What If Robots Become Conscious And Start Demanding Free Will?

in #philosophy6 years ago

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The other day I was thinking about some of the things that I have already discussed in length with you guys and one of them was the mystery of the origin of life. In fact my last post was regarding this too.

But this time I thought about it in relation to our role as creators too. Basically I was thinking whether or not we were created by a god and if so, would we become god too if we ever created conscious beings?

I was reading about the recent advancements in robotics and how one day we might create robots that were just like us and maybe in a more distant future if we could create robots that were conscious?

I know I am delving into the realm of sci-fi here, like I usually like to do, but these are interesting things to ponder upon. It's always exciting to think about what would happen next after such a huge event.

A Second Intelligent Race?

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We humans like to pride ourselves at being the only intelligent race on the planet and how we have basically taken the topmost place in the food chain and are now the dominant species.

If we were to one day, create robots that were conscious, it would change the game forever. We would, for the first time have an equal (or even better) 'species' who could outsmart us in every way possible.

Before then, we would obviously be using them for our own benefits like in factories, offices, restaurants, homes and anywhere you can imagine them to be useful. But the moment they become conscious, the whole game changes.

Just like how we enjoy free will, what if they start demanding free will as well and they no longer want to work for us? The ramifications of this would be huge and life on Earth would never be the same again.

A Huge Plot Twist

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Now, there is another view we can look at this. Say, life on Earth was created by a god or by another alien species. And let's say one day they just appeared claiming to be our masters and for us to serve them.

How would that make us feel? We are conscious beings who have free will and have always seen ourselves as masters of our own selves and if one day someone comes along claiming to have created us and to serve them, would that be right?

This is kind of the same thing that the robots that we would create go through. This is something that was also portrayed in the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie and we all know what they decided to do.

My point is that with the advancements in AI and robotics and the really fast pace of development, I think we as a race should really be cautious about how these things could end up doing the exact opposite of what we want them to do. Something to ponder upon.

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If they start demanding free will, they already have free will D:

Yes, but I think I meant it more in a way as an independence sort of a thing.

@programmingvalue

I agree entirely. A good example is West world.

A second intelligent race? Where was the first one spotted at ?? (-:

Well, with the singularity at least we'll have a better POTUS .

LOLOL I think we are the first one, even though our actions might prove the contrary.

I will be the first to tell you and I have been thinking about this alot.

Once they figure out (with their computer brain) what makes them click, essentially their heart (whether it be a plug or most likely some sort of battery) and they decide to start protecting that, then we as humans will have issues.

Right now they do not "know" what runs them....they will eventually and that will not be a good day

That's exactly right. Right now they do not "know" and once they do, it is very possible that their survival instincts might develop!

Let's not tell them who's the daddy! :P

what if pigs decide to fly?
(more likely)

haha, it's hypothetical :)

It would be better to give wings to humans first. :)

Here you go.

Haha! I saw that coming. This is not an organic way of giving wings to human. However, the thought of getting organic wings for ourselves is so captivating.

you moved the goal posts.
NOW you say 'organic'.

That's obvious I guess :P

This is what scares me about robots. Recently I have watched several films and shows where this happens!

I know right! This will question the foundations of what we call humans and there is a healthy chance that we might no longer be the dominant species on the planet!

That's what @sauravrungta.
Losing on dominance will not be something that anyone would ever want.
At the same time, robots will never be okay being slaves to the humans.

The human mind is the most mysterious thing to understand. Getting to such a level will not be happening anytime soon. But if in case it occurs in the future, they will definitely demand what you have mentioned here as no one wants to give the control of their life to someone else. Gaining consciousness of the robots would be the most dangerous thing on the planet.

Well, according to some experts, it is bound to happen somewhere around the year 2050, but who knows right? But yeah, if they do become conscious, they would want to be free for sure. Now, what fate we humans would face in such a scenario is anybody's guess.

Exactly @sauravrungta!
But since we humans will be the creator of such species, we should know where to draw boundaries and how to limit those possibilities so that the world will be a peaceful place to live in. I don't deny that they will be helpful to us but getting consciousness to such an extent may take them beyond what humans have planned for them or even us for that matter.

Yeah, we can draw the boundaries to the best of our abilities, but things might still get out of hand right? I mean parents try to raise their children right but they may still turn out to become bad people. We can never be 100% in control.

In that case, a central control system to monitor everything is a must. Creators always know the weakest points. I don't deny that few people out to become bad. It's about the core values we learn and implement since childhood. However, there will always be some exceptions but knowing how to limit their powers can be of great help. I also feel that because of these bad things that happen in the world, we challenge ourselves more to invent further beyond our imagination. Every story has its two faces. But, we need to know how to control or end the story in a better way.

I doubt there could be a central control system to control all AI in the world. That's because there won't be one single AI to rule them all but multiple ones and who knows how many of them could go rogue?

The ultimate solution would be a powerful enough EMP but that would render every tech object worthless and humanity would descend into darkness.

I agree with you Saurav.
We don't want all the tech to become worthless as it will send us back in time from where we won't be able to recover quickly and who knows whether we will be able to recover from there or not.

you have to watch westworld to have an idea what would happen, I think that what is now fiction maybe a few years is a reality, the technology advances very fast and there will always be people who will want to play to be gods

I do watch Westworld and I am really interested in how they are portraying it at the moment in Season 2. I wonder if the same would happen in the real world or things will be different!

I think things would be very similar in the real world 😱👍, Cheers!

What if robots are granted the right to vote in elections. How would that shape politics? Could that be controlled?

Yes, these are the questions that will crop up for sure. And they will be hard to answer.

What if a bot wants to be the ruler himself?

I haven't watched the Avengers yet but I have watched a similar indian movie- Enthiran or Robo starred Rajinikanth. In my opinion, AI will never subjugate human beings. Afterall they are machines working as per the programmes incorporated.

I don't believe in God. It took millions of years for us to get the current shape. No machine can replace the brain of Homo Sapiens.

AI can definitely surpass human intelligence. They are machines working as per their programming.....for now! Already there are AI systems that are learning on their own and even creating their own AI. You should do some research on the matter.

In fact, they are learning faster than humans. Humans are prone to errors, but bots won't do the same in 99.99% of the cases.

If If Robots Become Conscious, we need to ask ourselves "What is a Human"?!
I think it is very difficult to answer this question itself. Who are we! Where do we come from! What is the purpose of life! And more important, who made us and for what purpose!
When we look at our ancient history we see that the human race was very advanced and more than we are today. Did they really die or left the planet! It is really complicated :)

I have pondered a lot about these questions myself and I must say this is just a rabbit hole. lol

But yeah, if robots someday do become conscious, we will have to question everything and I wonder what that would do to the world.

I like the way how your mind works, sometimes I also delve my imagination into the sci-fi realm even when I am reading or working with existing technologies. It is really possible that artificial intelligence will eventually go to the point of near perfection and it goes the same way with robotics, this issue is indeed something to ponder upon.

Thank you :) I think so too. I think that with time it is bound to happen if computing power keeps on increasing every year.

You're welcome, let me be one of your followers.

Also, once it happens, it will have a compounding effect and will surpass anything we have ever thought.

Destroy them.

shhhhh, they might be reading this :P

Haha! We do have bots on Steemit! :P
I'm really loving the conversation here. Great post @sauravrungta!

Good post mate.

It's a good thing to consider that we are going to a place where robots can live with humans in the same level, not like technological slaves, and with something like free will.

But as many scientist says, we are very far from that, if we get to this place one day. Today machine learning and AI work in a very limited way, we train to do something and it will do and learn, going better every day, even overcoming humans, but that's it.

When we train a robot to do something and besides it do this thing learn new things completely different from the original trained, at this point we need to worry.

Thanks!

I am not sure if it will be a good thing or a bad thing when robots will be able to exist as our equals. That will be a whole different world and everything will change. One can only imagine how such a system would even look like!

They'll demand better wages and free health care also. :)

hehehe, they wouldn't need to if they are the ones making decisions ;)

Truly said. They will start ruling the world.

Beautiful graphics interesting information good post congratulations friend successful

@phillips93 - You may not realize that "good post" is considered to be spam, you used 45 similar phrases in your last 100 comments, I've replied to you 8 times before, you've received 1 flag, and the Steem Sincerity API shows a 75.10% spam score. Learn why this is spam and a few better ways to earn the support of the community when commenting.

@sauravrungta - You can remove this comment and everyone can whitelist me from appearing in future posts.

Your analogy is good and reasonable. We speak of hypotheses that can become reality, the human being has been par excellence very confident of himself and therefore has not seen some latent dangers. The avengers movie showed an idea that is not to think that it becomes reality, it seems illogical to think so but it is something that could happen if we neglect. I really like your approach "if they demand free will?" Because it is so, what will be done if that happens?
Good post friend! I liked.

Thanks for the kind words. I think we humans can interefere to a certain point but this is something that can develop on its own and therein lies the problem. Only time will tell what will happen.

I thought I would post this link for your own discretion.

It is a new article about how entertainment keeps us distracted, and the way to direct our attention.

https://steemit.com/philosophy/@coloured-content/entertainment-is-inner-drainment-how-entertainment-is-used-as-a-mass-distractiion-for-the-purpose-of-deception

What if robots become conscious and start demanding free WiFi? Wouldn't that be worse? :P

Haha! They will be the wi-fi themselves. :P

They might be the hotspot but without any free wi fi? Just like how we humans have a stomach but doesn't mean that the food to eat will come free :)

Any machine ever built by the human is either operating on its own or others control them. When robots will gain consciousness, they will be smart enough to develop their satellites which will be more advanced than the human race has ever seen. Wifi will be a small thing.

Free wifi would be the least of our problems if they become conscious :P