If we look over the past 20-30 years in the area of technology, it is sometimes hard to imagine how fast it has developed. Every year there is an increase in exponential growth to how reliable and advanced technology/computers are becoming. Technology and computers have become necessities and for many they are becoming addictions. We can discuss in a broad topic about how far we will go with technology in a general aspect. For example, how much thinner/smaller can we make chips, computers, and televisions? How can we create our engines more eco-friendly or is there another level further than High Definition and 3D movies? These are all pretty interesting areas to study and discuss but I find them to be miniscule to the picture I believe which portrays the future. The picture which involves the future of robots and humans. The border to which robots help/save humans and where they become/replace humans.

Millions if not billions are being spent (or gone to waste) into the development and research of robots and artificial intelligence. Some believe that there are no limits when it comes to the ability of robots; it really is just a matter of time, money, and effort. Robots in present day have a wide range of capabilities, all being generally helpful but for others disturbing and simply wrong. A list below shows just a few examples of robots which have been created and are being used in today’s world.

• Roborior, a robotic baby sitter the size of a basketball which includes “infrared sensors, a videophone, smoke detector, and a digital camera. When an intruder crosses the electric watchdog's path, it beams a scene of the crime to the owner's video-ready mobile phone.”     .(NG)
• Roxxxy, a robotic female sex robot that will not only chat with you whenever you want, but will have sex as well. “Under her soft silicone "skin," she employs voice-recognition and speech-synthesis software to answer questions and carry on conversations. She even comes loaded with five distinct "personalities,” (cnn)
• Snackbot, a human sized robot which carries mainly snacks to different people around a building or office. “The research will allow the robot to navigate through congested areas in a socially acceptable fashion, detect individual people moving near the robot, recognize when someone that the robot knows approaches it, and autonomously learn to recognize new objects.” (SB)
• Paro, a cute white sea lion built specifically for those in hospitals and care facilities based on animal therapy. It’s intension is to reduce stress, stimulate interaction, motivate, and improve socialization.

These are of course a few examples of robots which are being used today. There are many other examples of robots which are designed specifically to save human lives. These would be ones such as a robot created to diffuse bombs, go into hazardous or fire filled buildings, or miniature robotic dragonflies to fly into ruble and destroyed buildings to search for survivors caught under. In a general aspect, this direction in the development of robots is only positive. However that is exactly why I chose the 4 examples above. Are we really heading towards the phase of replacing baby sitters, woman, delivery people, and family members?

We live in a growing world that demands only more and more from the majority of individuals and many simply do not have the time for certain things. At the same time our population is growing and so is the percent of unemployment. Now we are beginning to replace humans with robots, and for what reason? (many different reasons).

Why not cut down the amount of visits to your grandma and just give her a robot that she can talk to? No need to hire a baby sitter anymore, just get the ball sized security robot. No need for almost any type of deliveries when you can enter some input information into Snackbot and eventually after enough development, he will be able to deliver almost anything. The biggest of course is Roxxxy because replacing a woman for a robot is in so many ways wrong it would take a lot more than a few essays/paragraphs to explain why…

This is how far we have gotten with the technology we have today... Can you imagine where we will be in 5? 10 years? Robot wars? Avatars? Surrogates? References:

Chamberlain, Ted. "Robot House Sitter Debuts in Japan." National Geographic. NGS, 23 Aug. 2005. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0823_050823_robots.html>.

Griggs, Brandon. "Inventor unveils $7,000 talking sex robot." CNN. 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/01/sex.robot/index.html?hpt=T2>.

Woollacott, Emma. "'Altruistic' robots produced through evolution." TG Daily. 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. <http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/48222-altruistic-robots-produced-through-evolution>.

Snackbot. Snackbot. Carnegie Mellon University, 2009. Web. 25 Feb. 2010. <http://www.snackbot.org/about-public.html>.

http://www.parorobots.com/