Beyond Human by Gregory Benford

Author:Gregory Benford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Privacy and the Servant Problem

The downside is obvious. A linked world is also a nosy one; we can expect robots to be no different. Indeed, tiny ’bots slipping into a room to listen and see unnoticed will be a common method used by private detectives, commercial espionagers, and nations. A personal butler can be a good thing, but has to know a lot about you to be effective. The same goes for robo-servants and smart, networked appliances. We will in the future pay to keep our privacy, not to let our clever surroundings obtain too much information about us. Your TV or home climate system does not have to know who all your guests are, just a few details about their preferences. Anything more, and they could be hijacked by paparazzi, nosy neighbors, or worse.

Although talking devices are a cliché of stories and movies set in the future, many people don’t want their machines to talk. Elevators that announce upcoming floors are useful, but do you really want the car to nag you about putting on that seat belt? Most people did not, so that feature disappeared. Also gone is the alarm system that warned innocent passersby when they were “too close” to the outside of the car. That presumptuous message probably accounted for lots of dings by enraged pedestrians. Gone is the talking camera that told the user if the shutter speed was wrong (“too dark”) or the focus was incorrect (“too close”) in tinny, Japanese-accented English. Visitors to the Media Lab similarly nixed the microwave oven that announced when the food was ready. A quiet beep was quite enough, thanks.

Recall that Star Trek movie when Scotty addressed a computer in the 1980s with instructions, and was surprised that it did not respond? Voice activation of computers is now being introduced again for the PC market with great fanfare—but actually, Apple tried and then discontinued the feature in the 1980s. After a short training period to allow the computer to recognize the user’s voice patterns, the computer would execute any commands in the pulldown menus on demand. All that remains in today’s software is a system of spoken “alerts” that trigger if the user doesn’t respond quickly enough to on-screen warning messages. Cell phones now dial people in your address book by voice command, but systems that can give layered information are just on the horizon. Many telephone interactions, such as airline reservations, are computer-handled with voice recognition that simulates an encounter with a real person fairly well.

The next decade will see an emerging class of small, distinctly nonhumanoid robots. Robotic pool-cleaners were the first of the breed, roving underwater vacuums resembling turtles that slowly creep around backyard pools, sucking leaves and dirt from the concrete pool bottoms. Behind them trails a long hose that delivers the dirt to the pool filter. They are fairly common in Europe as well as the United States, but interestingly are marketed as being automatic, not robotic.

So were the next ones to be introduced as the ultimate in luxury for suburban homeowners—robotic lawn mowers.

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