Aren’t Robots Great?

Just got back from watching Terminator Genisys and of course read the article on how a number of tech luminaries are trying to place some rules around AI (didn’t Isaac Asimov already come up with some really good rules a long time ago – those rules work for me) so that there isn’t another Skynet.

Geez, people, calm down. Even though there’s been a raft of computers-are-better-than-humans-so-you-must-all-be-killed movies (Avengers Ultron, Terminators, etc.) I doubt that we will ever get to that point. Just like the “ethics of life extension folks” who clamor “humans shouldn’t live forever, we don’t know how to” we are purposely not going there because we are worried about the consequences.

People, why are we so worried about going there, when we don’t even know if it’s possible? This is surely the way to cut down innovation before it even begins. This is clearly one of the reasons that innovation seems to have stalled. We keep thinking about the implications of the innovation before we even know if the innovation is possible. Let’s try it first – then decide if it’s a good idea.

Thinking through the implications of something and saying “no” is just as bad as “not going there”.

Where are the space cities? Where are the boundless energy sources? Where is the solution to world hunger?

Instead, we got Facebook. (Wait, isn’t that an article in Time magazine?)

But I digress. What I don’t understand is the seemingly new wave of entrepreneurs and scientists suddenly saying “whoa, hold on, let’s think about the implications of this” instead of just doing it, so that we can see what happens. Just another way of saying “let’s not go there”.

Where has the fire in the belly gone? Where has the adventurous spirit gone? You know, the one that figured out how to fly last century.

Robots are awesome. They are here to relieve us of the drudgery in our lives, which typically 80% of is drudgery. I mean, unless you have an amazingly awesome life, don’t you spend a lot of it:

• Commuting
• Shopping for groceries
• Reading and responding to email
• Chores and cleaning the house
• Running errands

Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could jump in your robot car and read while it drove you to work, your groceries would just show up at your door when you needed them, your virtual assistant would handle most of your communications, robots would clean your house, and if you most of those errands would just handle themselves, via your autonomous vehicle going on its own?

Before we decide is something is a good thing or not, let’s at least attempt to make it happen. Let’s at least suspend our ethical thinking for a little bit in the quest for innovation. Let’s be a little more daring.

Let’s do it first – THEN decide if it’s a good idea or not.

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