Can a robot be depressed

Can a robot be depressed?

My mission in life has been to build public awareness that our future will be a future among robots – says Joanne Pransky, ie the world’s first robot psychiatrist. Has Joanne managed to top her work and is it possible for a robot to experience anxiety or depression? Can machines feel emoptions?

Artificial Intelligence portal decided to take a closer look at the figure of the first psychologist for the. robots. The term is self-serving towards the author, who used it for humorous purposes, but for the bigger idea and to show the broader context. Dr. Pransky wanted in this way to accustom the public to the fact that in the future robots will coexist with us on a daily basis. People are used to fearing the unknown, so getting them used to a realistic vision of the future with a marketing slogan like this seemed very useful to Joanne. It was appreciated by Isaac Asimov himself, which is one of the most famous sci-fi writers and scientist. He paid tribute to her character by mapping her out in stories zat. “I, Robot”, where she was responsible for the persona of Mrs. Susan Calvin. The robopsychologist from the books has also appeared on the big screen with Will Smith in the lead role. In the realm of robo-psychology has been operating for 34 years, and today we see that she was right.

Robopsychologist was right!

Joanne’s predictions come true. Nowadays we have to deal with advanced robotics, which exist in our homes, sometimes without our greater awareness. After all, most robots don’t match descriptions of humanoid tin men with lasers in their eyes. These are machines whose purpose is to perform tasks that humans may have trouble doing or that they simply don’t want to do, let’s face it. Kitchen robots that cook for us, cleaning robots that clean our homes with increasing care, or robots that replace waiters and serve us in restaurants. Humanity’s set of robotic friends doesn’t end only on these levels. They have long been successfully applied in the military, where the technology development vertical has always been located. Industrial robots that can operate on structures that may be impossible for humans to do on their own, and now everyday robots that are used to help with routine tasks, policing, saving lives, or guarding homes. With the observed development of artificial intelligence and the internet of things, robots will in time gain the ability to make their own decisions, which they will learn through their own machine learning process.

Sex robots refusing sex?

Since the development of sex robots and the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning, it will only be a matter of time when these will learn to make their own decisions. This will mean that the very will of machines will become autonomous, which may guide thinking about them as independent individuals.

“Electronic persons” – this is the term the EU Parliament’s 2016 draft resolution would use to describe it. – The more autonomous robots are, the less often they can be considered simple tools in the hands of others. (…) Consequently, it becomes increasingly urgent to address the fundamental question of whether robots should have legal status – reads the paper.

Technology Virtual Poland, almost two years ago, quoted in its article An example of a Sophia robot that gained citizenship in Saudi Arabia in 2017.

In confirmation of the reality of the problem of free will of robots and their sexual destiny have already spoken out philosophers, futurologists and lawyers, and in a most serious manner. Many have rightly linked the way a robot is constructed to its impact on the psychological and sociological construction of humans. Aditi Murti of The Swaddle states that designing robots with the ability to turn them off when they refuse intercourse provides an opportunity to commit rape involuntarily, which is not at all a sign of the robot’s free will, but only an illusion of it. Philosopher Robert Sparrow openly opposes the idea that robots should be able to give consent in any way, because the lack of consent may result in the desire to carry out rape fantasies, resulting in the behavioral perpetuation of the pattern. – Robots will not be able to be raped unless robot designers make certain design choices – claims. The very construction of robots in the form of women can be detrimental to the fair sex. – If robots always consent to sex, it is unfair and unethical to women, because it is their shape that sex robots take – explains the philosopher. In men’s minds, this will lead to the diminution of women’s rank in humanity and dehumanize them through robotic experiences, in various dimensions. Today there is a noticeable harmful effect of pornography on sexual behavior, what about when these behaviors will be a direct result of robotic habits, or when robots gain a higher status in the eyes of men than real women. This opinion is also echoed by Kathleen Richardson, who compares sex robotics to prostitution – If some women do not consent, their place will be taken by prostitutes and sex robots – expert fears.

The efforts of these people are to give future robots the form of a subject, rather than an object of human decisions and whims. What’s more, it is also to the benefit of human individuals themselves. Subjective treatment of robotic humans can dehumanize real ones, and the outpouring of their grievances, frustrations, or ruthlessness towards a “helpless” robot can cause psychological distortions and pathological mechanisms that affect the relationship with the environment. As for this vulnerability, we can bracket it if we read another article saying that hacked robots can even kill us!

Robot psychology – can robots feel emotions?

Emotions and feeling them are states typical for the human brain due to its enormous evolutionary complexity. It simply developed in this way rather than that way. Animals do not have such a developed emotional center, so they also are not able to feel at the same level as humans, although it is worth mentioning that many scientists have proven that elephants, penguins, swans, dolphins and some species of primates perfectly understand the concept of love and loss of a close member of the herd or a child.

But are machines capable of feeling emotions and reacting to the emotions of others? Thanks to functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, we now know that the medial prefrontal cortex, the temporoparietal junction, and the superior temporal sulcus are responsible for satisfactory levels of these abilities. This is a fascinating concept when we look at the issue of narcissism and psychopathy. Scientists say the brain centers responsible for empathy are not fully developed in these humans, resulting in an inability to understand emotions. Admittedly, cognitive science has shown that in addition to mental empathy, there is also cognitive empathy, which is used by people with asperger’s spectrum disorder, narcissism or psychopathy.

Cognitive empathy are the cognitive skills to understand the reason for a behavior and the ability to enter a situation from another person’s perspective in order to adaptively manage the current situation. But these people lack empathy and face internal mental conflicts that prevent them from fully understanding the situation emotionally or relationally. This is another way of perceiving emotions from the level of reason, which is a handicap, looking at the functioning of the entire cerebral cortex in the case of standard humans. The same may be true for robots. – Robot depression will be real, but will robots have emotions? They will certainly express it, but I don’t think they will feel it the way humans do. Their reactions will be perceived and interpreted by us humans as sympathetic or indicative of forbearance, for example. But machines will not feel these reactions in the same way that humans feel empathy, for example – Joanne Pransky says.

Psychotherapy for the robot of the future

The futurologist expresses herself very favorably about robots rightly describing them as an extension of ourselves and our creative will. Robots can only be a threat because they have a part of ourselves in them, who use them for war or inappropriate purposes. As robotic intelligence advances and cognitive skills increase, robots may actually need to visit psychologists, albeit behavioral ones.

Joanne conveys the fear that we can bring disaster on ourselves if we don’t realize in time that we should start thinking pro-socially.

– A very trendy buzzword of the last decade, and perhaps of the century, is “artificial intelligence”. And I wish such buzzwords were “social intelligence” and “emotional intelligence”. Time to spend more time and resources on fixing human behavior, such as stopping cybercrime. Let’s use intelligent algorithms for altruism before our disabilities pollute the “souls” of machines for good robopsychologist outraged. – Can robots and artificial intelligence really be better, empathetic? I believe yes, that machines can show compassion and understanding. The question remains whether humans will be able to distinguish whether this is true or just a simulation of empathy – explains Pransky.

Will Walle-like cleaning robots be picking through the rubble of our civilization in 5 years? Or maybe machines will eventually create their own communities and, as a result of their war on us, plug us into a matrix where they keep us for their peace of mind, learning, or energy nourishment? The emergence of metaverse doctrine in the media and the accelerating development of technological thought may stimulate the imagination.

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