| On 10.27.09, In Uncategorized, by sweta |
Have you ever thought what would the world look like in the future say about 40 years from now. I just came across this article Forecast: Sex and Marriage with Robots by 2050 by Charles Q. Choi. I was quite reminded of the movie Bicentennial Man where Robin Williams plays a robot who falls in love and marries a woman while transforming into a human. What was science fiction could be a reality in future and you don’t really have to wait that long.
Artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience “My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots.”
And when he makes this forecast he is just not talking about marriage as a mechanism but practices that come with and outside of marriage.
“There’s a trend of robots becoming more human-like in appearance and coming more in contact with humans,” Levy said. “At first robots were used impersonally, in factories where they helped build automobiles, for instance. Then they were used in offices to deliver mail, or to show visitors around museums, or in homes as vacuum cleaners, such as with the Roomba. Now you have robot toys, like Sony’s Aibo robot dog, or Tickle Me Elmos, or digital pets like Tamagotchis.”
His argument about attraction and programming something to be liked by one is completely true. Mostly we like someone when the frequency matches or we find some particular human behavior attractive. This according to him is completely programmable. So infact a machine can be programmed to suit our taste and we might just fall in love with it.
What amazed me the most it the certainty with which Levy says that “The question is not if this will happen, but when,” “I am convinced the answer is much earlier than you think.” He has also predicted the place where he thinks human-robot marriage will be legalized.
“Massachusetts is more liberal than most other jurisdictions in the United States and has been at the forefront of same-sex marriage,” Levy said. “There’s also a lot of high-tech research there at places like MIT.”
While this forecast might be amusing to some, the possibility of this could not be ruled out. Given the fact that people are getting busier and mechanical by the day. Emotions are rare and there might be time when love and marriage would not be something people would want to waste their time in.
This does pose a question though “What about the complexities of marriage?” There are numerous ethical and social questions that arise too. While the author says a lot of research needs be done in this area and he sees a lot of potential there too; I’d rather wait till 2050 and see if the forecast comes true.
One Response
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