Post your comments for each of the following:
1 - Where/when is it more appropriate to use a robot than a human being - danger, expense, rapidity, boredom?
2 - What are the social impacts and ethical considerations regarding the use of robotics in medicine e.g. robotic surgery, computer-controlled prostheses?
Read this - 'Birthing robots' training medics in S. Korea
3 - Is there a social impact of human interaction with robots e.g. artificial pets, robots for the disabled and elderly?
4 - What are the social and economic effects of replacing people with robots in the workplace?
Read - Computer Confluence The Automated Factory pages 428-9
5 - How do we make ethical decisions regarding the use of robots in situations that might endanger human beings?
6 - How reliable are robotic devices, particularly in life-threatening situations
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7 comments:
1 - Where/when is it more appropriate to use a robot than a human being - danger, expense, rapidity, boredom?
• Bomb detection and disarmament: In the military robots are able to do the dangerous work of disarming bombs instead of humans. As robots can work with more precision and are unable to make a ‘human’ error, the disarming of bombs will become more efficient as there will be no lives lost and the bombs will not explode, as the robot is able to disarm it without time running out.
• Dangerous/heavy work: As we look at vehicle assembly, the use of robots is more suited than humans as the work can be dangerous since it involves large and heavy parts of a car. Humans are limited in their physical capacities but robots are able to perform heavy tasks as they have no sense of pain. By using a robot, the risk of someone getting hurt is eliminated.
• Repetitive and boring work that takes place in an adverse environment: For example, packaging and warehousing are two branches wherein the work is very repetitive and not challenging at all. By using a robot instead of a human, the productivity can increase, since robots are able to work faster, and humans no longer have to perform these mind numbing jobs. Also, the environment wherein these jobs are situated is not very appealing as they might be surrounded by machines in a big, empty industrial unit. Another example of an adverse environment is work that has to be done under water for underwater exploration.
• In chemical/nuclear factories: In a job where one has to deal with hazardous materials, it is important that no error is made. As a robot works with high precision, these kinds of jobs are more suitable for a robot than for a human. Also, when working with chemicals, the chance that might get contaminated might be high. For robots there is no issue of getting sick by being exposed to dangerous chemicals as they are immune to it. But for humans however, it is bad for their health and possibly life threatening when they are exposed to chemicals. Therefore, in this case it is more appropriate to use a robot.
• Work that needs a high precision level: As a robot is able to perform the same task over and over, the level of precision will be extremely high. It will not make errors, unless there is an error in the system. Robots do not get bored or distracted; they are able to do the same thing for hours and hours with a high level of precision.
Where/when is it more appropriate to use a robot than human being- danger, expense, rapidity, boredom?
Robots are appropriate to replace human beings in cases where human health can be endangered. For example, humans are not built to lead nocturnal life, but robots can work as many hours in the night as the battery source allows. Therefore, robots, often specific use robots, are used in mass production factories, often where repetition of tasks for a long period of time is required. As robots do not need a health insurance coverage, uniform, application forms, visa, passports, sick days and wages, keeping the maintenance on robots are less expensive. This method of production with robots is only available when companies and national power grid system, can supply adequate amount of electricity.
What are the social impact on human interaction with robots e.g. artificial pets, robots for disabled and elderly?
Interacting with robots such as artificial pets is same as interacting with animals. You don’t speak the same language, but the safe side is that robots will do what you expect them to do. A stroke on the head of Aibo causes the dog to wag its tails. Such robots, which can imitate the actions of the real life animals, are considered beneficial to people who adopt this artificial pet, and the robot will live as long as the owner chooses it to be. In other words, the robot is immortal. This causes no stress on the owners. But one of the points about having a pet may be to make people understand the responsibility for taking care of living animals and be worried for their lives. If there is no limitation of the mortal ways of nature, then people would not be able to grasp the significance of co-living and responsibility. If a robot takes care of the elderly with walking, or supports the disabled with their arms as cyborgs, it is another aspect of human interaction with robots, and it shows that humans already are dependent on these robots to continue with their lives. Such close relationships with robots, may bring the future generations more closely acquainted as well as comfortable around robots which could aide the cause of implementing more robots into our daily activities.
What are the social and economic effects of replacing people with robots in the workplace?
There are positive social and economic implications of robots in the workplace. One of the implications are the amount of expenditure are saved by the companies when employing robots, and there will be less human error in the production. The rate of accidents per month, time of production will also decrease along. As this is the case, human workers will have simpler jobs.
Deriving from these advantages are the disadvantages. Human workers are less capable of doing certain tasks compared with robots. Many robots have hi-tech tools installed as arms and legs, for specific usage, therefore the robots are more centered toward achieving a goal.
Human labor would not be counted crucial to the development of the products, especially in tasks such as packaging for a food supply company. Migrant workers will have no place as other job options which do not induce pain from physical labor, require certain degree of education; In which case some people do not have or did not have a chance to have. If humans are relieved of physical labor with robots, then what is left to do is creative mind work such as logical thinking. But about half of the world is illiterate, it is predominantly impossible to provide global education on a short term basis, therefore the workers who are being replaced by the robots in the workplace, will be out of job.
If the humans are provided with ways to avoid physical labor, it may have implication for how long humans can live a comfortable life. The population of the world is growing year by year, and soon the natural sources will not be available to support the whole population. As quicker the production to meet the demand is, the natural sources will be exploited with much rigorous manner.
How do we make ethical decisions regarding the use of robots in situations hat might endanger human beings?
When human beings are in situation of possible danger, people are easier to justify that robot are indeed essential labor tools. It is a result of human ambition to replace them on the top of the food chain.
How reliable are robotic devices, particularly in life threatening situations?
If the sensors are damaged, the entire robot will have nothing to derive instantaneous environmental changes which make a robot vulnerable and unreliable. In US military, robot riders are used for soldiers to sit on individually. It is an invention of iRobot and it has infra-red sensors, which is used to locale where the gun-fire came from, automatically directing the soldiers.
The programming of the robot is as good as he people who designed it. The unpredictable is that even with intensive testing, there is still unknown factors which might affect the robot in use.
2 - What are the social impacts and ethical considerations regarding the use of robotics in medicine e.g. robotic surgery, computer-controlled prostheses?
The main ethical consideration with robotic surgery lies in the reliability issues. Since a robot is operating instead of a human being, it is hard to appoint who is reliable in case something goes wrong. In case the family of the patient wants to sue, it is difficult to know who. It is harder to sue a robot than it is a doctor.
Also, as doctors are able to use robotic machines for diagnoses (example: Diagnosis Machine ‘Dr. Robot’ by Dr. Paycha, Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,891762,00.html). If doctors become too dependent on these robotic machines, instead of using their medical knowledge, there arise ethical considerations. In medicine we are dealing with humans, so it is important to observe them before making a diagnosis. Machines are not able to do this. If the doctor solely depends on the machine without looking at the symptoms himself, the machine might overlook a symptom, causing an incorrect diagnosis. Again , the reliability issue arises again, as the doctor did not make the diagnosis but he also did not do his job.
Socially, robotics in medicine will bring many advantages to the patients. Robotics have allowed for surgeries called MIS; minimally invasive surgery. As robots are able to work with a high level of precision, the surgery will leave minimal trauma and scarring, which causes the recovery time to decrease. As the recovery time decreases, there will be less chance of infections after the surgery. All these advantages might make surgery something that people are less afraid of or it might make it easier for people to have surgery, as their life, socially or otherwise, will be impacted less after the surgery. The social impact of robotics in medicine is that people are less afraid of surgery and therefore more willing to do it, which might increases the overall health of the population over a long period of time.
Other inventions in robotics such as computer-controlled prostheses have major social impacts on the patient. As these prostheses will enable the patient to perform a task that he/she could not otherwise, their daily life is improved but also in the field of employment, their possibilities are increased.
Robotics in medicine increase the overall wellbeing as surgeries can be performed with higher precision and the impact of surgery is decreased. Also, diagnoses can be made by both robot and doctor, allowing for a more precise diagnosis. Prostheses enable humans to perform tasks they could not do otherwise. Overall, robotics in medicine increased the degree of precision and with doctors doing their job; the possibilities of robotics bring many advantages to the patients.
3 - Is there a social impact of human interaction with robots e.g. artificial pets, robots for the disabled and elderly?
For the elderly the social impact of robots for human interaction is significant. Artificial pets such as Mio or Aibo (Artificial Intelligence Robot (Japanese for "partnet")), allow companionship for elderly. As the children of elderly are already grown up, they have no one to take care of. But with artificial pets they can still take care of someone. Also, a real pet such as a dog might be a burden that the elderly cannot take, as real dogs and pets are unpredictable in their behaviour and need far more attention and care than an artificial pet. Artificial pets give the elderly to be no longer alone, or feel alone.
Robots that are able to perform a helping function for disabled or elderly might enable them to perform tasks that are otherwise impossible. Robots can lift heavy things, support elderly/disabled with walking or other things disabled or elderly people are no longer able to do. Such robots will make their everyday life easier as they are able to get help. As elderly or disabled people can interact with robots, they can talk to it as long as they want. A robot has all the time they want so elderly or disabled people might feel that they have a companion, someone they can rely on.
4 - What are the social and economic effects of replacing people with robots in the workplace?
The most obvious economic effect of using robots instead of humans in the workplace is that it will increase production. As robots are able to work faster, more precise and do not make ‘human’ errors, the production level will be high and constant. Robots can work with a high degree of precision, they do not require lunch breaks or pauses and they can repeat the same task over and over. A social effect for humans may then be that because robots work better in general, more and more jobs will be replaced by a robot. So eventually people will be without job as robots are able to their job, but then better. And with the development of intelligent robots, not only the physical jobs will be done by robots, but robots will be able to perform most jobs.
When robots are used for the more physical jobs or repetitive jobs, humans will be able to work in a safer environment as they no longer have to do the dangerous jobs, which leads to less work accidents. Also, their job will bring them more diversity as the repetitive jobs will be done by robots. However, when many but not all employees are replaced by robots, the employees left might find their work environment unpleasant as they are surrounded by robots, not actual human beings.
For the company itself, the economic effect of robots has to be considered. When we compare the total cost of employees or robots, there is a significant difference. Employees require a monthly salary, plus they have humanitarian needs and can work for a limited amount of hours. Robots are expensive to purchase but they only require maintenance. So a robot is one big amount of money in the beginning but humans are a continuing cost.
Therefore, for the company the economic effect will be that they save on manufacturing costs.
5 - How do we make ethical decisions regarding the use of robots in situations that might endanger human beings?
In the military, robots are used as weapons, for surveillance, and for detecting and neutralize mines. As going to the front or looking for mines are both very dangerous jobs, it is ethically justified that we use robots instead of humans. As there are lives at stake, it is important to protect these lives. The downside of using robots as weapons in military operations is that robots do not know the differences between enemy soldiers and civilians. It is hard to control the robot and if the robot starts shooting at everybody including the civilians, there are ethical issues to consider as the civilians are not fighting the war and are innocent. But in the end, robots have brought many advantages in the military and they save more soldiers’ lives than any soldier could for the troops. In general, it is ethically justified to use robots in the army as it is a way to save lives, only we have to consider the lives of the civilians of the country in war.
The more robots get development; they will be implemented in different fields of our daily lives. As they might be used as for example pilots, there is always a chance of something going wrong. Especially when the robots are recently implemented and therefore not used as often, this use of robots might endanger human beings. But it is only by implementing and actually using robots that we can progress in the development of robots. When there are enough tests to support that the robot actually works flawlessly, then there is no ethical issue with implementing the robot. The testing process before implementing is crucial to be able to ethically justify the use of the robot.
6 - How reliable are robotic devices, particularly in life-threatening situations?
Robots are increasingly being used to perform various types of tasks. Especially in the medical and military field, robotic have made rapid advancements causing a high deployment. As robots use mechanical and electronic components, the reliability problems might become significant due to the many different sources of failures. The need for both preventive and other maintenance, the requirement for tools to repair the robots, and regular inspections are all required to ensure the reliability of robots.
Prior to the implementation of robots, the design, reliability or other testing and installation of the robots are important steps to ensure robot reliability. Not only is the maintenance of the robot important, but also the understanding of robotics and robot safety for humans, is essential to be able to ensure robot reliability. In both the medical and military field, the understanding of robotics is crucial to guarantee a successful use of robots.
In the medical field, the robots used have to work with a high level of precision, whether they are used for surgery, diagnosis or otherwise. In the operation room, the robots have to be totally accurate as they will be performing operations on human beings. Prior to the implementation of these robots, there have been many tests to ensure reliability of these robots. Otherwise it would have been unethical to start deploying them, without certainty they are reliable. There is still room for system failure or an error occurring, even after these tests, but one should consider the difference between a robot operating and a human being operating. As robots are unable to make human errors, it might still remain beneficial to have the surgery done by a robot instead of the doctor, despite the risk of reliability issues. In case of the robots, we are able to limit the reliability issues to a minimum by testing the robots continually and as the knowledge in the robotics field keeps increasing, the reliability of robotics will increase as well.
In the military, the use of robots has been very successful in operations when used as weapons, airplanes for surveillance and bomb disarmament. As the use of robotics in the military allow them to deploy technology instead of risking human lives, robots bring many advantages to the military. However, the reliability of these robots has to be high in order to guarantee everyone’s safety. For example, if there are robots used for bomb sniffing but then the robot does not work properly or has a system failure, the consequences will be devastating. That is why the military, especially in the United States, has a whole team that is continually looking at the improvement of robots and testing the reliability. As the use of robotics in the military is increasing in a rapid pace, this indicates that these robots are indeed reliable.
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