Case study: Robotics and artificial intelligence
Dain Bolwell · 2019
Robotics is concerned with connecting perception and action. The development of modern robotics and nuclear energy are directly linked. Robotic limbs were first constructed for the manipulation of radioactive material during the 1940s as part of the Manhattan atomic bomb project. In the play, human civilisation becomes a type of ‘Sodom’ as people pursue gross pleasure, so easily are human desires fulfilled by robots. The commercialisation of robotics was inspired by the fictional science of Isaac Asimov, who began writing short stories about robots in the late 1930s. The term ‘artificial intelligence’ is often used as if its meaning is self-evident; it remains a source of confusion and controversy. The advances made by an artificial ultra intelligence might be simply linear – double the time, double the intelligence – rather than exponential. With or without robotics, self-awareness or general intelligence, machine learning is already applicable to many sustainability issues and their potential resolution.