(토요모임) [April, 30, 2016] Saturday meeting topic

[JANE]

Could you love a robot?

Intimate artificial intelligence

The robots are coming. In fact, they are already here, taking roles that once only humans could perform. Though we are still a far cry from sci-fi, we are already used to interacting with robots – at the supermarket self-checkout. In Japan, they are already being used to provide care for the elderly.

If a robot could be built to be as sensitive and caring as humans can be, would you want one? They could enter our lives so totally that we might even fall in love with them.

It’s time to think about robots: what they can do for us and what they might mean to us before we get in too deep.

The robots we could love

Imagine a world where robots with artificial intelligence (AI) take the place of humans. Science fiction writers and film-makers have tried to do just that. These four thought provoking films examine worlds where humans have relationships with artificial intelligence – for better or worse.

A robot could fulfil desires conveniently, discreetly and non-judgmentally for either gender."If you had a beautiful machine that you found aesthetically pleasing and it was sentient, why not? Fall in love, sure"Director Alex Garland.

A new kind of love

[Different sex:Relationships between men and women]

This may be regarded as the most traditional relationship, but the ancient Greeks didn’t think this was the ultimate expression‎ of love.

Plato thought that men only lusted after women, but could not love them. He thought love between men was the highest ideal.

[Mixed religions:Relationships between people of different religions]

For many people, the idea of loving someone who practises a different religion is impossible. Through history, many religious believers have thought it is wrong to marry outside their religion.

A few hundred years ago in Europe this was not permitted, and it remains unacceptable today to groups all over the world, including branches of Christianity and Islam which prohibit mixed faith marriage.

[Different race: Relationships between people of different race]

Marriage between different races has faced resistance and hostility throughout history, and has been unacceptable to many.

Though interracial marriage was never illegal in the UK, in the USA it was not legalised in most southern states until 1967.

[Online:Relationships between people who met online]

Meeting a real-world partner with the help of an online dating service algorithm that calculates your compatibility is now commonplace.

Others maintain virtual lives online, and have fulfilling relationships with people they have never physically met and never will meet. The possibility of genuinely loving someone solely through online interaction is now accepted by many.

[Same sex:Relationships between people of the same gender]

Same sex relationships were illegal in the UK until 1967, and legislation to bring same sex marriage onto a par with heterosexual sex marriage is very recent.

In 2015 same sex sexual relationships are illegal in several countries and punishable by death in some.

[Robot-human:Relationships between humans and robots]

When an intelligent robot is capable of inspiring love and being in love, then will it be any different from humans loving each other? In future, we will once again have to redefine what we mean by love.

The limits of this have not yet been tested, but they will be soon.

Today the idea of someone loving a robot may seem strange or even utterly wrong. Yet over history, opinions of what are morally acceptable actions and what are not have changed constantly. There may be no reason to think our attitude to loving an artificial intelligence will be any different.

The issues of robot relationships

Convenience

For: A robot could be programmed to be a super-efficient personal assistant who would always be available.

Against: A society where people prefer convenient relationships with robots to human interactions may cause deterioration in human-to-human relationships or lead to some people withdrawing from society.

Emotional support

For: A robot may be an alternative to loneliness, especially for those people who think they will never find love with others.

Against: A solution to loneliness that doesn’t involve other people could lead to worse isolation or eventual feelings of inadequacy.

 

Care

For: Care robots could be cheaper to employ than human carers and also release people from overwhelming caring responsibilities.

Against: The elderly could be less likely to understand new technology and may be unhappy to interact with it. A care robot for children may not prepare young people how to properly engage with other humans.

Robot’s feelings

For: If a robot could truly feel it could genuinely love you back.

Against: This is uncharted territory for ethics, and raises more questions than it answers. If a robot is sentient we would have to decide if it is acceptable to let its battery run down, or buy and sell it, or be cruel to it.

Commerce

For: A robot could be available for anyone with the money to buy one.

Against: Robots designed by manufacturers to be loveable could exploit the humans who buy them. Humans might be pressured to constantly “upgrade” or buy goods and services suggested by the robot.

Our relationships with AI robots will bring up a range of new issues. These will include the possibility of reducing quality of life and exploitation of both humans and robots. By considering these issues now we can save ourselves from misery and heartache in future.

[Questions]

1. How will society react? This could be the biggest ethical decision of the 21st Century.

    When the time comes, will you embrace the robots? Do you think that robot-human should be allowed to marry?

2. What is your definition of love? Could you love a lobot?

3. If you could invent a robot, what type of robot would you invent?

4. What are some advantages or disadvantages of going out with a robot?

5. Do you think it is okay to marry someone with a different race?

6. Do you think it is okay to marry someone with a different religion

7. Do you think that you can fine eternal love through the Internet?

8. What do you think of same-gender marriages?

9. If you could go out with anyone, who would it be?

10. What are some requiments that you think are important in a spouse or partner?

11. What characteristics do you look for in a girlfriend or boyfriend?

Why don’t we talk about dying?

Facing up to death

I have stage four breast cancer and am on my last chemotherapy treatment. I've had several years to think about my own death and what I'm going to do before I die.

Death is a certainty for us all, but it's still something we often don't want to talk about. So how should we plan and communicate about the final event of our lives? And why have we become so reluctant to discuss our own deaths?

How has our experience of death changed?

The coffin of Battersea street trader Jim Lloyd rests in his living room, before being transported to Wandsworth Cemetery by a traditional funeral procession, 1949.
In the UK, death is primarily associated with old age.
Generations ago, death within the family was far more common because of a variety of factors, which included infant mortality, maternal death in childbirth, industrial accidents, illness and disease.

Dying was something that used to happen at home. Family members were 'laid out to rest' in the front room of the house, usually in their coffins.
It was here that extended family and neighbors would pay their respects and view the dead body. Death was familiar.
During the course of the 20th Century, and particularly after World War Two and the establishment of the welfare state, dying became more private with most people dying in hospitals or residential care. Our contact with death had started to wane.

Reluctant to talk

A ComRes survey (April 2015) about death and dying conducted on behalf of the National Council for Palliative Care found that, although most of us think it's more acceptable to talk about dying now than it was 10 years ago, the majority of people think we're still uncomfortable discussing dying, death and bereavement.

Dying on social media

Although people may not like to talk about their own death or that of loved ones, the passing of famous figures such as David Bowie can help to open up the conversation about the subject, especially across social media.

This can be a helpful way into talking about dying. Dr Mark Taubert, a palliative care consultant, wrote an open letter to Bowie saying that his demise became a way for him and a patient "to communicate very openly about death". It was published on the British Medical Journal website and was retweeted by Bowie's son Duncan Jones.

And social media is undoubtedly changing the way we witness the process of dying. People like me, who are terminally ill and document their treatment and illness online, offer their readers and followers an insight into what it’s like to face an imminent death.

Professor Glennys Howarth, who studies attitudes towards death and dying, says that the increasing use of digital and social media means the way in which we communicate about dying is changing.

"Although it is still a very private event for many people, for others it is an experience that they want to share, and they now have the technology to do so," she says. "So it may be that attitudes to dying aren't changing, but that attitudes to whether dying should be a private or a public experience are."

[Questions]

1. Do you believe in life after death?

2. Do you believe that you will be born again?

3. Do you want to know the date of your death?Why or Why not?

4. Would you consider physician assisted suicide if you were suffering a painful dying experience?

5. Have you ever thought you'd like to die?

    If you could choose how you were going to die, what would you choose your death to be?

6. What do you think of suicide?

7. What do you think would happen if there were no death for human beings?

8. If you had the option of freezing your body in order to bring you back to life, would do it?

9. What is the worst way of dying?

10. What is the ideal way of dying?

11. Do you have a bucket list?