Why are We so Scared of Robots / AIs?

This blog task is published in response to an assigned task by Dr.Dilip Barad sir. While going through the topic of ‘Techno-culture and Risk’ with the reference of Ulrich beach and his thesis thesis ‘Risk Society- Towards a new Modernity (1992), we discussed the increased use of robots/ AIs in the world, how the robots/ Ais are demonstrated in Movies or in screens. Are they harmful or useful? And in this blog I am going to write about my understanding of Ulrich Beck's concept of techno culture and risk and Why we are so afraid of Robots/ AIs.

TECHNO-CULTURE AND RISK

We have been witnessing that today technology has been taking the place of humans in every sector whether in job or giving emotional support. Humans get tired, make mistakes and take holidays whereas technology/ robots don't need any of them. They can work day and night without any mistakes. Technology turns to be a one time investment while humans are to be salaried every month and technology produces double the man produce in lesser time without tantrums. And that's the reason technology is becoming an easy and preferable choice for everyone.

Ulrich Beck in his thesis has said that there is risk to every solution and it's a never ending cycle. Risks are potential disasters. E.g: mobile is a useful tool in the classroom to help students quickly search for answers or to have extra reading. To have a look at images it's a solution to a difficult learning process but it's a risk that if it's allowed students will misuse it and hence, it needs to be banned. We live in an increasingly technological world. ‘

Society is based on scarcity and removal of scarcity. We got rid of the scarcity of food as a solution to the green revolution, the use of pesticides and fertilisers increased for the more quantity of food but it resulted in a risk of health. The quantity of food increased but the quality of food decreased.

Technology/ computers came into existence because humans couldn't do multitasking. Mobile replaced the clock, torch, calculator, book etc many small things which are our regular needs. But now today technology is replacing humans which is again a risk for society. Also we are habituated to technology/ devices such a way that if it gets a virus or even a day we can't have it we become restless. It has become difficult to care for these devices since they contain all our personal data.

Risk and solution leading to other risks continues in the political world also. The party in power is not doing work. Citizens are not happy but the alternate party might or will do the same activities coming in power. We can say. Political party itself is a risk to democracy.

Thus techno-science reveals the risk involved in contaminated and other newer problems which were problems which were previously unknown, it also delivers information about these risks. Beck’s solution to the autopoietic risk culture is to find political potential outside government.

Why are We so Scared of Robots / AIs?

Technology is giving us solutions but with risk. And perhaps this idea is majorly illustrated in our literature, movies etc. Visit Dr. Dilip Barad sir’s on why are we so scared of Robots?

The first one is about babysitter robot who becomes so obsessed of the child that murders the murder.

The second one is on the iMom - Mom robot.

The third is on Satyajit Ray's short story 'Anukul' (1976) - directed by Sujoy Ghosh

These are three sci-fi short films we were assigned to watch. Further in this blog I will answer the question based on these films.

Oscar Schwartz in his Ted Talk on ‘Can Computers Write poetry?’ has given a wonderful insight that the computer, more or less, works like a mirror that reflects any idea of a human that we show it. And perhaps that can be one of the reasons why we are scared of AIs. We don't even trust ourselves or trust other humans and so we are afraid of humans' own reflection.

After watching all these short films I realised that robots work on algorithms. They do what is told to them, they don't have their own understanding or power of spontaneous thinking. They get programmed that he/ she is its owner or master and that programming makes them emotionally attached to their master and try to love their masters but when it comes to others or overcoming feelings they fail in it.

Satyajit Ray’s film very aptly takes a reference from Mahabharata, robot asks the questions which even confuses us and the ultimate answer what the protagonists gives is ‘heart gives us answer to differentiate between right and wrong’ and that is the thing that AIs don't have. For them their duties are their duty. AI understood Mahabharata as his master explained that whoever is against you stands for right and does what your instinct says and he killed masters Cousin.

We are finding humans in AI robots. The second short film about Imom aptly showed that human emotions cannot be found in AIs. Even a single malfunction can destroy a family. A mother in love called an infant a chicken and ordered Imom to cook chicken and it cooked a baby. AIs follow the order, don't think.

Since robots lack understanding, we tend to get unnerved. While safety systems are in place, we subconsciously fret that this isn't enough. What happens if the safety systems malfunction? As the robots get more capable, they also become more complex.

"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." 

-Stephen Hawking

We see the AIs/ Robots are villainous in all three short films. Same is also seen in Mary Shelly novel Frankenstein, The monster which is a form of robot created by humans, Victor Frankenstein is villainous. Villanising technology has been in fashion since this idea has come. Why? Perhaps as humans we are afraid that it will take our place in society, it will over power us.

While in the recent Bollywood Movies like Robot 2.0 and Ra. One we find the positive face of robots, they are not villainous and are portrayed as Saviour. Perhaps society is changing, their way of looking is changing. I personally feel that even if robots, AIs come into existence it won't be able to take humans' place so soon but for that human will have to keep their power over them or else they can enslave us.

I hope my blog is useful. Thanks for visiting.

Modern Times- Science Fiction

This blog is written as response the blog task based on the modern times. In the blog task I am going to describe about Science- fiction of 20th century with reference of some Bollywood movies.

Sci- Fi

What defines science fiction?

Science fiction is a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals. Scientific fiction deals with futuristic and imaginative concepts. It is also called ‘literature of Ideas'. It generally deals with advanced science inventions or Technologies. By the beginning of the 20th century, an array of standard science fiction “sets” had developed around certain themes, among them space travel, robots, alien beings, and time travel.

We can interpret the science fiction developed in the 20th century because it is a century of scientific advancement. Industrialization increased, mass production and the materialistic view of the public increased . Science fiction can work on the two motives. Science fiction shows the positive impacts of the development of Science and Technology and many times a science fiction novel and television series shows how it will start dominating us and will bring the negative impact in society.

We can also interpret that some science fiction readers are so much involved in the reading of sci- fi novels that they are attracted towards it which inspired them to make some of the scientific experiments and to invent new things, reading imaginative scientific fiction developed their imagination of power to invent new things.

H.G. Wells was once referred to as 'the Shakespeare of Science Fiction.' He is more often called 'the father of Science Fiction' because of his novels such as The Time Machine (1895) or The War of the Worlds (1898).

Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ (1818):

Here we say that science fiction developed majorly in the 20th century but we also say that Mary Shelley's ‘Frankenstein’ is science fiction which was published in the 19th century in 1818. Novel was written because electricity was developing in that era and it was so powerful that it would bring danger to the lives of people. Electricity was tested on the dead bodies of animals and was shown how the electricity creates vibrations in the dead body. If it can give life to a dead body then how harmful it can be to the living person to show this concept. Mary Shelley wrote a sci-fi name Frankenstein but it emerged in the 20th century.

Mary Shelley's novel of the 19th century gave us the futuristic view of robots which we are seeing today. In Frankenstein the body parts were joined and through electricity a life was given to that stitched to body parts and the monster was created and if we compared to the present time we can see that what a futuristic insight Mary Shelley had with the help of electricity and wires and connecting the iron we are creating a person a robot.

H.G. Wells ‘The Time Machine’ (1895):

H.G. Wells Sci-Fi novel ‘The Time Machine’ talks about a device or a vehicle through which a person came back in the time or further in the time. Time Machine is interpreted in modern times as a commentary on the increasing inequality and class divisions of Wells' era, which he projects as giving rise to two separate human species.

Comparing it with the present time still we have not got any such machine device or a vehicle through which we can move back and forth in the time as we so that in Mary Shelley Sci-Fi Frankenstein we can compare that to Electricity we have invented a robot the futuristic view which Mary Shelley gave came true but till 21st century the future is to give you a given by HG Wells of time machine has not came true.

The Other Sci-Fi novels written by HG wells are The Invisible Man, The War of the World

There are various Sci Fi novel writers do read about them by clicking on this link

https://www.famousauthors.org/10-famous-science-fiction-authors-you-must-be-reading

We do see such types of sci-fi movies in Bollywood also.

Mr. India

Bollywood movie mister India directed by Shekhar Kapoor introduced a gadget through which the protagonist mister India was able to get invisible and was visible only in the red light the gadget was like a wrist watch .

Tarzan The Wonder Car:

This movie is directed by Abbas Burmawalla and Mustan Burmawalla. They used an artificial intelligence in the car which made a car work on its own. We do see such intelligence in today’s driverless cars.

Love story 2050:

Love Story 2050, directed by Harry Baweja, was exclusively about traveling to a utopian future-city of Mumbai in the year 2050. It is the first utopian time travel film of Bollywood. The movie shows futuristic Mumbai, with its flying cars, holograms, robots, 200-story buildings and more.

Robot:

Robot movie, directed by S. Shankar. It gives a So Beautiful idea that how robot can help be helpful to us in our everyday life it makes our life easy it can also be used in the armed forces to safeguard the nation but it also showed that when science will advance to a state where it and will grow by its own artificial intelligence it can also dominate a human being and can be harmful for the living beings.

Doraemon:

We also have a children's fantasy cartoon named Doraemon which we consider to be a sci-fi cartoon. In this cartoon a robot name the Doraemon has came to Nobita from the 22nd century and he provides the various gadgets to help Nobita and to make the life easy. he has the various gadgets like time machine, anyway door which helps a person to reach anywhere in a very less period of time, big light, small light. Translating tools through which the human would be able to understand the language of animals and also the people who are speaking a completely opposite language we can interpret that it will increase the brotherhood in the nation. He has a gadget which cleans a house on its own and takes care of the house which can be very much necessary in the faster and the busy life. This cartoon shows how the 22nd century would be. At present we are in the 21st century and we have grown a lot faster and better than the 20th century. We can interpret that the 22nd century might be faster than what life we are having at present and can also imagine and have a futuristic view that perhaps the gadgets shown in the cartoon will be present in some or the other way.

Conclusion:

Science fiction novels, films are the genres in Literature which can be considered to be the most creative genres. Sci- fi novels take readers or the viewer to adventure from galaxies to the underwater, it also introduces the readers and viewer to the otherworldly characters and also gives insight into the Technologies, showing the power of Science and Technology.

I hope this blog was useful to you. Thank you for visiting.

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