us to talk to someone on the other side of the world,
find out about the latest news in a few seconds or even have all the maps of the earth on
an ordinary phone.
Everything is moving forward and changing at an unprecedented rate.
The jobs, which previously could only be performed by people, are now efficiently executed tasks
for robots.
Some of the jobs that robots are beginning to take over today are the following:
Supermarket cashier Counters
Industrial manufacturing personnel Packers
Cooks Car drivers
Receptionists Customer service people
Road builders To mention a few.
If you're curious if a robot could take your job away in the next few years, you have to
ask yourself: How easy would it be to automate what I do?
The hard your job is to automate, the harder it will be for a robot to replace you in your
current job.
This panorama is not very encouraging; it seems that robots are taking over everything;
there are already robots that accommodate products such as those of the Amazon, robots
that vacuum the house, robot cooks, and even robots capable of singing, dancing, jumping
and even capable of presenting a concert.
Yes, as you just heard, in 2018, at the League of Legends world championship, the leading
presentation was nothing more than a group of singers who did not exist.
This KDA team was presented on stage with augmented reality.
That is to say, the singers were not there, but they were the main attraction.
To understand the magnitude and importance of this, the League of Legends world championship
is one of the most watched worldwide and is second only to the Super Bowl.
Now a machine does something that before could only be carried out by a person; shortly,
it may be that robots will replace even video creators on YouTube.
It is possible that this video you are watching is nothing more than a robot.
But not everything is bad news; we must bear in mind that it is not the first time that
this has happened; many years ago, at the time of the industrial revolution, for the
first time in history, the machines began to make theirs leaving the workers of the
industries without work since the work that 20 workers carried out could be executed by
a single machine and a worker.
This era resulted in many people who were out of work, but many new jobs also emerged,
the problem was that most people at that time were not prepared or trained to carry out
those jobs.
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videos" THE OPPORTUNITIES NO ONE WILL TAKE
According to FORBES statistics, for every job lost in 2030, another six new jobs will
arise; the problem will be that only 20% of people will be prepared or trained to carry
out those jobs.
To give you an idea, there is currently the employment of an automotive mechanic, that
is, people who repair and maintain cars, indeed this is a job that will last for the next
few years since, at the moment, cars are not capable of repairing themselves, also don't
have machines that repair cars without human intervention.
What is changing is that there are more and more electric cars; that is, mechanics who
do not know how to fix electric cars have two options: to change jobs or learn how to
repair electric cars.
Although today there are thousands of mechanical engineers, most do not know how to repair
an electric car; the only way to avoid losing their jobs is to train to carry out that task.
If you don't want a robot to take your job, you should forget the idea that you only study
once in a lifetime.
No, that is no longer the case; many years ago, a person could do the same job throughout
his life and live fully, but today it is no longer possible because technology advances
very fast.
It is currently rare for a young person to have the same job for more than three years;
seniority is no longer generated because things are changing faster than ever.
We must understand that it is not studied only once, but that it is studied all your
life so as not to become obsolete; we should not wait for things to change because things
are already changing and will continue to do so faster and faster.
As Joseph Elie Aoun said in his book Robot Proff, "the key for robots not to take away
our jobs is education, we must strengthen in society those tasks that robots cannot,
nor can never do."
Jobs that have to do with genetics are difficult to replace with robots; it is also very complicated
for a robot to replace all workers in the health area.
It is also not possible to place robots in jobs related to leadership and psychology,
as well as all jobs in programming.
And if you do not want a robot to take away your job, one of the best options is to dedicate
yourself to one of the jobs that have to do with designing, building, and repairing robots.
As you can see, not everything seems bad, yes, it is true that things are changing and
many do not like change, but it is inevitable; it will happen, so before it happens, you
have the future in your hands.
Either you wait for a robot to come and take your job or learn to do things that robots
can't do.
After all, robots are already part of our daily lives; we cannot evade reality, only
adapt to it.
CAN ROBOTS DESTROY HUMANITY?
In 2009 the film "Terminator, salvation" was released in theaters.
This is where first appears the artificial intelligence Skynet, leading an army of machines
that aim to destroy the human race.
Is this possible?
The reality is that we do not know; when this issue is touched on, the scientific community
is divided into two camps, on the one hand, those who claim that this is simply impossible,
and on the other, those who affirm that this is possible and that we must prepare ourselves
so that this does not happen.
We cannot provide an accurate answer, but we can give you our current opinion.
Technology is advancing worryingly fast; however, it seems we are reaching the limit.
The microprocessors that are responsible for carrying out the calculations of a computer
are found in the chips.
Currently, these chips measure a few nanometers (nm).
One nanometer is equivalent to one billionth of a meter.
For reference, dust mites are about 200,000 nanometers long, while a human hair is 80,000
nanometers in diameter, so something measuring ten nanometers will only be visible with a
powerful microscope.
In 2021 the technology company IBM announced that it had been able to create a functional
chip of only 2 nanometers (nm); however, experts argue that the time will come when it will
be physically impossible to continue placing transistors inside a processor, in fact, manufacturers
already face problems to reduce the size of silicon-based transistors.
For a computer to achieve a degree of intelligence that resembles even a little human intelligence,
it should have an amount of memory that is impossible to create with modern technology,
and there is no guarantee that such a feat will be achieved one day.
On the other hand, if we talk about an AI that is capable of threatening humanity, a
supercomputer may not be necessary; it is only enough that we give that AI control over
our most destructive weapons.
THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY During the armed conflicts that have arisen
in recent years, some countries have taken security measures that many of us would consider
exaggerated.
One such security measure is to create lethal offensive weapons that do not need human supervision.
Today it is known that countries like Russia and the United States possess nuclear weapons
that do not need human authorization to fire, yes, as you hear, these AIs are programmed
to act in case of a nuclear attack on their territory.
That is, if, for some reason, Russia or the United States suffered a nuclear attack on
their territory and there was no one left alive to respond to the attack, this AI would
be in charge of doing so, that is, that the war would be only between machines.
In this scenario, artificial intelligence could pose a danger if they are manipulated
to execute attacks even if there is no provocation.
It is worrying to know that the fate of humanity does not even depend on humans but on a couple
of computers not making a mistake when making a decision.
In conclusion Could robots be a danger to the future of
humanity?
Definitely, but do not forget that robots are machines and will not do anything that
we do not tell them to do.
A hammer can be used to build a bridge or can destroy a family's home; likewise, robots
can bring peace and comfort to humanity, or they can provoke a nuclear war in which no
one wins.
Robots are tools, and it will be up to us to decide whether we want them to be our salvation
or our downfall.