Robot Blood
Artificial intelligence/robotics capability is progressing. A number of discussions in media have focused around the impact of AI on economies, along with the fear that robots will replace most workers.
The reality is AI and robotics are already taking over some jobs, invisibly. It’s happening now in customer service, as chat bots are becoming more widely used and cheaper to set up. They typically represent the first interaction you will have with a company, answering common questions such as a store’s opening hours or their location. Bots aim to encourage interaction from a largely passive majority looking for specific information. They replace someone who was never hired. As the bots are being used, they learn, improve and they push the human element further down the interaction line. So, some jobs will indeed be fully completed by machines very soon.
Jobs exist today that didn’t 10 years ago, and more jobs in the future will be created to do things we can’t even imagine today. Rather than humanity slowly spiralling to our doom, it is more likely that we will keep the best jobs, the most creative ones, the ones that hugely impact others and farm out the rest. This will provide us with an opportunity to educate and direct everyone towards jobs or work that better suits their strengths and interests.
Robots/ AI also represent solutions to current problems. Our population is predicted to increase until 2100, and then stabilise. As country populations age, old age care will become an even more pressing problem with not enough young people to take care of the old. Already care for the elderly is a broken system, it is typically a low paid profession and carers are required to make extremely hard emotional choices daily with little support their employers.
Physical robots and androids assisting us in own homes is a reality that is getting closer. Recent research has shown the ‘robot blood’ is nearly possible . The blood can hold higher levels of energy, reducing the need for batteries (which was a problem because batteries have limited power and leads to more batteries which uses more energy to carry the extra batteries etc).
As we advance our knowledge, a lot of what we end up doing is replicating what nature has already spent many years perfecting. Robot blood points towards the vascular system in organic entities and thus would need a similar system to work. And so, robots will need to be made in similar ways to current animals and humans.
Frequently when we innovate and bring about something that is not found in nature (such as smartphones/screens) our limited knowledge means we unintentionally cause harm to ourselves and need to go through a process of refinement. For example, recent research on the blue light emitted by screens shows it can disrupt your sleep patterns. Apps and smartphones are increasingly being made more and more addictive by designers and engineers. We need a better process for bringing about the great things innovation can do for us but also systematically identifying and resolving behavioural problems arising from new technology.
With robot blood, where could it go next? Will we have robots that are same in function to living creatures, but chemically different? In that case, what makes them less alive than organic life forms? If it had been discovered and not created, we probably would consider a robot to be a living being.
What about other uses? I could imagine houses with no central heating but closed loop environments where liquid is endlessly circulated and recharged with an electric current. Driverless cars are close to being perfected, at which will private vehicles still be owned by the majority?
More importantly, what will be the unintended consequences of going down this road and will we be able to recognise the dangers before we harm ourselves?