In Japan, at an elementary school today there is a
robot teaching math to students. This robot has motors that make it seem like
it has facial expressions and she can speak in multiple languages. This robot
is one step that Japan is taking to put robots in every day in the life of
Japanese. I believe that a world, in which robots replace the human touch
in our lives, is not worth fighting for.
A recent news segment reporting on people’s opinion of using
robots at school had the following to
say about it- “(the robot) favouritism or get snappy, but isn't there something about
human emotion-something no facial motors could ever replicate-that students are
supposed to learn from a young age? If Saya (the teaching robot) gets rolled out
to other schools, what would we be unintentionally depriving these children
of?” Hence using robots as teachers will
cause children to miss out on the essential emotional learning from the
teachers. And, as is often expressed, this shows how humans cannot be replaced by robots, as
teachers since they basically do not possess emotions that are key to humans.
Also,
robots are not that effective in teaching humans because they can only teach
what is told (written in the hard drive). An anonymous comment in a debate agrees with this thought and says,
“It basically dictates according to the information stored. The fun and
room-to-think-for-every-student is lost.” Each individual student has a particular
learning style and hence needs a different teaching approach. “Teachers also
need to adapt, learn, feel, engage with pupils, have experiences - some can
even be friends to pupils.” However when questioned on adaptability, the inventor
of Saya responded to a journalist saying, “The robot has no intelligence. It has no
ability to learn. It has no identity, it’s just a tool” In order to effectively
teach one needs to have experiences and learn from them to connect with the
children and to give them useful information that will help the
student. Therefore, without such ability robots cannot take the place of
teachers because they cannot connect with the students they teach.
Given that robots don’t have our emotions, or
our adaptability, when our everyday lives are affected by robots, I am afraid
we could lose control of happenings. For example, if a robot becomes a
President or a Prime Minister, will it know what to do in the event of
natural/man induced distress? How risky would it be if computers were put in
charge of affairs of nations? I dread to even think of such a situation where a
robot without emotions or human adaptability to situations makes important
decisions. Hence, you can see that robots can’t take the
place of humans at a workplace or represent a country at a political level as
appropriately as humans do.
Another reason why a world where robots take
over our jobs is not worth fighting for is that robots just cost too much. The
robot Saya costs about $51,000. This price tag comes for just
a function of 700 words and 300 phrases. This amount could actually rope in
better, professional teachers who would not only teach, but also connect with
the students helping them with emotional growth. The handling costs would also
be high for this robot. The da Vinci
surgery
robot costs about $1.5 Million. Due to this steep price some nations cannot
have this technology. Hence, robots in everyday life may be too expensive to
deal with.
In 2010, robot sales almost doubled compared to 2009 to 118,337
units most of these robots were labour robots. On the contrary we look forward
to convenience and freedom from hard-work. To conclude, while robots may make
things a bit easier for us. They are way too expensive and do not possess emotional
qualities or capacity for natural learning from situations that are needed to
effectively replace humans. Hence, robots in everyday life, for decision
making, teaching, or functions that require personal interaction, is not worth
fighting for.
