The Pro's And Con's Of Robots In Our Future

All Inventions Have Their Good And Bad Potential

In the page "Best Careers for the Future", extremely advanced electronic and scientific technology was listed as one of the main future trends that will be a huge issue affecting careers in the future. And with the increasing role of robots in our future comes its inherent risks and subsequent improvements, then the cycle repeats.

As an example, let's look at the problem with cell phones: radiation leakage and potential brain tumors due to high EMF. How can people prepare for more of this technology when cellphones could be potentially damaging and reducing their happiness and health?

As electronic technology develops, we always improve on it. They've discovered that cell phones can be damaging to you, so for sure various technologies are being developed to combat this.

Overall, Things Always Get Better

It is inevitable that people will develop better and better technologies, wherever any kind of damage is discovered. And a contradiction to that is that as we develop new technologies and robots in our future, there will always be new risks that we don't know about yet.

For example, the American Medical Association stated in the 1800's that mercury fillings were a good solution for cavities. Years later they would state that amalgam (silver) fillings would be a better option because of the high toxicity of mercury poisoning to the kidneys and central nervous systems. And years from now, another filling material will take the place of amalgams, as many side effects have surfaced with these too.

In many of today's scientific examples, we're playing God in the laboratory, so we really haven't a clue what the long-term health effects will be. Some examples of this includes medication and genetically modified foods, like "Round-Up Ready Soybeans". It's not until the genes replicate in different sequences with others that the effects will begin to show themselves.

So Should I Vote Yes Or No For Robots?

We can't really have much idea of the risks or outcome of advanced scientific technologies and robots in our future until we just do it. A future example will be the manipulation of human genes to prevent disease or putting nanobots into the body to prevent disease. Both of them could have a positive effect on health and a negative effect on health, just like medication nowadays.

Medication helps to ease the symptoms of many diseases, but it also causes many side effects; it puts poison into the body that the body has to fight against to get rid off. Modern medicine has basically become the art of balancing the benefits with the damage.

The only way out of that contradiction is pretty radical. It means taking a completely different direction- a new technology that is rarely used today. If you find cell phones damage your head, you can ask yourself if there is a different way that we can communicate all together.

Let's check this thought out…

Years ago British Telecom was researching a telephone that essentially was controlled by your intention. I know that at that stage they'd already developed a switch; you could switch off electricity (an electrical switch) just because you wanted to. So most of us have no idea what kind of advances in technology are already on the way.

Enter the possibility that instead of using material or electronic technology, we could start using a "human technology" or "life technology". That would eventually eliminate the need for robots in our future-- although that is probably a very distant future. Rather than developing our electronic machines to become more and more sophisticated, what if we could develop human beings themselves to become more and more sophisticated?

Even Telepathy Has It's Risks

That's the other direction that is going to stand increasingly in front of us. An example of this is telepathy. What does telepathy really mean?

Telepathy is like having a mobile phone conversation without a mobile phone! Therefore we get the benefit of a cell phone conversation without the cellular damage or overage charges.

Of course when you develop human abilities there's a potential along the way for some new kinds of risks, too. For example, when you're practicing your telepathy you might get in touch with the wrong person. You maybe could get your brain hacked by a malicious mind-reader. This would happen just because you are not very much in control of your technology. Or you may telepathically get the wrong message to the wrong person.

Can't Anything Be Perfect?

Therefore we can't say that any development is risk-free. There are risks, naturally. They're inherent to life. But along with these risks will also come the improvements upon these risks.

In the end, the most important question regarding our life in the future becomes: "do we develop our material/ electronic technology and robots in our future, or do we develop our human technology?"

This is a very important question for our society.