Tanuu Blog

Many Science Fiction authors have discussed in many works the issues with robotic assistants and companions. Today we see DARPA awarding a contract to a group of artificial intelligence software gurus to put together a computer assistant, which can read any manual and then explain in human terms what it says. This assistant would be near a human during equipment repairs or preventative maintenance during operations. In the movie Artificial Intelligence you will remember the boy robot was read certain words in a certain order to activate a love program for bonding to the human. In Isaac Asimov’s novels he often had long dialogues about the very subject of human bonding, love and companionship amongst robots, androids and organically engineered creatures with their human counter parts.

Many questions arise when looking at these converging technologies of autonomous robots, artificial intelligence and their future of cooperation with humans. It is safe to say that humans may get quite frustrated taking orders from a robotic android and perhaps even quite belligerent at times. Many of the human innate characteristics of our species may be quite disruptive to the teamwork process needed to work towards efficiency in business, military and things like first responder rescues using robots. These uses are just a few of the hundreds of excellent applications, which will be incorporate robotic technologies.

How will we get humans to bond with their robotic assistants? I believe we should use the built in bonding methods of human nature and nurturing which permeates the world of human behavior. First human memories at early childhood seem to contain bonds. First love during puberty, seem to hold significance in the human mind. Intense stress in a human endeavor, disaster or competition of will or strength of character in war or sport while in the company of team mates, friends, associates, soldiers or simply bystanders appear to be high on the list of human bonding. In fact, sports coaches, drill sergeants and leadership in training of their teams, soldiers and populations use these techniques. Disasters, calamities, war and extreme human stress whether induced, imagined or real work in forming bonds of this type between humans. But can these techniques work to bond human to robot? It would stand to reason that they would in fact. In my days of motorcycle racing and flying I found myself bonding to a hunk of precision machinery. Fighter pilots bond to their aircraft, often personifying the craft with their names on the side, nose art of women or other meaningful significance. What about a robot, which was so carefully created that it looked and felt like a real human in almost everyway? Can we bond a human to the robotic android to such a degree that they worked together with the full respect of a team mate of a professional sports team or soldiers in the heat of battle?

Can we design such a robot and promote that level of bonding thru a virtual reality setting or using contrived events to simulate natural

Starting a business is like starting your own baseball team. Start-up (Spring training) is when you are doing your research, deciding on a business name, zoning requirements, setting up your business, deciding on what form your business will take (sole proprietorship, corporation, LLC). You’re assembling all the parts of your business (team), getting ready for the season (your opening day).

Once spring training is over, and the season begins (your business is open) you start making your run around the bases. Getting to first base is the hardest (obtaining your first customer, making your first sale, doing your first consultation).

It is important and necessary that we regularly spend time in purposeful self-examination. We need to take the time to examine our rationales, our pretenses, our masquerades, our motives, our justifications, and our reasoning.

Nevertheless, we must also realize that despite how thorough the examination, no man can remove himself from himself sufficiently to appraise the dark forces at work within. And, let us be honest with ourselves: all mankind suffer from some form of inner-darkness. We live in dark times and we live in a society that is gripped by the darkness of evil. As a consequence of living in it, some of it gets inside us.

The sins within thrive in this darkness. Sin feeds upon the darkness as a hungry predator feeds upon its prey. Being in this darkness, we cannot see ourselves as we really are. We believe we are what we are not and believe we are incapable of doing what we quite clever at perpetrating. We need the light of God to reveal the dark forces at work within us. When we see ourselves as revealed by God, our true character is uncovered. Who we are in the real sense comes to the surface.

In His presence, we discover, sometimes to our great astonishment, how far removed from God we really are. The holiness of God’s divinity can find every speck of sin in our lives. Nothing in us escapes God and no man can stand in His presence as a saint. He must stand in his true character, as a sinner saved by grace.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. http://www.clergyservices4u.org. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, will be available soon.