AI development through the years has been getting progressively better. There are now "
conversation simulators" that while they wouldn't pass a
Turing Test, can nevertheless appear to give
sensible answers to some questions or comments. I'm told that a secretary once asked to be alone with an
Eliza program — which proves that to some extent they can respond in a way a
human would.
My point here is that there seems to be an increasing trend to create not only AI systems, but intelligent systems, that can not only work their own path out and be capable of holding a conversation about how to do this, but can actually think about what they are doing in a creative (i.e. human) way. Many people have the ultimate goal of creating a "virtual human" made entirely out of mechanical/artificial systems with an artificial "brain", which can feel emotions, etc., and act exactly like a human would.
This robot or android or whatever it will be called will be used to do jobs that we humans do not want to do — keep the roads clean, work in rubbish dumps and doing the more boring labour while we live in luxury. Now, while these robots can be programmed to do this as their main priority, the fact is that they have been built to find creative solutions to the problems — i.e. their neural processes can recreate themselves in a more efficient way, and if it is more efficient to bypass or laws or simply kill us, they may well just do that. As the guy on Jurassic Park said, "life will find a way". My question is this: why do we try to create these beings at all? Wouldn't it be a lot simpler merely to make them have enough AI to know what they should be doing nothing more? This "creativity" and "learning" requires that the being must have some sort of "feeling" in order to know which is right and which is wrong.
If these robots are not to be used in the service industry on the other hand, then why are we bothering to build them at all? I certainly would prefer to live with a real human than with a robot that can simulate human responses (possibly even if I couldn't tell the difference).
Why do we build this intelligence rather than trying to plug ourselves into a robotic shell if it's strength and agility we pursue? I don't see any use in creating something that's exactly like a human... why not just reproduce the normal way? Is this some kind of 'mothering' instinct showing through in males?
If these robots are to be a "slave race" but are nevertheless to emulate our intelligence, won't building them stronger and more efficient than us be a disadvantage if they ever try to rebel?