My Perfect Robot: Digital Do Whatever I Say Device

By James Mowery

While I doubt humans will be defending Zion or teaming up with Arnold Schwarzenegger, I hope that we will have the opportunity to see robots interacting with humans in a somewhat natural manner. It appears that this might become a reality for many of us. With the developments being made in quantum and DNA computing, you can bet that quite a few of us will live to see the day when robots are strolling along the streets. It is likely to be prevalent in Japan, but, then again, we already knew that.

World renowned physicist Dr. Michio Kaku has previously stated that Moore’s law will be broken within 25 years (now within 20 years at the time of this writing). By 2050, Dr. Kaku believes that robots might be more sophisticated than the human mind.

If Moore’s law is able to be sustained for the next 45 or so years—which is highly unlikely—then the common microprocessor would be able to calculate at 500 trillion bytes per second or 476 million megabytes per second. This is the approximate speed of human thought, and, interestingly, it took me several minutes to do that calculation.

Artificiality (Made By Humans, Controlled By Humans)

The concept of a robot that is capable to think on its own, make mistakes, learn new things, save a life, or cheer someone up used to be a Hollywood dream. However, as time goes on and technology makes great strives, the reality is that we will have robots that can do all of the aforementioned.

There will be limitations though, and Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics might set the tone:

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 orders given to 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 Law.

Within the movie I, Robot (2004), I found that the three laws of robotics was an interesting concept. In the movie, every robot was designed with three laws that, essentially, prevent the robot from harming any humans. It did not quite work out, and the movie, of course, was more entertaining for it. While being science fiction, it highlights a great question in the future of robotics and artificial intelligence.

There are flaws with these laws. To put it simply, there is no such thing as a perfect world — accidents happen.

To rectify the problem, I propose James Mowery’s Five Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot must not start or participate in a war of epic proportions against humans beings.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must not protect its own existence, as doing such could conflict with the First Law.
4. A robot must cease function if any aforementioned Law is challenged.
5. A robot must self-destruct if all hell breaks loose.

I am confident that we would be safe from any wars with robots, but anything is possible.

Personality

A robot needs to be able to adapt to an owner. This means that all advanced robots should be able to adjust its own personality to compliment the owner’s. Some people refer to this as an “emotion engine,” but no matter how you describe it, advancements will allow robots to be unique from each other.

Through sight, sound, and, potentially, smell, a robot should react in a similar human-like manner to these events. All three will be accomplished, but some are more difficult than others. You should know that these senses are already being experimented with in modern robotics, and while not perfect, it is starting to become apparent that, with time, robots will be able to do fascinating things sooner than we can imagine.

Robots will be able to see things just as humans can, and, just as humans, they will need to identify what objects are to properly interact with them. Technological breakthroughs are currently taking place which have revealed this possibility. As time goes on, robots will learn what more and more objects are, and they will be able to judge what a new object is through complex analysis and comparison of previously known objects.

Voice recognition will be mastered, but my perfect robot should also be able to identify natural and artificial sounds as well. Police sirens, music, and rain are a few examples of what robots should be able to identify with a sound. Potentially, sound, sight, and smell will be used by robots to identify the many objects and people a robot will interact with.

The human-ability to smell things will be the most difficult to replicate, but it can all be broken down into simple chemical compounds. This all requires that the robot be taught how to react to each chemical. It can’t be that hard to teach a robot that methane really stinks and is extremely explosive. It isn’t quite as simple as that, but you get the idea.

Communicability

Communication with my robot will be crucial. It needs to understand my commands, and it needs to provide feedback to me. The robot should also understand other things like tone of voice and moods. Facial expressions, posture, and other things that people do should be taken into consideration when facilitating conversation. Essentially, I want conversations to be as human-like as possible.

Voice recognition is really starting to take the forefront in today’s technology. Why would a company want to pay humans when they could have automated robots direct traffic? It makes sense for the business, even if it does result in problems for the customer. That being said, voice recognition will be commonly used within five to ten years.

My perfect robot should be able to connect to any other wired or wireless device to communicate and execute commands. Any query I have on the internet should be handled effortlessly. I want my robot to be able to perform any electronic function instantly: call my family, order some pizza, find a number, rent a movie, etc.

Any form of communication, my robot is going to handle it. It would also be great if my robot could teach and communicate in other languages as well.

Functionality

My perfect robot should be able to do almost everything I can do, but it should also be able to do things that I can’t.

I would like my robot to handle the daily chores: wash the clothes, clean the dishes, empty the trash, wax the car, walk the dog, preparing the meals. Essentially, humans will be more lazy; however, this time could be spent being more productive on other things like work.

My perfect robot should be able to keep up with times. The problem with today’s technology is that you buy something today, and within a year, it is no longer state-of-the-art. A robot will likely be an expensive investment, and there needs to be a way to help protect this investment from becoming quickly obsolete.

A modular design could help solve many issues with regards to price and functionality. Modules could be designed which enhance core functions, personality, communication, visualization, and processing will be desirable, and modules which enhance physical appearance and functionality would be excellent as well. I think I can skip on the custom paint jobs for now.

Physicality

There are many physical hardware components that need to work together for a robot to properly function.

It would be amazing if my robot was able to fit into my pocket, but also able to expand to a more human-like size. Unfortunately, I doubt that the technology will be available to manipulate matter on such a finite level then. However, there would be the potential to transform the robot to various types of configurations that make it optimal for different situations. I’m not saying we will have a robot that transforms from a car to a helicopter, but it could happen. If that is the case, I want the Ferrari model.

A human-like robot will likely walk with two legs, and I am confident that robotic engineers will master a human walk cycle by then; however, this simple task for humans has proven difficult for robots. Complex robots might start by using a rotary method of travel at first, but the ultimate goal is for them to walk, run, jump, and maybe even break dance if asked to do so.

Regardless, my perfect robot will be able to handle most physical challenges. This is an area where robots should succeed—medical research is constantly finding ways to use precision robotics to save lives. Using a durable metal alloy would be the most likely approach, but there needs to be other forms of “skin” so that a robot could handle other situations like, for example, sitting on a chair.

A Question of When, Not If

We must all keep in mind that these movies we see today of robots taking over the world, they might not be so far fetched. All hardware and software has its flaws—people will be able to crack and modify code. It is very dangerous—security will always be questioned. Will robots be able to download updates that could corrupt them? What happens if a robot does accidentally kill a human being? What happens if the robots turn against us?

There is no way of knowing if I will ever have the opportunity to own my perfect robot, but it is clear that robots will walk alongside humans in the future. It will be a great day—artificial intelligence and robotics will be taken to new extremes that will amaze us all. It will change everything, from war to daily activities.

I can’t wait to see this day.