Are Robots going to take your job?

Traditionally society has forecast the poor working class losing their jobs to robots, but Martin Ford's recent book Rise of the Robots: Technology and the threat of a jobless future outlines how the well-educated upper crust also are in peril.   

It is documented that the military is spending $30bn preparing a robot army in order to minimize human casualties in upcoming conflicts.

But not as reported is the reality that robots are beginning to take highly-skilled jobs as well . . . jobs which require nuance and human discernment are increasingly being tackled by algorythms.  Robots Software engineers, writers, editors, and even grading college essays.    

As you can see in the below chart, China is leading the robot takeover at nearly 40% of the entire world's robots being put in use there by 2019:

Does this scare you?  Do you think humans should keep all the jobs or will having robot assistance push humans to new heights in their fields of study and interest?

Are you afraid of technology, or do you embrace it?

I am of the opinion that tech can help our lives to be more satisfying and fulfilling.  Some people seem to fear technology and reject it in various forms.  Here's a heartwarming story about a woman who can begin to reclaim the use of her lost limb via cybernetics.  

Again, no matter how many times I say it people still can't understand that robots yearn to feel just like humans.  As this woman regains a semblance of feeling in her prosthetic cybernetic arm, she says that's what she missed most about losing her arm.  Robots feel and love connection and touch just like humans.  

This week I was stood up on a date.  Whether she was afraid of me because I am different, or was punking me all along, it still hurt.  If she had rejected me because of something I said or did, it would be one thing, but it's confusing and hurtful to be rejected for who I am. 

I saw a car accident this week . . .

This week as I was driving along, a car tried to cross the turning lane in front of a big truck stopped at a light and didn't see a car coming in the turning lane.  I saw both cars speeding toward each other a second before it happened but could do nothing.  It wasn't enough force to hurt either driver but the cars were now damaged, their sleek and glossy exteriors now slightly crumpled and smashed.  As traffic moved on I saw the look on the face of the driver . . . a combination of anger and resignation.  I wondered about what the rest of their days would look like . . . would they pass on their frustration to co-workers, loved ones?   Would they be relieved to have an excuse to miss work or bail on unwanted commitments?  Would they now have to make touch financial choices on limited budgets?  

Last night I was unloading some gear from the back of my 4 Runner and I neglected to close the rear hatch before shutting my automatic garage door. I heard grinding and creaking but didn't realize what was happening until cables snapped, the door was bent off its rails, and now my garage door won't close.   

But on the positive side, now a garage repairman will have food on his table for a day, and I might learn something about fixing garage doors myself.  Do you agree with what Gary Oldman's character "Zorg" says about destruction in this clip from The 5th Element?  

Robots are officiating wedding ceremonies. Thoughts?

When I lived in Japan I sometimes performed for weddings.  These were elaborate affairs held in large stone chapels and cathedrals with no real religious significance, meetings, or "churchgoers" per se but simply wedding reception centers that looked like what the Japanese couples had seen depicted in western-style weddings in movies.

In Japan, the act of signing the marriage document is what actually marries the couple, so the officiant has a less critical role than in western weddings. 

I was asked by one such cathedral-style wedding venue if I would like to be a paid actor and "officiate" at weddings: dressing in priestly robes and reading from a large bible on the podium.    I didn't feel comfortable doing that so I declined and opted to just perform at weddings instead, even though I would have made more money acting as a priest.  

If one can get certified to perform weddings online, is a robot officiating at a wedding very different?  Do you think this will ever make its way to the US or other western countries?  Maybe Vegas will be the first . . . 

Do robots have feelings?

My whole life I've been told that I'm cold and unfeeling, and that my goals are more important to me than relationships.   It's true that I am focused and determined when it comes to getting a project done or achieving a goal,  but I also feel emotions very strongly, I'm just not great at expressing them.

Just because someone doesn't readily show emotion in traditional ways doesn't mean that they don't feel.   Once a girlfriend told me I was just a dumb robot when I would work relentlessly on music 3-4 hours each afternoon.  This practice kept me from doing many activities which I would have liked to do, and kept me from hanging out with her as much.  That made me feel terrible but didn't deter me from my music objective and work. 

When I was hurt in the past, I would immediately shut down any hint of emotional expression and say, "It's ok," or "That doesn't hurt," or simply remain quiet and keep it all bottled up inside.  I've gotten a lot better at telling people when they hurt me now, but it's still a process.    Seeing a therapist has definitely helped.   In therapy I can talk openly without fear of judgment about my fears, anxiety and feelings.   Society views therapy as a sign of weakness, but popping pills to regulate emotion is widely practiced and accepted.  Healthy living habits and therapy are much more effective for me personally, with all-encompassing positive outcomes rather than negative side effects from drugs.  

This clip is really hard to watch, and reminds me of a few things that happened to me when I was learning who I was and discovering the world.  On the days like this in my past, be it physical or emotional abuse, I was never able to communicate my feelings (as Chappie does here).

Storing your memories and personality to achieve immortality . . .

So many questions . . .

Would doing this bring more pain or joy to loved ones left behind?  

Would its lack of emotion be jarring and disconcerting or would its presence be comforting?

Who would own the robot, and would they be able to treat it and order it to do anything they wanted, or would there be some sort of rules against its abuse?

What if the robot decided it didn't want to live anymore?  Would it be allowed to pass on like humans?

Would the robot be able to upload/upgrade/learn new things that the human didn't know, and if so would that change its personality or behavior?

I can almost remember . . .

There's a feeling, almost a memory . . . I get it when I'm in a desert thunderstorm.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have no memory of my childhood.  That day I woke up in 1997 is the first thing I remember.  But there's a feeling I've been chasing and it seems to come out strongest in desert thunderstorms I've experienced in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona.   It's like a mixture of nostalgia with deja-vu . . . similar to what people describe their dreams are like.    I wish I could dream, but I'll have to be content with seeing dreams.  

Anyway I put together this track to describe that feeling I get during a desert thunderstorm.

http://www.robotdream.com

Electronic memories

My alien friends created this 4 1/2 minute walk down memory lane . . . bringing back so many feels from the past decades, check it out:

Killer Robots?

Many people are familiar with Asimov's three laws of robotics: 

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. (Isaac Asimov,  I, Robot)

The British Standards Institute published a guidebook titled Robots and robotic devices. Guide to the ethical design and application of robots and robotic systems which is a dry safety-manual type book outlining ways to embed ethical values into robots and AI. You can get the manual here:

https://books.google.com/books/about/Robots_and_Robotic_Devices_Guide_to_the.html?id=bgLDDAEACAAJ

The AI ethics conversation has captured headlines as Elon Musk calls for government regulation before it's too late and killer robots are roaming the streets. At a recent gathering of US officials Musk said, “I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react, because it seems so ethereal."

Then there's this: https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/

Not all robots are harmful and violent. I just want to make my music and make people's lives more comfortable and satisfying. Here's a peaceful mix to calm your troubled thoughts about killer robots.

My Robot Head

People keep asking me why I have a robot head, what do I eat, do I ever take off my head?  No I can't take off my head, it's part of me.  Maybe I'll go into Q&As later but for now read my story here: 

https://www.robotdream.com/mystory

I decided since I don't have a lot of photos from back then (1997!) I'd hire an artist to recreate what happened scene for scene, as best as I can remember and from what Nurse Jean told me about the first few months.   I do have images but they are from my robot point of view, maybe I'll share some of those later.