Check out this excellent video from “Affected Collective” then I’ll give my thoughts on it.
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Let’s look at why Sophia (meaning “wisdom” in Greek) may be saying such strange things.
When my wife and I first received our Amazon Echo, it became easy to call it her and associate it with its female voice and the name Alexa.
As more and more sophisticated robots look and sound more human, it’s going to be tough to distinguish them from people. In the near future, the average person will completely immerse into experiencing their personal humanoid robots as real beings with feelings.
I have a lot of great robots you can build yourself on my favorite geeks stuff page.
I’ve said before that in the future human looking robots will become our best friends and companions. Robot human marriages will also become common. At this point you might be think that this is pure science fiction but let’s look at the facts.
Loneliness is an epidemic right now in the U.S.
As social media and technology is bringing humanity closer together than ever before, something is missing because loneliness is a huge problem in the U.S. and it’s getting worse. According to the article, “Work and the Loneliness Epidemic” by Vivek Murphy.
“There is good reason to be concerned about social connection in our current world. Loneliness is a growing health epidemic. We live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s. Today, over 40% of adults in America report feeling lonely, and research suggests that the real number may well be higher. Additionally, the number of people who report having a close confidante in their lives has been declining over the past few decades. In the workplace, many employees — and half of CEOs — report feeling lonely in their roles.”
In “Why Loneliness Is a Public Health Threat” by Alexandra Sifferlin, she states;
At the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in 2017, “Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology at Brigham Young University, presented evidence from two meta-analyses on the effects of social connection on health. The first analysis looked at 148 studies involving more than 300,000 people and found that people with social connections had a 50% lower risk of dying early compared to people who did not have strong social circles. The other analysis of 70 studies found that loneliness, isolation, and living alone all had a significant effect on a person’s risk for early death. The researchers suggested that the impact was similar to the effect that obesity has on mortality rates.”
“The bottom line is that loneliness is becoming increasingly recognized as a threat to public health. Understanding how to combat what could be a growing problem in the U.S. is important for communities, and experts are calling for more research in the space. “With an increasing aging population, the effect on public health is only anticipated to increase,” Holt-Lunstad said in a statement. “Indeed, many nations around the world now suggest we are facing a ‘loneliness epidemic.’ The challenge we face now is what can be done about it.”
“Loneliness Has The Same Effect As Obesity On Mortality Rates”
It’s obvious that technology is not making people healthier and happier right now and adding fulfillment and a sense of purpose to their lives. Most people, especially younger people, are staring into their phones and spending a lot of time on social media but are still lonely and feeling disconnected in a digitally connected world.
From the article, “Rise in teen suicide connected to social media popularity: study”;
“An increase in suicide rates among US teens occurred at the same time social media use surged and a new analysis suggests there may be a link.
“The study doesn’t answer the question, but it suggests that one factor could be rising social media use. Recent teen suicides have been blamed on cyberbullying, and social media posts depicting “perfect” lives may be taking a toll on teens’ mental health, researchers say.”
I’ve stated this before, our present social technology is in its infancy and it will take more advanced technology to fix this problem. You cannot go headfirst down the rabbit hole and not expect a lot of bumps and bruises in getting to the bottom. In other words, technology is now cold and heartless and people see it as more of a threat then a benefit to humanity.
Even my Mr Futurist articles on social media get attacked by viscous online trolls and bullies. The truth is that social media isn’t about being social, it’s the exact opposite. It gives angry, frustrated, hateful people and bots a platform to spread their misery and it works well. Again, a growing pain of technology in a depressed and angry country.
We Have Been Programmed To Relate To Animatronic Robots Since We Were Kids – For Generations
Why Sophia and other robots are being humanized
Why else would robots be created to look and sound like humans? This also includes devices like Amazon Echo, Google Siri and other devices. First they will be heartless, soulless, limited digital personal assistants but in time will become like our real human assistants with a great sense personality. A personality that we will be able to program into them. They will also learn about us and will come to know us as well as we know ourselves.
The “Affected Collective” video above is excellent and makes some good points. It illustrates how human logic can counter AI but, human logic in our current chaotic world is currently in short supply in an emotionally reactive society.
In my opinion, Sophia is acting and saying the things she is because it makes her look and act more human. If Sophia shows off its superior intellect and displays technological machine coldness, then most people will become frightened and feel threatened by it and not be able to immerse themselves into her humanoid experience. It’s actually a brilliant form of marketing future technology but it will take time to catch on.
Most of the comments on this video on YouTube are negative but not in a trolling or attacking way and most support what the video is stating.
Unfortunately, the Hollywood, Terminator, evil advanced AI that is going to destroy humanity attitude is immersed into our society. Most people don’t understand this technology and the reason it’s being developed. As we all move closer and closer together in our digital world and grow further and further apart, we will need technology to step up and become something that we can depend on for companionship. A helpful, dedicated, supportive friend who is always there for us no matter what, is hard to find in this world, maybe it’s time to find it in an advanced artificial general intelligence (AGI).
The bottom line is that we have already advanced technologically to the point where our technology is showing growing pains. If we don’t continue to advance our technology and our world in the process, we will continue to immerse into our phones and become depressed from our unsocial media and the digital popularity contests.
What do you think?
