Future

No one, except of course science fiction writers 🙂 , know exactly what the future holds for android humanoids and mankind.

But based on what’s available and human nature and needs, we can perhaps make some educated guesses …

Intelligent robots that mimic humans will soon be everywhere, in our homes, at work, and where we play. Even if you cannot afford one, humanoid robots will impact almost everyone and forever change the way we live.

Human-like robots will have a good and beneficial impact on our lives and planet, but there may also be drawbacks.

Areas of possible benefits include medical, research, safety, education, environmental, entertainment, military and law enforcement. But, as is the case now, there will be economic, social, cultural and political discrimination and barriers to who has access to and benefit from the technology.

But intelligent humanoid robots that are on par with or even surpass us in skills and intelligence, also raise many philosophical, social, moral, ethical and political questions and dilemmas. How will the laws treat an android that has “committed” a human crime? Will it still be child pornography to watch “underage” androids perform sex acts? Will you be breaking any law by having sexual intercourse with a “minor” humanoid machine? Can you “kill” or “divorce” a machine? These are but some of the issues mankind will have to deal with in future. And, as usual, laws tend to lag behind technological advances and will have to play catchup …

Of course, we are still a long way off before seeing or experiencing the utopia or dystopia, depending on your point of view, that science fiction has promised or warned us about. Technology still isn’t advanced enough to overcome many of the hurdles in the way of perfecting a humanoid robot. Artificial intelligence hasn’t yet developed to the stage needed and there are engineering challenges that will require a lot of attention and investment.

But the human desire to create something in his own image (only, “better”) is strong, and as demand grows, over time it will build this “machine-human” as depicted in Metropolis almost a hundred years ago. For good or bad … (hopefully a lot of the former, and only little of the last).