From robots with love

So we all pretty much agree that the goal is spreading love, right?

(I put a beat here so you truly internalize that.)

It is a fundamental human need to love and be loved — yet too many people lead their lives in a cold, unwelcoming world.

(Oh, aren’t you used hearing these very words about robots? These cold, emotionless machines!)

It’s not that people are incapable of loving though. Love is a limitless yet scarce resource. It’s a luxury to live in the conditions where you can love and be loved. For too many people it is simply not possible in the everyday struggle for food, shelter, and safety. Others have been misinformed and put their priorities in career, money, and shallow pleasures. Preoccupied with daily trivialities, these hearts have been suppressed for too long to now spread love.

In effect, there are simply too few people who can share love, and this balance is hard to change. But this imbalance also means that many will not have a chance for a companion.

On my way to work, I see many things. Near the university where I work, there is a dorm for students with special needs. I pass by it twice a day. Often, I see this kid with crippled legs, struggling his way to or from classes in this four-legged frame. As I am leaving him behind, a stream of his life filled with unfulfillable dreams sadden my heart.

But the kid has a dog, one of those highly trained Labradors, who helps him make his way. I can bet that the kid would give his hand for this dog. This dog is that one being who, being devoid of social judgments, can love the kid unconditionally.

Robots could love us unconditionally too.

Robots are usually regarded as cold, strictly logical machines — which, in truth, they are. We make them such. Perhaps this construction reflects our own deep desire for order. We’ve always tried to explain away the complexities of the world with these little stories that would put some structure to the enormously rich repertoire that it bears.

But if we wanted machines to actually help us, they cannot be what we wish we were. They cannot be suited for some imaginary world where structure is clearly defined. Rather, they must be just what we are — highly intelligent but governed by the irrational, sporadic, emotional decision making. can love unconditionally just like that dog that leads his blind owner.

Unless we make this fundamental shift in how we approach machines, I can understand why the future permeated by technology does not appeal to many. Emotionless entities are fundamentally different from us. Despite our best attempts to educate human race and curb the inner wildness of our nature, humans remain wild creatures at their hearts. And that is just how we ought to be, because such behavior fits organically the world that we inhabit.

Automating the world is not an option — it’s an obligation to humanity. It is in fact the whole project of civilization.

Every day I see this guy at the train station whose sole job is to check if everyone’s got on the train and signal it to the train conductor. You see, the train station is curved so the conductor cannot see the entire train. I think the world must be such a miserable place if anyone’s got to do a job like that. What can we expect from people subject to dehumanizing jobs? To take off their job hat and put on their humanistic one when out of office? Poor working conditions undoubtedly shape us too. We become what our jobs are telling us we are. Being coerced into becoming a machine instead of utilizing human ingenuity leaves no place for dignity.