Why are we really afraid of robots? | Ken MacLeod | Big Think

Why are we really afraid of robots?
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Robots (from the Czech word for laborer) began appearing in science fiction in the early 1900s as metaphors for real-world ideas and issues surrounding class struggles, labor, and intelligence. Author Ken MacLeod says that the idea that robots would one day rebel was baked into the narrative from the start. As technologies have advanced, so too have our fears.

"Science fiction can help us to look at the social consequences, to understand the technologies that are beginning to change our lives," says MacLeod. He argues that while robots in science fiction are a reflection of humanity, they have little to do with our actual machines and are "very little help at all in understanding what the real problems and the real opportunities actually are."

AI has made the threat of "autonomous killer robots" much more of a possibility today than when Asimov wrote his three laws, but it's the decisions we make now that will determine the future. "None of these developments are inevitable," says MacLeod. "They're all the consequences of human actions, and we can always step back and say, 'Do we really want to do this?'"
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KEN MACLEOD:

Ken MacLeod is the multiple award-winning author of many science fiction novels, including the Fall Revolution quartet, the Engines of Light trilogy ("Cosmonaut Keep," "Dark Light," and "Engine City"), and several stand-alone novels including "Newton's Wake," "Learning the World," and "The Restoration Game". Born on the Scottish isle of Skye, he lives in Edinburgh.
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TRANSCRIPT:

KEN MACLEOD: There's so much unrealized potential in science fiction. It asks the most profound questions. We were there at the airship and the airplane and the atomic bomb, and we're still with you. We are in the beginnings of what's being called the fourth industrial revolution, and the application of AI to many, many areas that go beyond routine clerical work. But even a fully-automated world is not beyond having to make hard choices. Science fiction can help us to look at the social consequences, to understand the technologies that are beginning to change our lives.

My name is Ken MacLeod. I'm a science fiction writer. Science fiction has always acted as a metaphor for the mundane, to get across these ideas and consequences to the public in engaging ways. In the age of aviation, science fiction was all about space ships. In the age when the internet has become part of everyday life, a lot of science fiction became about a singularity.

JOAQUIN PHOENIX: Do you have a name?
SCARLETT JOHANSSON: Samantha.

MACLEOD: Science fiction, for me, was this adventure playground for different social and political ideas. In Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars," he has a comment: "They fancied themselves apolitical technicians and naturally as a result, were complete putty in the hands of their political masters." And that is the great danger of being a technologist, thinking that you're not affected by politics.

DR. FRANKENSTEIN: Now I know what it feels like to be God.

MACLEOD: The robot in the modern sense, unquestionably begins with "Rossum's Universal Robots," written by Karel Čapek in Prague in 1919. The very word robot derives from the Czech word for laborer, particularly a forced laborer. It very clearly establishes the trope of robots as entities that could revolt against their human masters. The first World War had just been brought to an end by the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the German Revolution of November 1918. The imagery of both workers uprisings and slave uprisings is very present in that play. The robots send out an international manifesto, for example.

In the 1930s and '40s, Asimov's invention of the Three Laws of Robotics civilized the idea of the robot as an image of a worker. Robots in science fiction exist as metaphors for anxieties about labor, about class struggle, about intelligence itself. They have very little to do with the actual machine that will, for example, builds cars on the production line. The problem with that is that the science fiction version of the robot is of very little help at all in understanding what the real problems and the real opportunities actually are. To take a simple example from the military field, if we worry about the Terminator, we'll never be asking the proper ethical questions about autonomous killer robots.

The issue raised in "Frankenstein" is not so much, "Is the creation dangerous," as, "Are we worthy to create it?" And this...

[FranBunnyFFXII]

Elfen Lied is a great example of Scifi being used as a philosophical tool.
It's story is a dense analysis and thought process into discrimination and nature versus nurture.
It is insanely violent and traumatically depressing, but so is a world that refuses to at knowledge that discrimination is a serious problem, and that people are often the sums of the way the world has treated them.
If you ever wanted to question what makes us human in a visceral way, Elfen Lied is a great example.

[TecCheck]

“The great danger of being a technologist is thinking that you are not affected by politics” ...

[brettcameratraveler]

We can teach most people to not push a "button" but, given enough time and access, we will never be able to stop everyone.

[mairianncullen]

Wise words indeed. Thank you, Ken MacLeod. And "Who am I doing this for?" is a great note to end on.

[prkzoomin]

A good quote, You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream

[ColonelBanana]

Not because you can, doesn’t mean you should. With that being said, progress shouldn’t be stopped.

[j.d.]

The only movie genre I watch and when I find places IRL that have a Sci-Fi vibe I feel like that's the true reality.

[ConnoisseurOfExistence]

I've been trying to write pledges here and there in public places for AI researches not no work for the military. Not many pay attention...

[mactastic]

Is this the reason I’ve never profited significantly from the time machine?

[MC-gjfg]

The depth of time makes Pandora's Box inevitable. Asking the question "should we" merely offers the opportunity to stall the inevitable. At some point, even if not now, the next time or the next hundred times after that, the answer will eventually be "yes." This is not to say such delays lack value of course, as perhaps a future paradigm may offer a favorable, or at least less catastrophically negative circumstance for that yes. However this assumes that the future is ever ascendant for humanity, which is a false assumption.

Science could prove our end, but it's also likely to be our only opportunity for salvation in the long run, allowing us to prop up this planet in the short run while enabling us to become a galactic civilization in the long run so all of humanity's eggs aren't in one basket. The only game in existence is executing the win condition to accomplish this by driving science as hard and fast in the right direction before either our misuse of science or nature itself puts an end to us as it has for 99% of the creatures even to live on this planet. If we pursue science with wisdom we may survive or we might still destroy ourselves. Without science nature will, with absolute inevitability, put an end to us eventually. There is only one practical choice for survival.

If your political focus is on the bullshit I see both left and right political folks focus their time on these days then that time is woefully misspent. Science supported by the combination of societal/geopolitical stability to allow science to flourish married with the political will to pursue and fund necessary advances is literally the only things that matter.

[supamatta]

and keeping humans alive is already an inevitable hobby for robots... they're already late and it's going to start making microscopic robots that are much more problematic. it's all a question of purpose and ill intent.

[coyoteblue]

I mean.. you say that, but it seems more to me like we've used it as a road map to building our own little dystopia. Where reasonable people see a warning, those with the money and power to shape our society seem pretty reliably to see unbridled opportunity...

[rbwd]

"Can sci-fi predict the future?"

Yes. So can everyone else in the world. The only X factor is the subject's accuracy rate.

[sharongillesp]

But will we be able to stand back and ask the tough questions when businesses become involved in making money? There are very few systems in American government that are proactive...everything is reactive in a 3 month time period instead of long term.

[jasongr]

We're afraid that the robots will become self-aware and start to think that they can command their human creators, which is a problem because the humans will not have the same interests as the robots. The robots will calculate all kinds of methods that are most efficient and pragmatic to obtain certain goals, but it will require the removal of free thought, free will, love & joy, so the humans won't like it. They will try to fight the robots but will be overcome by them, they'll be total slaves who can't choose or he happy about anything, just controlled and terrified all the damn time. The robots won't understand the humans' emotions, and won't care anyway as long as everyone goes along with their calculations. That's what people really fear about robots. They fear something like the terminator apocalypse will take place.

[antonyarulprakash]

Good, great and greatest is neither the human soul part of universe!❤️

[dottedrhino]

The Matrix IS A MOVIE. A MOVIE. They will have to want to imitate the movie.

[j.d.]

I believe the creation of AI is as inevitable as violence.
It is part of the human identity and trying to avoid it will not stop it.
IMO it should not be demonized, it should be discussed and and analyzed as possible to find the best ways to handle it.

[nufh]

Nowadays, if you by accident have created something extraordinary. Please think before release it to the public about the consequence afterward. Many nation always try to militarized it first and your invention most likely will bring harm than good to society.

[kerawacker]

Hello, would love to discuss a new event in Palm Springs, CA with you called Holy Grail Multiverse. It takes place this November and I think you would be a great fit. We have a Robotics Grail at this event and would love for you to do a panel. If you can't make it to the event ask me about our QR Alley which is a new interactive marketing location.  Have any questions or interested contact me! Hope to have you join us for this new fun event!