If Robots Design Their Own Religion, We Should Probably Evacuate The Planet

By Darryl Mason

Very impressive early generation of a homecare robot, loaded with sensors and wi-fi.

Not only can this robot get back up when knocked over, this story claims it as the first robot capable of recognising emotions in humans :

Nao is able to detect human emotions through a series of non-verbal “clues”, such as body-language and facial expressions, and becomes more adept at reading a person’s mood through prolonged interaction.

The wiring of the robot's “brain”, designed to mirror the neural network of the human mind, allows it to remember its interactions with different people and memorise their faces.

This understanding, along with a set of basic rules about what is “good” and “bad”....

Great. Robots will nag us with what they believe, or are programmed to believe, are our violations of proscribed morality. Which raises an interesting point. When it comes to programming morality into robots, will manufacturers use Judeo-Christian rules and standards? Will Jesus be the default setting? Well, wouldn't it depend on the religious beliefs of the manufacturer? Or the religious beliefs of those placing the order?

Will there be a market for robots that can home programmed with a religion of your choice? Or even better, a religion of your own design and creation? A companion robot that can cycle through the world's religions until you find one you like.

I'm surprised cashed-up Christian corporations in the United States are not already working on lines of Bible-quoting homecare robots. The demand will be huge. No doubt they will get around to the Christianisation of robots soon enough.

And what about the Islamisation of robots?

It would be the ultimate endgame of the pointless world military industry in the 21st century : Crusade vs Jihad robots, blasting fruitlessly away at each other in some barren Middle East wasteland, chewing through billions in bullets, bombs and missiles, generation 24 hours a day of spectacular 3D footage of the carnage and metal mayhem, no human bodies coming off the battlefield, just reams of shredded robot wreckage ready to be shipped homed and recycled into more warbots, for the next inevitable war.

But, in 2030, what will your emotional, empathic home companion robot make of your hypnotised fascination with yet another religious warbot conflict in the deserts of Jordan? Will it listen to your whoops of delight, and study your excited body language, as you stand amidst 'URThere! holograms showing robots launching suicide attacks on each other in vivid high definition?

What will an emotional robot think of humans who manufacture robots solely to be destroyed in manufactured conflicts?

If we give them the ability to do so, how will they judge us?



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