Human - An Advanced "Robot"

The revolutionary invention of our era: The Computer procures us more information than any other source known to mankind. The development of artificial intelligence permits us to improve the behavior of a computing system. The term ‘robot’ includes any kind of automates that don't need any human intervention to perform their job and are able to learn. Perception and recognition, for example, are now some of the inherent characteristics of robots.

I notice a similarity between the evolution of robotic intelligence and that of biological intelligence.

Robots are being increasingly used in industry as they are able to perform tasks that even humans are not able to perform. One can even say that they act more intelligently than humans when the domain is specific. New robots can also be programmed to perform creative acts like dancing or playing a musical instrument. They can also be programmed to behave socially like in the case of robotic pets. And contrary to the common belief, robots are not replacing humans; but are creating a booming job market for engineers, software developers and other technical professionals.

Today, approximately 1 000 000 robots are being used around the world. Vacuum-cleaning robots, medical robots, surveillance robots, underwater robots and demolition robots are available today.

Japan is the leading producer and consumer of robots. Statistics state that for every 100,000 human workers, there are 500 robots in Japan. Germany and many Europeans countries follow Japan. Interestingly, USA finds itself at the bottom of the list of developed countries in this regard.

The number of robots increased by nearly 30% in the year 2004 showing an exponential increase compared to the previous years. If it continues to grow at this rate, it will soon surpass human population. Already, robots are able to create other robots. Soon, artificial intelligence in combination with the Internet will be able to perform abstract thinking as humans do and later may even outperform humans.

Robots could substitute for a workforce of 3.52 million people in Japan by 2025 to help cover a labor shortage in the graying society, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation said. The foundation also said about 74 minutes of free time per household are expected to be created each day if robots that do household chores such as cleaning are introduced, helping more women to enter the labor market. Robots would thus replace humans in performing all the repetitive jobs. Hopefully, by then human brain would have evolved further and we would come up with new things that only a human mind can do.

Or who knows: one day human beings may evolve into advanced “robots”.

-Rakesh Kishore