This chapter is dedicated to the robots in historical reality of scientific humanism as naturalism. Robots as posthuman descendants and heirs of man occupy the reality of scientific humanism, performing today, admittedly in conception, most human affairs. The discussion of cyborgization in the arts, increasing integration of robots in society, and future possibilities covered in the remaining chapters entrenches the case for cyborgoethics by demonstrating the popularization of cyborgs in areas of life and society.
Top9.1 Coexistence With The Mechanical Offspring
Robots are becoming increasingly important parts of the reality in the age of scientific humanism as naturalism. The advocates of robotization of social reality predict that robots allow humans to have more space-time for higher activities (Marx). According to some estimates, in the next twenty years robots will take over about 47% of jobs currently performed by man, and there are reasons to believe that the human worker’s labour will be completely replaced in the longer perspective. Since the beginning of development of robotics and artificial intelligence, the public has feared that the robots will take over our jobs but:
[…] the prophets of the technological paradise have always assured us that once we have turned all our work over to machines we will become a nation of artists or, at worst, a nation of art critics. […] freed from drudgery, we will have the time to devote to more ‘fulfilling’ endeavours. (McKibben, 2004, p. 96)
In the past decade, more and more jobs have shifted over: telephone operators replaced by voice-mail systems, and bank tellers rendered obsolete by ATMs. The trend accelerates: already fast-food restaurants in Japan have tested ‘server’ robots’ and ‘simple, self-robots with TV cameras able to recognize intruders are finding work as security guards. (McKibben, 2004, p. 92).
Ian Pearson, forecaster employed by the British Telecom, predicts that “enterprises run entirely by machine will easily outcompete human workers, ‘people will have fewer and fewer attributes to sell.’ The only consolation is that ‘production and output could greatly increase… so we could all have a better quality of life without having to do work.’” (McKibben, 2004, p. 93). One might expect that “Someday, no airline will dare put a person at the controls for fear of lawsuits. If, with Moore’s law on their side, robots become ever better at handling materials, ever better at processing information, and ever, ever cheaper, then they may displace human labour so broadly that the average workday would have to plummet to practically zero to keep everyone employed” (McKibben, 2004, p. 93).
But the question which remains open is whether robots would also start issuing commands in addition to taking our labour. “One thing people seem to like especially is being able to order other people around – this may be the greatest social use of robots. While there may never be enough people to serve this need, there could be enough robots. Everyone could order them around whenever this urge-to-power comes on.” (McKibben, 2004, p. 96). With this in mind, Bostrom argues:
It is an open question whether the consequences would be for the better or the worse. The potential upside is clearly enormous, but the downside includes existential risk. Humanity’s future might one day depend on the initial conditions we create – in particular, on whether we successfully design the system (for example, the seed AI’s goal architecture) in such a way as to make it ‘human-friendly’, in the best possible interpretation of that term. (Bostrom, 2010, p. 114)
For now, we can logically conclude what this will mean for the future of man. The procedures of scientific work as the substance subject of world history reshape and enhance the healthy human being into a timeless cybernetic machine which in its eternal presence (Nietzsche) is faced with its own mechanical offspring, spread out all around us and aiming to replace man in every activity which reflects man’s essence, purpose and the possibility of life. Cybernetic reshaping and enhancing of a healthy human being and establishing the mechanical offspring of the biological man are just mere instances of establishing the cybernetic reality of scientific humanism as naturalism in the lifeless scientific history.