A disclaimer: This article is written by a layman who misunderstands and is misunderstood often.
Robots have more often than not, been subjects of speculative fiction. So much to an extent that, every science fiction writer worth his salt has written at least one story/novel/article featuring robots. No other subject, except perhaps ‘Interstellar travel’, has held the collective imagination of the countless, over such a long duration of time, as these mechanical men have.
This is not an article which aims to trace the genesis of robots or give a blow-by-blow account of the scientific advancement in the domain of robotics, the author is too intellectually bankrupt to give a damn. This article aims to build a circumlocutory argument as to why it might not be possible for robots to gain consciousness, and address the elephant in the room – in case a battle of survival erupts between humans and robots, the robots might be less inclined to win. While I don’t claim to be an expert, I have the dubious distinction of being a wannabe science fiction writer, so I might brazen it out, when others might have simply pondered and reflected.
The reason why a robot is less likely to be conscious and creative is pretty simple, it doesn’t crave for ‘strokes’. A fleeting glimpse through ‘Games People Play’ by Eric Berne gave me a key to my psyche (‘Why I am the way I am?’) as well as it stirred enough juices in my speculative cauldron of mind, as to think that why it might not be possible for robots to outlive human beings. As he puts it bluntly, humans crave for intimate physical contact. Since our birth, that has been the sole purpose of our lives. But because it is so difficult to sustain such a contact over a longer period of time, there is a partial transformation of such hunger for intimacy to a hunger of recognition, which if seen in the right perspective, is a vicarious way of seeking intimacy. Humans interact with others, through rituals, pastimes and games, with the sole purpose of gaining more such ‘strokes’, which serves the purpose of keeping us psychologically and biologically healthy.
However complex you might design a robot, even if any technologist is capable of fully imitating a human brain, suppose he builds one which is even better than that, I still believe that it won’t be possible for a robot to gain consciousness. For the simple reason that a robot is not hungry (stimulus-wise or otherwise). A robot has no desire to self-propagate. Every living being on Earth has a desire to extend its progeny, and humans are the most efficient, robust and durable example of such a case. Because we desire kids, we seek physical intimacy and because we seek physical intimacy, we are hungry for recognition. That leads to a complex interplay between humans, taking the form of rituals, games and pastimes (do read the book). We act in a certain manner because we seek ‘strokes’, we take up challenging tasks because we seek recognition. The number of ‘strokes’ is not a matter of concern (the need and supply differ for every person), the drive is. Even if you are completely able to imitate a human mind, how would you engineer this ‘drive’ into the robot? This is at the root of all human growth and development. And if robots do not possess such a drive, then they wouldn’t care less about world domination!! Why would they seek to rule when they have no drive to seek?!
Even supposing that you have created such a robot, can it be creative? According to Eric Berne, broadly, there are three ego states, ‘Child’, ‘Parent’ and ‘Adult’. The ‘Adult’ in you is capable of making logical and rational decisions; the ‘Parent’ in you is the repository of conventional wisdom or ‘how things must be done’, which keeps you from reinventing the wheel; the ‘child’ is the fount of imagination, with a rebel streak, and the one which seeks out happiness. The ego states of ‘Parent’ and ‘Adult’ can be theoretically inculcated in a robot. You can store the conventional wisdom in the form of guidelines and restrictions, binding it to behave in a certain manner, thus enabling the ‘Parent mode’. You can even give it a free run to make rational decisions based on its Input-Output circuitry, such that it is able to make rational decisions, activating the ‘Adult Mode’. But can a robot throw tantrums? Can it become sad and morose when denied a candy? Can imitation yield a drive to be happy? A million monkeys banging on a million typewriters can yield one ‘Harry Potter’, but it is more random probability than creativity. It cannot imitate being a ‘child’.
In all probability, I might be wrong. Maybe we might be replaced by these metal-heads. If that happens, it might be interesting to observe how these guys romance!!
Alienman 