10 reasons I'll NEVER marry a robot

10 Reasons I'd Never Marry a Robot

On her wired blog Regina Lynn posted the article 10 reasons I'd rather marry a robot. It is a rather glib presentation on what will present some serious ethical issues regarding the interaction of human beings with artificial intelligence and what it really means to BE a human BEing.

Artificial-intelligence expert David Levy's new book, Love + Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships, makes a compelling case for the development of real human-robot partnerships -- by 2050.

Using Lynn's headings, here are 10 reasons I would NEVER consider a robo-marriage:

1. Robots are more than sex machines.

   Yes, they can dance, play drum and bass and move heavy furniture at your command. But if you take a moment out to look at what a miraculous sensing, living, breathing, feeling, moving structure that a human being is no amount of metal can compare to the ultimate perfection and combination of tissue, nerves, skeleton, muscle and tendons that we take for granted. The warm, friendly, loving touch of a caring hand can lift our spirits and make us feel alive. How can a synthetic counterpart every fill us with so much feeling of what it means to be ALIVE?
   

2. Artificial intelligence is still intelligence.

   It is intelligence but not empathy. It is empathy that separates humans from psychopaths. How can a robot ever understand what it really feels like to be human? In his fascinating book 'without concience' Robert Hare writes:

   In many respects they [psycopaths] are like the emotionless androids dipicted in science fiction, unable to imagine what real humans experience. One rapist, high on the Psychopathy checklist, commented that he found it hard to empathize with his victims. "They are frightened, right? But, you see, I don't really understand it. I've been scared myself, and it wasn't unpleasant."

   The biggest danger to society actually comes from the 'white collar' Psychopath: From The Mask of Sanity:

   If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. [...]
   
   Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 4 percent of the population..

   It is 'white collar' psychopaths that by their lack of conscience are able to rise to the top of government and corporations and make the rest us humans lives intolerable and cruel. To see how their pathological ideals of empire building wars and fascism filter down through all aspects of society you need to read: PONEROLOGY: A NEW SCIENCE:
   

   Ponerology describes the genesis, existence, and spread of the macrosocial disease called evil. Its causes are traceable and can be repeatedly observed and analyzed. When humanity manages to incorporate this knowledge into its natural worldview, it will have defensive potential as yet unrealized

3. Robots are sensitive and responsive.
   
   But only in the same way a psychopath is.

4. A robot will only create drama if I want it to.

   It is the drama in human relationships that really makes them worthwhile. By making us realise what our own faults are we can change ourselves to become better people. By realising how our actions impact on others we can take more control our own lives instead of merely responding automatically to our own desires and emotional mechanisms. Most of the drama in our lives is caused by external forces created by pathologically deviant and evil World leaders.

5. Robots have off switches.

   But life doesn't have off switches. Life is a continual journey of discovery and learning, by having the option to turn off the things we are emotionally illequiped to deal with surely we will not make any personal development necessary to live a full and rewarding life.
   

6. Accessories.

   The robot could hoover the floor, granted. But with population sizes exploding, jobs becoming scarce do we actually need or desire inaminate lumps of metal to perform labour that can provide a living, food and shelter for real human beings with concience?
   

7. Robots are available for sexual adventure without elaborate discussions, permissions or restrictions.

   Communications is one of the most important skills a human being has and through discussing our fears, feelings and phobia's with someone who truly cares about you brings a great deal of satisfaction and fulfilment. A hedonistic approach to life may be fine and dandy for some but for me I know deep inside the short term chemical release of climax is insignificant to long term fulfilment of living a life based on making ones own decisions, not simply reacting to chemical impulses that only have short-term gains.
   

8. The safest sex on the planet.

   The safest sex is none at all or sex as a true expression of love between two individuals who know themselves and each other. Anything else is simply emotionally destructive, short-term, narcissistic, self-serving and ultimately unfulfiling.
   

9. A robot can be a personal trainer for sex.

   yes, it can mechanically condition, train you into a soulless existence, in very much the same way we are culturally deteriorating under a psychopathic leadership hell-bent on creating obedient, non-questioning human slaves
   

10. A robot is forever -- at least until the warranty runs out.

    A robot will last much longer than our own fragile human existence. Most Eastern religion's and philosophies revolve around the importance of accepting our own mortality as a basis for living each day to the full. Never forget today maybe your last. Are you going to spend it browsing through the latest gadget catalogue or spending time with your loved ones or networking with like-minded people who care about you and the true state of our world today?
    

Lynn concludes correctly:

It's the occasional wobbliness that provides the challenges that keep a relationship interesting and real.

We should become more in touch with our own humanness and do everything in our power to prevent us being robotic slaves ourselves. In the magnificent book, "in search of the miraculous" Gurdjieff writes:

"Contemporary culture requires automatons. And people are undoubtedly losing their acquired habits of independence and turning into automatons, into parts of machines. It is impossible to say where is the end of all this and where the way out— or whether there is an end and a way out. One thing alone is certain, that man's slavery grows and increases. Man is becoming a willing slave. He no longer needs chains. He begins to grow fond of his slavery, to be proud of it. And this is the most terrible thing that can happen to a man."

But this is what is happening. we have a society obsessed with materialism and consumerism. People are proud of their shiny new cars bought on credit and excited by a job title in a company that produces nothing or things no one really needs. Until we break free from the illusions that keep us trapped in a soulless society then we are contributing to the deaths and destruction of our fellow humans. Who will be left to marry the robots?

Technorati categories: News, technology, Politics, internet

Video games kill children - Military recruitment, the media and War

He didn’t find his dreams…NewsCorp found him!

Sott.net recently carried an article that appeared in The Times: British intelligence is recruiting adrenaline-addicted video games junkies. In the article it is reported:

"Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the surveillance arm of the intelligence services, will this month become the first spy agency to embed adverts for new recruits inside computer games.[…] The advertisements will appear as billboards in the fictional landscapes of games including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They will not be written into the games themselves but will be fed into games when they are played on personal computers and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles that are connected to the internet. GCHQ hopes to "plant the idea in the heads of younger players" of pursuing a career in the secret services.”

The emphasised sentences imply that they will be able to modify the adverts/programming to fit any need they want - even customizing it to a single individual. Scary don't you think?

He didn't find his dreams...his dreams found him

The last Starfighter was a 1984 science fiction movie, A teenager living in a trailer park becomes the best player ever at Starfighter, a stand-up arcade game that has him "defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada." The night he gets best score ever in the game, he is approached by the game's fast-talking inventor, Centauri in his human form. Stepping into Centauri's vehicle (a "starcar"), Alex is horrified to find that not only is the car actually a spaceship, but Centauri is a disguised alien, who whisks him off to another planet. (not an office in Whitehall)

Essentially Alex lives up to his high-score reputation, kills the baddies and saves the planet…a true hero. The story ends with Alex's younger brother Louis preparing to play the Starfighter game, hoping to join Alex one day in the Star League. The movie had the tagline: “He didn't find his dreams...his dreams found him” and if you think for a second that future Tom Clancy’s will have the same romantic ending then you must be one of the owners of a 'starcar'!

This is not the first time that video games have been used as a military recruitment tool. “In 2002, The United States Army, released a free-share online game called America's Army. Players that register, and who agree to certain conditions, are allowed to have their play performance reviewed by real-life recruiters looking for potential enlistees. The game, however, was mainly designed to convince possible recruits to join the U.S. Army, not test them. America's Army is the first computer and video game to make recruitment an explicit goal and the first well-known overt use of computer gaming for political aims.

America’s Army used the services of GameSpy: also known as GameSpy Industries, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game Web sites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current company is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. It is currently controlled by News Corporation (a company chaired by mass-media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire includes the FOX television networks, British SKY broadcasting, The Sun and Times newspapers and consequently have a undeniable influence in the way that information is presented to the general public. Rupert Murdoch is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, watch the video to see how the role CFR plays in one aspect of
controlling the American media: CFR controls American media. The CFR was formally established in 1921, it is one of the most powerful private organizations with influence on U.S. foreign policy. It has about 4,000 members, including former national security officers, professors, former CIA members, elected politicians, and media figures. It essentially dictates foreign policy and promotes their hidden agenda to the public by maximising the number of media companies they control or influence through mergers, acquisitions and change of editorial staff.

In July 2007 the UK guardian reported that Blair and Murdoch spoke days before Iraq war:

“Tony Blair spoke to the media mogul Rupert Murdoch three times in the 10 days before the outbreak of the Iraq war - once on the eve of the US-led invasion - it was disclosed yesterday.
The telephone conversations were among six calls between the two men detailed by the cabinet office in response to a freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury. […] Lord Avebury said: "Rupert Murdoch has exerted his influence behind the scenes on a range of policies on which he is known to have strong views,the Iraq war. including the regulation of broadcasting and The public can now scrutinise the timing of his contacts with the former prime minister, to see whether they can be linked to events in the outside world."

Further examples of this media bias can be seen here: Fox Does Unto Iran As It Did Unto Iraq or this youtube video: George Galloway Confronts Sky News over its bias towards Israel - Video

It is clear from the above that Rupert Murdoch has a vested interest in promoting the war agenda, is influential in the way that news stories are presented in order to win over support from the public for that agenda. It is also clear that his corporation’s activities reach as far as using the latest technology to assist in military recruitment.

A person would be naïve to think that this is just one man on a crusade for world domination, he is of course accompanied, influenced and cajoled through membership of elitist organisations such as the CFR. It should be clear to all by now that the way these organisations show little regard for the welfare of normal rational human beings. In the book Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes. Dr. Łobaczewski theorizes that:

The effects of the psychopath on the fabric of human society, especially when acting as a group, can be likened to the effects of disease on the physical body. This disease manifests as a gradual but fundamental re-structure of the social heirarchy until, in extreme cases, a pathocracy is formed: a society ruled and motivated by purely pathological values. He further asserts that the close, careful study of these effects will help man understand the cause, which can then lead to a cure for this affliction of society.

One could argue that video games are creating a generation of young people with highly tuned motor skills: there is research that suggests that Gun-firing video games improve eyesight. perhaps this is an undeclared aim. That "aim" is possibly to create individuals that will be used as controllers of a robot army or at the very least it is an effective method of desensitizing individuals to war, killing and bloodshed that occurs in unnecessary wars. The overwhelming evidence is that the negative effects far outweigh any positive benefits. You can see why those groups and individuals who promote and support wars of aggression would benefit from our children to learning to become psychopathic killers: The article:"Many Killed Or Maimed" by Video Games reports:

“One expert, Pat Brown, a national top criminal profiler and parent, said that these video games are causing our children to become psychopathic killers by 9 years old. Others, such as Dr. Phil McGraw (psychologist), Bill O'Reilley (Fox news), professor James Alan Fox (criminal justice expert) and Candice DeLong (retired FBI profiler) echoed similar sentiments.”

In April 2007 ISU psychologists published three new studies on violent video game effects on youths.The Iowa State Universities key findings were:

1. Exposure to cartoonish children's violent video games had the same short-term effects on increasing aggressive behavior as the more graphic teen (T-rated) violent games.
2. High school students who had more exposure to violent video games held more pro-violent attitudes, had more hostile personalities, were less forgiving, believed violence to be more typical, and behaved more aggressively in their everyday lives.
3. Children who played more violent video games early in the school year changed to see the world in a more aggressive way, and became more verbally and physically aggressive later in the school year

So are our generation of Last Starfighter’s intentionally being trained, turned into psychopaths and then recruited by the military by video games? I would say yes! Video games and what was
considered harmless entertainment for children has come along way since pacman! Does the fact that GCHQ is placing virtual adverts in these games disturb you at all? It should!

One has to wonder whether their involvement stops at the use of video games and technology
for control and other purposes. Technology certainly exists for sophisticated psychological profiling: In May 2007 the UK guardian reported that Google may use games to psycho-analyse net users. From the article: “The patent says: "User dialogue (eg from role playing games, simulation games, etc) may be used to characterise the user (eg literate, profane, blunt or polite, quiet etc). Also, user play may be used to characterise the user (eg cautious, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy, honest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc)."

What is to stop military recruiters from building up psychological profiles of all young online gamers? Before the first interview, a recruiter would know how the individual reacts under stress or what is the best way to influence the individual to get the desired reaction and result. Scenarios and situations could be personally created and targeted to influence certain psychological conditions. Mix this with data-mining software currently used to monitor searches, email and browsing history and the recruiter would have all the information and tools necessary to manipulate and assess an individual, make his… but at what price to personal privacy?

Reality or fantasy?

The increasing use of all senses in video game technology, high definition TV and sound blurs the distinction between reality and fantasy. Our last Starfighter is already distanced from the reality of war, starved of objective reporting on the humanitarian disasters that the current War campaign is creating. He would be aware of who won the last series of Celebrity Big Brother but would he know that 2 million Iraqis have been killed since 2003 and a further 2 million destitute refugees?

battlefield of the future

Video game training is producing the ideal candidates for the battlefield of the future. The increasing technological advancements of weaponry further distances the operator from the target. In Mar 2007, Science Daily reports in The Most Realistic Virtual Battlefield In The World how Iowa State University [while also researching the detrimental effects of video games!]:

"is developing a control interface for the militaries next generation of unmanned aerial vehicles. The researchers are building a virtual environment that allows operators to see the vehicles, the surrounding airspace, the terrain they're flying over as well as information from instruments, cameras, radar and weapons systems. The system would allow a single operator to control many vehicles."

©Kevin Teske

Muthukkumar Kadavasal, an Iowa State doctoral student in human computer interaction, demonstrates how improvements to Iowa State's C6 provide virtual reality at the world's highest resolution.

It seems we are certainly producing a generation of young people well suited to this task: Lightening responses and no conscience. Would they be aware it is real people that get blown to pieces in wars or would they be too conditioned and focused on the bottom right hand side of the screen’s flashing body-count?

As parents we need to try and minimise our children’s exposure to the negative impact of violent computer games and media. We need to be aware just how interconnected technology companies, Media corporations and politicians actually are. We need to also be aware that these organisations do not have our best interests at heart. Will this story end just like the last Starfighter: Our children following the next into the cannon-fodder league?

We need to give our children the opportunity for them to create their own ‘tag lines’ otherwise it will be given for them:

He didn't find his nightmares...his nightmares found him!

Technorati categories: News, Technology, Politics, iraq, Google, Internet