Saturday, October 17, 2015

Privacy doesn't exist, Robots have better morals than humans, and Ash and Ava are slightly too human-like.

Essay #2

       The difference between privacy in public and private places depends on the things a person wants to show others. Privacy is more pressing and offered in a public setting versus a private, secluded setting. For example, a person might be more reserved about their sexual life, past traumatic experiences or even their kids when discussing those topics in public. However, in the comfort of their own home or a close person’s home, they might feel a little bit more at ease and comfortable enough to discuss those serious and private topics. In public, I am very reserved and private about the things that I discuss. I try not to engage in political, religious or embarrassing conversation in public because I never know who is listening or feels strongly offended about something that I have said. In private, I am more inclined to give my opinions on serious or sticky issues because I trust that the people I am talking to will keep our conversations private. With the idea of being chipped, privacy goes out of the window and is a huge liability. There would not be any privacy if people are chipped with their entire history of their identity.  If people’s private lives went viral on the internet for everyone to see, it is a possibility that the person would be criticized, judged or even shamed depending on the types of things they believe or indulge in.
          The most harmful violations of privacy would be social security numbers, home addresses, a person’s children’s information, past occurrences a person is not proud of, or anything a person can use to intentionally hurt someone. With social security numbers and home addresses, a person’s identity could be stolen and used for fraud. A hacker could very well take on someone else’s identity if their social security number is in their chip. People are very protective of their children and usually do not want people to know everything about them. For example, if a sex offender goes to a park and is able to scan the children, he or she could easily find a way to manipulate the child and hurt them. Past situations are always brought up when people are arguing. For instance, if I get mad at someone and knew that they committed a crime a long time ago, I could use that information against them.  Certain information can also be used to discriminate against a person. For example, if a person has a record or a medical condition, that could easily stop them from getting a job or health benefits, even if they were qualified. Spying on someone’s privacy is morally wrong and could harm the person in many types of ways. If we are not allowed privacy, then we could not be our true selves, whether for good or bad purposes. As a counter argument, I believe that people who have a history of hurting children and molesting them should be closely monitored. Also those who have committed murder or rape should be monitored, in order to insure the safety of others. Privacy is a very sticky situation and should not be violated or hacked for the wrong reasons.

Essay #4

      Isaac Asimov’s created three laws pertaining to the development of robots. The first law states that a robot may not injure or kill a human being or through an action allow a human to come to harm. The second law states that a robot must obey the orders given it by a human being unless it conflicts with the first law. The third law states that a robot must protect its own existence unless such protection violates laws one or two.  Although these rules were created to help limit violence, there are also limitations because of the usage of robots. For example, the first rule is null in void because robots have already been created to kill humans. Heavy machinery and tanks are forms of robots, and they have been created to kill humans. It also suggests that humans do enough killing of each other and the robots should be programmed not to. With the second law, a human could easily give the robot the wrong order or use the robot for bad intensions. When humans obtain an adequate amount of power or more, they become power hungry and want things to go their way. If the person cannot get what they want, they will do any and everything to get it. The robots need to be able to decipher between a right and wrong order or an order that actually has good intensions for the greater good of humanity. The limitations of the third law are will a robot be able to protect itself without harming a human? Also, if a human is attacking a robot, how can the robot with self- defense skills be rational about what harms a human and what does not?
       In my opinion, these rules imply that the worse destroyers of human nature are humans themselves. Humans are constantly killing each other every day, as we have seen on the news for over many years. Humans are the ones that are causing major harm to themselves without regard or recognition for the other people that they are harming as well. Humans have their own agendas and ways for how the government should be operated, how the police force should behave and how the world is supposed to function in general. If these laws were actually used before military robots were created, there would be fewer deaths during war or there might not be a need for war. Also, there would be better police protection if robots were the actual police. These types of robots should be designed to help right all of the wrongs humanity has already caused and endured. If these types of robots were created, they would show humanity that violence is not the right thing to do. It also reflects how poorly humans have acted since their existence. These robots would not make the same type of immoral actions and mistakes that humans do. It would allow for the world to become a better place as far as violence, and humans would not have to worry about improper treatment of the police. Human beings would be protected from themselves.

Essay #5

        In Ex Machina, Ava represented “artificial intelligence” while surpassing the criteria of the software. Ava was built with artificial knowledge, simply because she did not grasp the knowledge through learning, but could also adapt to her surroundings like a human would.  For example, when asked a question, she answered as if she had been programmed to say those things or was pulling from a source like google. Her answers were precise and unemotional. However, when she talks to Caleb when the power shuts down she shows emotions, feelings and tells him all the wrong things Nathan, her creator, is doing. Ava showcases a lot of human like qualities over time. She eventually uses her manipulations and human like qualities to trick Caleb in to helping her escape.  Ash, in the film Be Right Back, is a little trickier than Ava. Ava was completely built on artificial intelligence, whereas Ash’s knowledge was based on real life situations. I feel as though Ash’s 2.0 body is robotic and slightly made of artificial intelligence, but the knowledge he acquired was not artificial. None the less, since he did not live in those situations himself it is considered artificial intelligence to a certain degree. I believe that both Ava and Ash give a great representation on two different forms of artificial intelligence. Ava is programmed with outside knowledge that was not applied to a specific real life situation. Ash is programmed with images, social media encounters, emails, phone calls and texts messages in order to produce the best possible version of Ash there ever has been.  However, neither version of robotic artificial intelligence really measured up to being fully human and was a mere advance of technology.
Both situations show case humans feeling as though they have moral obligations to these robots. I believe that humans have moral obligations to other intelligent beings under the circumstance that we are all the same. Humans have a moral obligation to treat each other with respect, protection and to decipher between right and wrong. For example, if a person is being attacked and another person sees it, they are morally obligated to help them. They are morally obligated because it is the right thing to do. In Ava’s case, Caleb felt obligated to help her escape from being trapped by Nathan. In Ash’s case, Mar, although she wanted to kill him, decided to keep him in her attack because she felt morally obligated to him. In my opinion, with these types of artificial intelligence, humans do have some type of moral obligation. This is only because of the relationships built with the robots. If a person does not become attached to a robot, that person does not have a moral obligation.  I also think that if robots are able to adapt to situations like Ava and Ash did, they are attempting to become human like. This means that humans would have a moral obligation to them.  The moral obligation might not go as far as saving a robot from being attacked, but I do believe that humans would be morally obligated to treat them with respect.

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