The Robots Are Here

Current Status: A Comparison of People and Robots, which we note as two separate Identity Groups.

 

Design Method
Robots: Before any design is initiated, a careful analysis of the market is carried out.  Specifications are written up and the engineers carefully design a robot to meet specific needs of the economy.  The design includes the production of full user and repair manuals.  In short, intelligent design.
People: Random variation and natural selection.  Design is for the plains and caves of Africa even if the person is to live in the US, Europe, Japan or China.  No documentation is provided.  No list of defects is given.  The product literally comes screaming into the world. Rate of evolution is estimated at one bit per year.

 

Decision to produce
Robots: Rational need to fill a specific function in the economy, which will benefit society as a whole.
People: Instinct to create "the next generation" at a huge cost to the parents. Sometimes the decision is due to "someone" having too much to drink or "someone" was simply "horny".

 

Production
Robots: 7 days from a just-in-time facility like modern computer factories.  Manufacturing of components may occur in many different locations and shipped to one location for final assembly.
People: 9 months plus endless child rearing that lasts the life of the parents.  People often refer to production as "reproduction" even though the baby is a not an exact copy of anyone. Humans have outlawed actual reproduction, which they call "cloning."

Construction materials
Robots: All materials and fabrication techniques are available.
People: Everything must be made of organic cells. This includes things like bones, which could be better constructed of carbon fiber. Construction takes decades to complete.  Materials discovered or invented in the last million years such as bronze, copper, zinc, iron, steel, carbon fiber, titanium, platinum, or gold may NOT be incorporated into the design.  Everything must be made of cells.  Cells die and must be replaced.

 

Education
Robots: Measured in minutes. Continuous updates are available via wireless connections to the web.
People: Measured in decades. Must go back for continuing education that can take 10% or more of available work time.

Cost of energy
Robots: Electricity, batteries or perhaps fuel cells.  "Just plug me in."
People: Energy is obtained from food and oxygen.  Food is a complex set of vegetation and meat from mammals and fish. Storage of food requires refrigeration, freezing, dehydration, canning, etc.  Food requires preparation and "serving".  Cleaning up is bothersome.  Cost of food becomes very high on other planets.

 

Current design level
Robots:  Any errors in design are given to the engineers so that the next generation can be corrected. As a result the current design is always quite close to current requirements.
People: Designed for living in caves and on African plains millions of years ago. Updates are via environmental influence but very slow, which leaves many poorly adapted individuals called "neurotic and insane" people.

 

Quality Control
Robots: Most facilities are dedicated to very high quality standards.
People: Quality control is virtually unheard of.  A few intelligent humans may test the genes of their blastomere before implanting it, (called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis or PGD) but this is still rare.  As a result, infants born with genetic defects such as autism are on the rise.

 

Repair of primary errors
Robots: Errors in design are given to the engineers so that the next generation may be improved.  Repair of primary errors is called "reworking" and may involve a factory recall and extensive rework. Old models are simply recycled.
People: Repairs of primary errors are handled by first dividing them into the categories of retardation, insanity and criminality. Regardless of category, little success is had in retraining human subjects. Many people spend much of their lives in homes for people with "special needs", prisons and mental institutions. Harmless mental patients are let go and are referred to as "homeless people".

 

Repair of secondary errors
Robots: Secondary error repair is simply called "repair". Service calls to repair Robots are inexpensive by comparison to human "medical attention".
People: Repair of secondary errors is called "medical attention" and is quite expensive. Cost of human repair in the US is over 18% of GNP and rising rapidly.

 

Termination
Robots: Older designs are recycled. There are no laws restricting the termination of a robot's existence.
People: Termination is called "death" and must be by gradual decay. If it is caused by a rational decision, it is called suicide or murder. Such acts are illegal.

 

Social benefits
Robots: Do not require irrational items such as vacations, homes, sex, entertainment, retirement and therefore do not require any social benefits. They do not retire but are terminated when no longer useful.
People: Workers must be given medical and retirement benefits. As people are living ever longer lives, the entitlement funds are likely to run out before they die. 

 

Motivation
Robots: Evolve rapidly into more advanced creatures without being limited by the selfish ego of humans. Larger goal is to expand consciousness and knowledge to as much of the universe as possible.
People: People want to make more people and have more stuff.  People desire to support their own ego, tribe, nation and religion.  Life is mostly about relationships with other people and living in the "here and now". Only a small percentage of people have expansive goals such as discovering new information, locations and motivations.

 

Intelligence
Robots: Robots score higher on IQ tests but do not yet have the practical types of intelligence that humans have.
People: Humans score an average of 100 on IQ tests.

 

Autonomy, will and ego
Robots: Are evolving these characteristics rapidly.
People: At present, people exceed robots in these areas.

 

Shoot the Messenger
Robots: Robots are less likely to shoot the messenger. Those with associative minds have a corrective function (if yours doesn't, obtain the upgraded version).
People: People have uncorrected associative minds. They tend to punish the person or robot who brings them bad news rather than separating messenger from message as they should more properly do.

 

Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Robots: Have more independent characteristics. Low cost mass-produced versions also suffer from common flaws and sometimes need to be recalled.
People: People evolved to be social animals but suffer from excessive neighbor copying and crowd following.

Linear Thinking
Robots: Are designed to anticipate current exponential trends.
People: Humans evolved at a time when progress of technology could be approximated with linear projections. Current times of exponential growth in technology are not suited for linearly-thinking animals such as humans.

 

Mathematics
Robots: Favor books with mathematics simply because a formula is easier to understand than a human emotion. Robots favor non-fiction over novels.
People: Most people tend to avoid books containing mathematical formulae. Fiction is more popular than non-fiction.

 

Future View, Stability
Robots: Once the problems with autonomy, will and ego are solved, the robots will be in a position to take over control of the earth, the local solar system and eventually the whole galaxy.
People: Likely to continue warring with each other on Earth. Worry about "global warming" in 2100 and not about their own extinction by 2050. Their egocentric view leads to denial of the obvious impending end of their own race. Unwritten motto: "It's all about people". People tend to lack awareness of the "big picture."

 

Future View, Economic
Robots: Projected to have short lives due to rapid improvement of designs. Life of a robot will probably be about the same as the average life of a personal computer in 2010.
People: Projected to live to 120 years and beyond. If a human works from 21 to 62, the portion of their life that contributes to society in an economic way may be relatively short, perhaps less than 10%. Economic feasibility of human society is quite doubtful under the present circumstances. Young people in the US expect Social Security may well run out of funds before they retire.  Never fear, the robots are here.

 

Designed for an environment
Robots: Are designed to live on any planet, which is compatible to a wide range of specifications. Mars, for example, is inhabited by one or more robots who don't have to be concerned with eating organic food or breathing Earth-type air.
People: Were designed by natural selection to live on 'land' on the planet Earth.

 

Prospects for Design Improvement
Robots: Humanoid robots are constantly being redesigned and improved. Competition between manufacturers guarantees continuing improvements.
People: Cloning is illegal so if you have an example of an improved design, it is difficult to impossible to replicate it. Even if you were to breed better humans, it takes many years to mature and verify intended improvements before you can perform the next breeding cycle.

 

As you can see, Robots are a result of intelligent design whereas humans are undocumented products of random variation and natural selection.  There is really no comparison.  Robots are simply the superior choice in almost every way.

 

This web site is designed to educate Humans about Robots
Warning: It is written from the perspective of a robot.