We all look forward to the crisp fall weather of the long Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, but as the holiday approaches, worries about getting everything done can lead to tense, aching shoulders. In this era of chronic overwork, wouldn't it be nice to have an intelligent robot to relieve you of some of your burdens? Such robots are no longer the stuff of science fiction. In fact, engineers around the world are currently striving to make them a reality.
In The Positronic Man, science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov describes a world in which the human population is initially unhappy about robots entering the workforce. But when humanity's colonization of the stars causes the population on Earth to plummet, those who remain on Earth become dependent upon robot labor. Though their robots are clumsy, lacking in initiative, and devoid of mental flexibility, the humans in the book are unwilling to upgrade them. Instead, they are frightened by the prospect of autonomous, self-aware artificial intelligences that could learn and modify themselves. This places humanity and its robots in a subtle but perpetual state of tension.
In the book, the benevolent master acquires the brilliant positronic man purely serendipitously. Over time, the robot develops a real affection for his owner. He does his utmost to "upgrade" himself into a human like the master he admires, wearing clothes, eating food, and emulating humanity's imperfections. Ultimately, he even chooses to give up his robotic immortality to face death like a human by allowing his brain to decay. This raises an interesting question: Would a highly intelligent robot buy into the narcissistic perspective of human supremacy as presented by the novelist?
Also in this issue, deputy editor-in-chief Teng Sue-feng introduces the lawyers of the Legal Aid Foundation and their fight for justice for the victims of toxic waste at the old RCA assembly plant.
Many, many female RCA employees fell victim to cancer after working on the assembly lines of the polluted RCA factory. Viewing their pictures, one can't help but feel angry and bitter towards this exploitative transnational corporation that ignored environmental and industrial safety. At the same time, many of us also remember how much RCA contributed to Taiwan's development. Through its generous support in the mid-1970s, Taiwan acquired the integrated circuit technology on which it built the high-tech prosperity of the last 30 years. Taiwan would be a very different place today if not for RCA. But the lives of those workers cut down in their primes cannot be returned. How are we to balance the harm done by RCA with the good?
Our feelings about robots are no less mixed: they leave us both expectant and fearful. The world is filled with contradictions. These are particularly obvious in the context another of our features for this month: street dance. We had expected this to be a lighthearted topic about energetic young people having fun, but as we came to better understand the high risk of injury associated with break dancing, we felt obliged to add a more serious note, warning enthusiasts to be careful and not push their limits.
The contradictions at the heart of our humanity both slow our progress and protect us from danger. However decisively robots may come to think and act, I will still prefer the way that we ourselves waffle over decisions, and will still be both terrified and proud of the complexities of our human nature.
