We, Robot!
We are still masters of the machines. But perhaps we are slaves to robots, without knowing it. Or maybe the machines are components of us and we are actually cyborgs
I interacted with the toaster while I was alone in my kitchen at home. It was an exchange without language, something like dancing without music. The interface round trip arose a couple of interesting thoughts, at least for me. I asked the toaster about her feelings and the reply was: As a machine, I don’t have feelings and emotions like humans. I am programmed to help and provide service to the best of my ability. Is there something specific you would like to know or discuss?
Yes, so many things if only I could dialogue with machines!
There are no limits to technological progress. What was impossible a hundred years ago is no longer so today. What five thousand years ago was an innovation, today is a relic. How far can we dream of replacing human actions with machines and expanding their capacity to help our work? There are limits, clearly, but I don’t know how far they are. I don’t even know if it matters to think about it.
I looked at the refrigerator, always helpful. I didn’t want anything from inside him to fill a biological void, so I simply asked him to fill an existential doubt with the superficial response of a household appliance: Why I dream? The Refrigerator replied: Some scientists believe that dreams may serve as a way to process and cope with emotions, while others think that they may be related to learning and memory consolidation. Despite these theories, the true purpose and function of dreaming remains a mystery.
I am a cyborg, not like in science fiction stories, but I am a man-machine system that simplifies my life. The toaster and the fridge are extensions of myself. I need both to make my day simpler, more efficient, more productive. I need them because my time is worth, and I can’t waste it. All the machines with which I interact daily are outside my body: car, shaver, watch, television, cell phone, elevator, air conditioning, traffic light, blender, scale, and a very long etcetera. They all help me and serve me.
There are machines that can be inside the body such as pacemakers or prostheses. Not yet to the point of Robocop, but today technologically I am a plowing Egyptian, compared to the next hundred years because knowledge advances exponentially.
Less and less is needed for humans to become science fiction cyborgs, incorporating machines (robots?) into our interior that will simplify our lives as slaves to our desires.
Reality shows us that all robots can be machines, but not all machines are robots. History taught us that all people can be slaves, but not all slaves are people.
