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Let robots take on our mindless tasks

Wed, 02/28/2007 - 04:26 - NLN

French existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that it is bad faith for humans to be reduced to robotic inauthenticity, resembling mechanical automatons.
In his 1943 classic, "Being and Nothingness," he describes a Parisian cafe waiter's unfortunate tendency to hide behind masks and roles rather than be authentic, free and responsible:

"His gestures are lively and balanced, a bit too precise, a bit too quick. He approaches his customers with a step that's a little too sharp.... Attempting to imitate in his manner the inflexible rigor of some kind of automaton, he concentrates on connecting his movements as if they were mechanisms, each commanding the next."

If it's bad faith for humans to allow themselves to be reduced to robotic inauthenticity, is it not preferable -- even morally proper -- that real robots should eventually step in and perform our mindless tasks for us? But what happens when robots have emotions of their own?

From Wired


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Sun, 02/10/2008 - 06:04 — quantum_flux

Make robots our inferiors

"""If it's bad faith for humans to allow themselves to be reduced to robotic inauthenticity, is it not preferable even morally proper that real robots should eventually step in and perform our mindless tasks for us? But what happens when robots have emotions of their own?"""

Tell that to Steve Wozniac! Actually, if the robot has a nice rack, I wouldn't mind it servicing me at a resteraunt or in bed. Maybe the robot should be given a feminen servetudinal archetype rather than the alpha male archetype, just to be on the safe side. We don't really want any robo-revolutions against us humans, so we could make that go against their moral programming!

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