Our SciFi class watched a movie entitled Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)
The movie is about a mecha named David. David was built uniquely. Unlike some robots, David had feelings and emotions. He was programmed to act like a child -- a son. He was adopted by Henry and Monica. They had a real son named Martin, but unfortunately he was severely ill, therefore he was frozen to preserve him, so Henry adopted David. At first, Monica did not accept the mecha as a substitute for Martin, but she got used to it eventually. David was a faithful mecha to her "mommy" (Monica). He/It loved her as if he/it was her own child, but things started to get out of hand. As a result, Monica left him/it in a forest and just asked him/it to stay safe. David searched for Monica once more thinking that if he were a real boy, Monica & Henry would love him/it as equally as their love for Martin. He/It thought that the blue fairy from Pinocchio would do exactly the trick. He found this "fairy" in Manhattan -- underwater. The fairy was just a statue in a carnival by the way -- an old, deserted carnival underwater. He finally made his wish: "Please make me into a real boy." "Please, Please..." His wish did not come true though. 2000 years have passed and aliens have been searching for evidence of human life on Earth. They found David and managed to grant him his wish. David "slept" beside Monica that day, and all was well.
But where do we draw the line? Technology has been advancing each and every year. Who knows what kind of robots humans can make. Yes they can make life easier, but also think that some people would be jobless if this continues.
As of now, there are robots who can cook, robots who can dance, who can clean
and robots who LOOK and ACT LIKE HUMANS.
I've read a story entitled Helen O'Loy, short for Helen Of Alloy, inspired by Helen Of Troy. The characters were Phil, Dave, and Helen. Phil and Dave were engineers and Helen was their creation. Helen loved Dave, but this wasn't the ordinary love where robots are loyal to their masters. No. This kind of love Helen experienced was a love wherein she was in a state of wanting to get married to Dave and having children with him. *pause* Now this is where we draw the line. Although mechas/robots do not have feelings, who says it is not possible for humans to develop such technology? Robots have been developed to make lives easier, not to take place of people's occupations and their places in someone's life. You cannot replace a wife with a mecha, or your son/daughter with a humanoid. That just does not seem reasonable. Although they can be programmed to be perfect. Iba pa rin talaga kapag tao.
Question: If you have the means to have your own robot..what would it do for you (e.g., a nanny, a surrogate child, a mother, a teacher, etc.) and why? What technologically advanced specifications, abilities and qualities would you want it to have?
Answer: I'd want to have a robot who knows everything about anything. It should be pocket sized and portable so that if I need it, I could just bring it out and it would directly give me answers. It's like Google and Encyclopedias in the palm of my hands, but in the form of a mini human -- not a dwarf, or a midget, just a 5-inch tall form of a person. Why? Sometimes the internet is unreliable. It gives you information that's irrelevant to your question. I want that kind of technology so that I could have the information/answers I want immediately, without going through numerous websites and logging out of the website without finding the answer you look for. It could save me time, effort, and add my sleeping hours. It makes things a whole lot better.
