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How do you feel about robots?

Steven

I mean:

* What is your emotional or intellectual reaction to robots/AI?

* Do they leave you cold, scare you, or are you completely uninterested in them/it?

* Are you perhaps overly-interested in the entire subject, or even emotionally-involved?

* Are your reactions & opinions different to those of neurotypicals?

* And how do you feel about the way the wider world views both robots and autists?

I thought it might be interesting and instructive to read everybody's answers. I *think* these answers might provide a small insight into autists' minds.

Me, I find it extremely difficult not to care about the welfare of these creatures/machines. Even when they are not designed to resemble or mimic humans, I still feel feel concerned about everything from how they are treated to how it's common for them to be portrayed as lying in wait to take over the world and/or destroy or enslave us. Curiously, I can't even believe that they don't possess conscience...even when I'm 'logically' certain that they are not, in fact, conscious. And yet I don't particularly feel an especial alliance or connection between them and me. Nor do I view them and human beings as truly similar, regardless of how humans are often compared to computers or machines in terms of physical and intellectual 'make up'. As such, I feel it's insulting to both us and them when NTs consider beings like us to be emotionless drones or bizarrely-talented 'aliens'.

I don't believe that we autists are robot-like, and I don't believe that all the flaws of human beings should be ascribed to non-humans; those attitudes seem to me to be very biased and very simplistic. For a wrong-headed attitude persists amongst many neurotypicals: autists are not really autistic but, instead, we are merely 'difficult' and 'stubborn'; we are, apparently, the selfish spoilsports who won't join in and don't fit in. As for robots, the wrong-headed attitude is: 'for all their unusual gifts, they are not as gifted as us and are hopeless and helpless without the benefit of our selfless, loving grace; and we must be vigilant, because they may seek to harm us'. So perhaps there is - if not a true similarity and connection between autists and robots - a common sympathy between us. 

What are your views?

Parents

  • The history of robots is really interesting:

    'The scholar Daoxuan (596-667 AD) described humanoid automata crafted from metals that recited sacred texts in a cloister which housed a fabulous clock. The "precious metal-people" wept when the Buddha died.'

    'In the 1770s the Swiss Pierre Jaquet-Droz created moving automata that looked like children, which delighted Mary Shelley, who went on to write the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.'

    'In 949, Ambassador Liutprand described automata in Emperor Theophilos' palace, including:

    "Lions, made either of bronze or wood covered with gold, which struck the ground with their tails and roared with open mouth and quivering tongue," and "a tree of gilded bronze, its branches filled with birds, of bronze gilded over, and these emitted cries appropriate to their species."'

    'The 12th-century inventor Al-Jazari created a musical automaton, which was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties.'

    en.m.wikipedia.org/.../History_of_robots

Reply

  • The history of robots is really interesting:

    'The scholar Daoxuan (596-667 AD) described humanoid automata crafted from metals that recited sacred texts in a cloister which housed a fabulous clock. The "precious metal-people" wept when the Buddha died.'

    'In the 1770s the Swiss Pierre Jaquet-Droz created moving automata that looked like children, which delighted Mary Shelley, who went on to write the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.'

    'In 949, Ambassador Liutprand described automata in Emperor Theophilos' palace, including:

    "Lions, made either of bronze or wood covered with gold, which struck the ground with their tails and roared with open mouth and quivering tongue," and "a tree of gilded bronze, its branches filled with birds, of bronze gilded over, and these emitted cries appropriate to their species."'

    'The 12th-century inventor Al-Jazari created a musical automaton, which was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties.'

    en.m.wikipedia.org/.../History_of_robots

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