Robots In Science Fiction

Many people are afraid of robots because of how robots are portrayed in science fiction. The problem here is that people use these stories as examples of how robots will take over the world even though the robots in the story are the product of the writer’s imagination. Science fiction assumes that robots will turn on mankind because it makes for an interesting conflict, not because it’s the most likely event. It’s the same way as with zombie stories - a strange, antagonizing force is made up to create conflict and make the story more interesting. The only difference here is that robots have a real life counterpart, while zombies have none. No one has to separate movie zombies from real life zombies because there are no real life zombies, but …show more content…
When a Japanese nuclear power plant was damaged in 2011, robots were sent to monitor the situation and save people the risk of radiation poisoning (Moss). There are also some robots in development that are meant to do more than monitor situations. The Atlas robot is perhaps the most advanced of these (Zissou). Atlas was developed at MIT as part of a competition sponsored by the Department of Defense and can drive a car, break through walls, and navigate through debris (Zissou). Atlas was designed specifically to take the place of first responders in disaster situations, especially earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns …show more content…
However, to call this a possibility is a bit of a stretch. The robots being invented now are very intelligent, but they don’t possess the consciousness and self-awareness required to make complicated decisions and form opinions (Buchanan). Although there are some projects devoted to making an artificial human brain of sorts, conscious robots aren’t going to become a reality anytime soon (Buchanan). Even when conscious robots become a thing, what’s the likelyhood of them actually posing a threat? Why would the military even want to spend resources on weaponizing conscious robots when unconscious ones get the job done without posing so many ethical questions? If no one’s going to weaponize conscious robots, what is there to be afraid of? Going back to how science fiction has warped people’s perceptions of robots, the antagonistic robots have really unsound reasons for turning on humanity. A common reason is simply that the robots view humanity as being inferior. This sounds like something a mentally unstable robot might think, but what are the chances that, after years of research, development, and bureaucracy, the result would be a mentally unstable robot? Would a mentally sound robot really waste its time and energy going against its creators just because it could? Not