Human consciousness is a low standard.
A machine, something constructed, will always be property.
We already have machines smarter than humans, within limits, they can beat you at chess, or Jeopardy.
On the other hand tasks involving walking, walking down stairs, down the street, buying food, returning and cooking it, are far beyond any current robot. When it can do that, laundry, make beds, wash dishes, not step on the cat, or trip and fall on you like the metal object it is, demand will be higher.
Service robots should not look human, they should be designed around function. Two feet is a highly complex machine, four is easier to construct, tracks would be best until it runs over your foot.
A domestic bot would not leave home, a program would order supplies, a delivery bot would deliver.
A domestic bot would interface with fixed attachments, a sink bot that washes, dries, and returns to storage. That much function is available on an old CNC machine. Food storage to cooking, to cleanup can be automated.
Roombas do floors, changing beds and dusting might look more like a spider, something to scrub floors, clean bathrooms, R2D2, the advanced shop vac.
Having all this for a single living space would be expensive, and all of it would not be needed all the time. A Smart Building with hidden passageways, could track your every move and sneak around you.
We have barely reached central air and heat, the self cleaning house with food service is going to take a while.
Also, as someone in computer repair, they constantly fail. Before that I worked on cars. According to how important some machine is to your life, how much you will pay to get it fixed very quickly. I see a great future in domestic robotics repair.
Considering a personal program interface, you need a backup, and a kill switch, reboot. If it is going to be the sum total of all past interactions with you, you will be creating a feedback loop with yourself. It will be an extension of your personality, and you are a jerk.
Some of my computer customers erased their browsing history, it was only slightly harder to find what porn site gave them a virus. Some were encrypted, and they claimed they forgot the password. While a file can be encrypted, the operating system still has a record.
Robotic sex slaves history would be such that blackmail would become a booming industry. To maintain function, they will have to be connected to a network. Reverse engineered, two sex bots can act out your entire history.
The future will be fun.
03 Jan 2016, 6:36 pm
