Robotics and Automation Expert

Where are all the robots?

Richard Hooper
Robotics has been one of my favorite things for as long as I can remember. When I was in high school, I built a robotic hand in our garage. In the fall of 1987, I started graduate school in one of the biggest robotics programs in the world and I have been working in robotics and automation ever since. The first day of fall of 2017 was last week. After 30 years in this field I find myself asking, "Where are all the robots?" In 1987 we were supposed to be swarming with them by now.

The answer to that question is there aren't any robots. Not even one. Don't get me wrong here. Computer-controlled, electromechanical systems are everywhere around us, and automated systems are doing more and more of the jobs people used to do. These systems are not, however, robots. That word has a more specific meaning. At least it used to. 

As you likely read at the beginning of this book, the word robot comes from the 1920 Czech play, Rossum's Universal Robots (Capek 2004). The play explored what has become a familiar theme in science fiction: humans playing God by creating synthetic humans (robots) in their own image. These robots could be enslaved without guilt because God had bestowed no souls upon them. Eventually Capek's robots grew resentful of their enslavement, revolted against the humans, and destroyed them all. Though Capek adapted the word robot from the older Czech word "robota" meaning forced labor (such as a serf would be forced to perform on the king's land), the notion of robots came before Capek. Way before. 

In fact, a credible case can be made to trace the notion of robots to the word golem that appears in the Old Testament. Golem described a state Adam went through after he was formed, but before receiving his soul (Jewish Encyclopedia 1906, ''Golem"). Over the next 1,000 years the legend of the golem evolved into what has become a very recognizable theme of robot lore. The golem legend starts with a rabbi forming a human-like shape out of clay. After the rabbi's appropriate incantations, the golem becomes animated and serves the rabbi, typically by performing dangerous tasks like protecting the village against attack. Sometimes the golem would turn on its makers because it didn't like this line of work. Sound familiar? (Humans create golems to do the dirty work, golems get resentful, and golems turn on their makers.) Thar's pretty much what happened in Capek's play except substitute the word robot for the word golem. 

Capek's robots so resembled humans they were sometimes indistinguishable from us. I challenge anyone to show me a human creation that is not human but is anywhere near indistinguishable from a human. No one can meet that challenge today because such a thing clearly does not exist. A more interesting question is whether it will ever exist. My answer is, "Yes, but it won't have a brain based on semiconductor technology." 

People who support the notion that we'll one day have semiconductor-based robot brains as powerful as human brains typically base their arguments on Moore's law. Moore's law says that the number of transistors on a computer processor doubles every two years. I have two issues with this line of reasoning. First, there is no guarantee that Moore's law will continue to hold. It's not a real law, like the law of gravity. lt's just based on an observation Intel's cofounder, Gordon Moore, made a long time ago. Second, the interconnections in human brains are much more complex than binary computer connections. The connections in human brains have variable levels, are electro­chemical, and involve firing rates. This makes them more like analog signals than digital signals. If we assume the resolution of a connection in a human brain is 10 bits and use a common estimate of 100 trillion connections in a human brain, then we would need a digital computer with 10 to the power of 90 transistors! Even if Moore's law did hold true, it predicts the sun will burn out before we have a digital computer with the power of a human brain. In my opinion, there is no path from digital computers to the complexity of the human brain. I further note, the semiconductor revolution is getting a little long in the tooth. 

Obviously I don't think digital computers are going to get us there, but we may be a lot closer to robots of the kind envisioned by Capek than most people think. I'm talking about cloning. Humans have cloned sheep, cats, dogs, pigs, deer, horses, and bulls. It seems like only a matter of time before we clone humans. How about the little baby clone that will be created to provide an organ to replace a child's damaged liver? Is that little baby clone human? Is it a robot? What if a scientist can clone a person but render the clone somehow inferior? Maybe it can't talk, or maybe it can't comprehend fear or pain? Will that clone have a soul? Will it have any kind of rights or protections? Would it be okay to create an army of clones to fight our wars? What if someone creates a super-brain or even superhumans by cloning? 

Capek raised these kinds of questions. Heck, his play envisioned a robot "Medusa with the brain of a Socrates." Furthermore, his robots were not electromechanical devices. They were created by "chemical synthesis," using substances as "catalytics, enzymes, hormones, and so forth." That sounds a lot closer to cloning than what I've been doing the past 30 years. 

I don't know what humans will do if we are successful in creating the type of robots envisioned by Capek, but I am starting to think that my beef with today's broad use of the word robot is misguided. I suppose it is fine to use the words robot and robotics in a very general sense and then use words like clones (or cyborgs or androids) when there is a reason to be more precise. With that in mind, I will now declare what we said in 1987 to be true. We are swarming with robots.

References 
-Capek, Karel. 2004. Rossum's Universal Robots. New York: Penguin Books. 
-"Jewish Encyclopedia." 1906.

I wrote this essay for the book Robots: A Reference Handbook by David E. Newton. It's a great book with a lot of history and background and other interesting stuff about robots. It was published in 2018 by ABC CLIO and would make a fine addition to anyone's library.