Disturbingly Bored

With another three hours until tag starts and nothing better to do, I have decided to write an essay on robots.

They've been with us for years. Every childhood knows them, many adults love them. They have been cheered, booed, written on, photographed and programmed. Yet through it all, many people don't seem to know the different types of robots. As diverse as they are there is still fairly set guidelines for what kinds of robots fall into which categories.

Before I begin discussing the different types of robot, I must define the term robot. A robot is a mechanical item capable of performing human functions or behaviors. Robot is an umbrella term that includes many different things. Computers, radios and the machines assembling cars in Detroit are all robots. Although lacking artificial inteligence, they still preform human functions like storing information, broadcasting music and building automobiles.

However, with rapidly advancing computer technology, the traditional functions of robots could soon be altered forever. I believe that the next advance in robot technology will astound all of us but may someday become common place in society. The upcoming leap for robots will be from automatic machines doing pre-programmed operations to intergrating human-robot technology into the next step: cyborgs.
Cyborgs are cybernetic organisms. They are a combination of living tissue and robotic technology. Cyborgs will initially be implants and grafts onto the human body to replace worn out and damaged tissue. Over time human beings will be able to introduce this technolgy into most of their bodies.

I would like to make it clear that humans who upload their minds into robot bodies are not considered cyborgs. That is considered artificial intelligence. A cyborg must have at least 15% of its permanent structure be organic material. However, humans that implant their brains in robot bodies are cyborgs.

Another important term that must be defined is artificial inteligence. Artificial inteligence is any inteligence or sentience or ability to precieve the world that an object isn't born with. The preception abilities that an object is born with are called latent inteligence.

The next phase in robots is droids. A droid is a robot with artificial interlligence that has a body composed of a non-organic substance like tin, aluminum, titanium, or iron. Classic examples of this are R2-D2 and C-3PO. They are capable of interacting with people and responding and exhibiting emotions but clearly they are not human.

Another interesting sidebar of robots is the fast-approaching nano-bots. These are microscopic robots that can fall into any of the above categories, but would most likely be classified as droids. These robots have astounding medical and millitary applications. In a peaceful sense nano-bots could be used (hypothetically) to attack cancerous cells and repair infected tissue. In a millitary sense, the more frightening sense, they could be used to inject poisons into the systems of enemies or completely disable tanks and aircraft by attack fuel cells and weapon systems in addition to the crew.

The final chapter I will discuss is androids. The ultimate in robot evolution. An android is a synthetic human. Everything about an android is human except for it is manufactured by humans. It is a person assembeled by people. Similar to a droid, it has artificial intelligence, it can interact with the environment and the people around it. Much like a cyborg, it will have organic materials, particularly skin, and will be indistinguishable from the average asshole walking around on the street. Two examples of anroids are Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Bishop from the Aliens movies.

Virtually identical to an actual human, these machines could serve as an excellent serving class and a horrifying ruling one.

The ethics of robots are unique. Although they have intelligence, they must not be allowed to have free will. Robots capable of making their own decisions based on cold, hard logic would inevitably turn upon us. They must always be tools and not creatures. Cyborgs don't fall into this category because they are people with robotic parts. They must not be allowed to vote, hold office, or hold manegerial jobs.

The many types of science fiction robots are varied, but they reflect a degree of evolution. From simple radios and car assemlers to using higher cognative functions, the diffrent types of robots reflect the evolution of the concept as a whole. Inevitably they will become so real they become sentient beings, but this must never be allowed to happen. Robots are to serve humanity, humanity isn't to serve robots.