Greater than Fiction
“Robots are about to be unshackled from forced labor. Expect them everywhere.”, Forbes article 8-18-06
Every so often you see an article in the news like this one from Forbes: “The Robots are Coming!“, or this one in the latest Popular Science. They tout statistics about the $6 billion robotics industry, and projections like “7 million service robots will be sold by 2008″, and they highlight some of the latest and greatest robotics research.
As a companion to the Forbes article they have a “25 Great Moments in Robotics History”, and when I see lists like these it makes me think that robotics, more than other technology domains, has some big ficticious shoes to fill. One third of the great moments (8 of the 25 moments) are works of fiction: Pinocchio (1881), Tin Man in Wizard of Oz (1900), R.U.R. (1921), Metropolis (1926), Asimov’s Runaround (1942), Rosie in The Jetsons (1962), HAL 9000 (1968), R2-D2 and C-3PO in Star Wars (1977).
People already have expectations about robots, and more often than not I bet people believe that robots seen in movies are actually as sophisticated as they seem. Even if people don’t really believe that robots should already be as sophisticated as R2-D2, there is this strange blurring of fact and fiction in the history of robotics.
Now I’m not disagreeing that R2-D2 or HAL should be considered important moments in robotics history. Even the robot Hall of Fame at CMU has both real and ficticious robots. I just think that it is interesting to step back and ask why we put them there.
These works of fiction are important to us as a society because they help to define our developing relationship with technology. Particularly as man and machine become increasingly intertwined in the modern world, these ficticious robot characters let us think and talk about how we would like our relationship with technology to be.
So what should technologists take from this message? Well, at least one thing is clear. People expect to be able to interact with an advanced technology like a robot in a social and collaborative manner. Many of the robot characters in fiction are much more like a partner than a tool to be commanded. And most importantly, this isn’t really an expectation that can be changed. The robots of the future have already been envisioned and already exist as part of the history of robotics. So, in many ways roboticists are challenged to develop something greater than fiction!
Em primeiro lugar eu me desculpo por escrever em português, liberdade que tomo pela amizade com o Edison e sabendo que poderá ajudá-la a traduzir meu comentário.
O texto me fez pensar em 1 pessoa que se interesse por usar um robô como acompanhante, imaginando que um robô terá um altíssimo custo para aquisição ou locação, como poderá ser viável comparado com as despesas para pagar um acompanhante humano.
Li este primeiro texto, perdi alguma compreensão em virtude de minhas limitações com a língua inglesa, mas consegui ter uma idéia geral e fiquei bastante interessado.
Pretendo ver os outros textos e vou colocar sua paciência à prova colocando um comentário em cada um.
abraço do Zecão
Comment by zecão | September 10, 2006
[...] can blame Hollywood for the greater than fiction expectation that people have about robots. To me, this play pointed out a particular aspect of [...]
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