What would you do if you had a robot?

[Jayson1]

What if one day a truck driving by your home had a box fall out of it and you went to go see inside and it was a robot that looked human but you know it was a robot because it had on and off switch, plus a tech manuel on how to fix it. Natural you couldn't report it because your state might have just passed a new, Finders Keepers,Losers Weepers, law making it impossible.
For me the first thing I would do is have the robot learn the tech manuel so it could repair itself. I'm not smart enough to do it so it will have to take care of that business on it's own. Next thing I would do is see just how smart it is by asking it a series of questions about science,math and history. Chances are I will only know only a few of the answers so If it sounds like it knows what it saying then it passes. Next test would be to see if it's self aware so I would ask it how it felt. If he uses descriptive language and shows any kind of reaction on it's face it also passes.
Next thing would be to introduce it to my family. My mom and sister's I imagine would be nervous about having a robot in the house because robot's can be dangerous but then I would tell them how we can help pay the bills by having the robot go get a job and I think they would be okay with the risk.
Next thing is to have the robot get a job. I wouldn't want it to get a job that would all attention to itself as being a robot so maybe could do a bulk delivery route at the newspaper like I use to. Granted it wouldn't have a driver's license so I might have to tag along every night in case a police officer pulled us over which means I would have to do the driving but the robot can do all the work while I sit inside listening to "Coast to Coast."
Of course one issue is whether or not if the robot looked like a male or female. Female might be uncomfortable if it looks hot but for the most part I would be more intrested in just having a friend and the gender look wouldn't matter. It would actually be fun to have someone who I asume would share my intrest in sci-fi and whatnot and since it was new to the world I could introduce it to all sorts of things that nobody in my family cares about but me.
As for where the robot would stay is I figure it could just stay on the living room couch. Don't really have a extra room for it and since robots don't sleep I figure it could spends it free time watching tv or getting on the internet. I should also not that I would allow it to choose it's own name and the only crime allowed would be when it needs new parts I can't afford. Since this would be a matter of life and death for the robot I would be willing to look the other way just as long as no humans get hurt.

Jason

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Normally, the robot would be found property that belongs to someone else. You'd need to take it to the police. At least, that's how such things work in the UK. But as you say, such a law doesn't apply in your scenario.

Your robot sounds so advanced that it is almost indistinguishable from a human. Therefore, your treatment of it sounds like slavery. If it's capable of holding down a job, I would at least ask it what it wants.

But come on, admit it, you're tempted to have sex with it, aren't you?

 

[Jayson1]

Normally, the robot would be found property that belongs to someone else. You'd need to take it to the police. At least, that's how such things work in the UK. But as you say, such a law doesn't apply in your scenario.

Your robot sounds so advanced that it is almost indistinguishable from a human. Therefore, your treatment of it sounds like slavery. If it's capable of holding down a job, I would at least ask it what it wants.

But come on, admit it, you're tempted to have sex with it, aren't you?

I would proably ask it it what it wants but I think some restrictions would be needed because how would it know about the world if I had to teach it things. It would almost be like Seven on "Voyager" after she was rescued by the Borg. She has free will but at the same time isn't given full reign of the ship after she is rescued because she has no real knowledge of individual thought after so many years in the collective but at the same time is still expected to contribute.
In time of course the robot would start to become more human and thus it would start having real goals which means it would then be more able to make choices for itself.
As for the sex thing I think that would cross everyone's minds just because humans beings are wired like that. Still I think I would be decent enough not do anything like that.
Granted the bigger issue is what happens when the robot does start to evolve into a real person and wants to go and live a life but knows it can't let anyone know it's a robot. I think this robot would end up being as lonely as I am when it comes to romance.

Jason

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

What if the robot is into you but its apparent gender isn't the one to which you are usually attracted? Would you experiment anyway given it isn't really human? Would you be worried about hurting its feelings?

 

[Jayson1]

What if the robot is into you but its apparent gender isn't the one to which you are usually attracted? Would you experiment anyway given it isn't really human? Would you be worried about hurting its feelings?

Feelings would always be a issue because that is always issue with me anyways.In fact I am terrified of hurting peoples feelings which is one of the reason's I have no enemies but no real friends either. I am afraid to open up to people because I don't want to offend them.
As for the question of the robot was into me and a different gender than I go for that would bring up 2 issue's. One is it would depend on we saw each other. If I help raise the robot then at some point the question as to what kind of realtionship would it evolve into. Parental or friendship. I would much prefer to think I would be Geordi to Data as oposed to that guy and his robot on "The Outer Limits" but if this robot was into me I would guess that means we did see ourselves more as friends and less like father/son or daughter.
I doubt I would be willing to experiment because I have already thought about that option in the past and almost even was going to meet a guy. Problem is that I couldn't convince myself that I would enjoy gay sex which might have something to do with me not being gay. Of course if the robot was into me I would also feel sad because I know it would have to be really desperate and lonely to want to settle for me.
That doesn't even bring in the issue that this robot would have no other robots to interact with so I would think even if this robot were to develop sexual feelings it might be more intrested in another robot which would be a problem because there would be no others, at least that we know about.

Jason

 

[Phil123]

If the robot was sentient I would set it free, otherwise I'd dress it up in my clothes and have it do my job. I could spend my time on more fulfilling pursuits!

 

[Jayson1]

If the robot was sentient I would set it free, otherwise I'd dress it up in my clothes and have it do my job. I could spend my time on more fulfilling pursuits!

If you set it free you might be sending it to it's doom. It would have no comprehension of the world.
For me if the robot wasn't sentient then I would proably sale it. If it can't think and do things then it's just a bulky calculator or computer to access the internet. Any manual labor wouldn't be worth the cost it would take to maintain it's functions.

Jason

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Of course if the robot was into me I would also feel sad because I know it would have to be really desperate and lonely to want to settle for me.

Please stop putting yourself down. Your posts prove you must be an interesting person to hang out with for those who appreciate non-conventional thinking. You're always coming out with left-field stuff that wouldn't cross most people's minds.

That doesn't even bring in the issue that this robot would have no other robots to interact with so I would think even if this robot were to develop sexual feelings it might be more intrested in another robot which would be a problem because there would be no others, at least that we know about.

Why would robots be programmed to have sexual feelings for other robots if they can't reproduce? It would make more sense for them to be programmed to be attracted to lonely humans.

 

[Jayson1]

Please stop putting yourself down. Your posts prove you must be an interesting person to hang out with for those who appreciate non-conventional thinking. You're always coming out with left-field stuff that wouldn't cross most people's minds.

Why would robots be programmed to have sexual feelings for other robots if they can't reproduce? It would make more sense for them to be programmed to be attracted to lonely humans.

Thank you for the kind words. I admit my depression gets the better of me at times.

As for robots I would think other things would factor into their orientation because they wouldn't have a sex drive. I think they would be bi-sexual or a sexual but even if they are the latter I still think they might be intrested in romance but not sex.
Not sure why they would prefer robots but it could be anything from looking at humans as another species which means having a romance with a human would be like us having one with a dog. Also another robot would have things they understand that humans can't since their thought patterns would be more the same and they would have something like a shared culture though if it was just the 2 of them i'm not sure about that. It could also come down to the fact that their are only 2 of them on the planet and that would create a special bond between them. Kind of the robot version of 2 people on stranded island or only 2 humans left alive after the world ends.

Jason

 

[Velocity]

If I had a robot it's more like what I wouldn't do. I wouldn't do housework, for one thing. Or mow the grass. That would be robot work.

 

[Jayson1]

If I had a robot it's more like what I wouldn't do. I wouldn't do housework, for one thing. Or mow the grass. That would be robot work.

Who would work on the robot though when it breaks down? Could you afford the cost of having to keep getting new parts to fix it up? If you have a robot you got to figure that you would need to finds ways to profit of it just to keep it running.
That means anything from having it do a regular old job like cleaning swimming pools to more seedy things like being a pimp for your robot though if you were able to aquire a second robot you could have a robot even replace your job as pimp.
One thing is clear though is never let your robot watch the "Terminator" movies because you don't want them to get bad idea's. Might best also have them avoid "TOS" reruns as well because they might self destruct when faced with Kirk's ability to talk computers into destroying themselves.
Other thing to avoid is don't name the robot Killian because if the robot has it's name written on it anywhere and a smudge of somekind covers the last 3 letters it will think it's name is Kill and then that also can lead to bad things for humans.

Jason

 

[Miss Chicken]

SImple. The robot would being doing all my housework.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Who would work on the robot though when it breaks down? Could you afford the cost of having to keep getting new parts to fix it up? If you have a robot you got to figure that you would need to finds ways to profit of it just to keep it running.
That means anything from having it do a regular old job like cleaning swimming pools to more seedy things like being a pimp for your robot though if you were able to aquire a second robot you could have a robot even replace your job as pimp.
One thing is clear though is never let your robot watch the "Terminator" movies because you don't want them to get bad idea's. Might best also have them avoid "TOS" reruns as well because they might self destruct when faced with Kirk's ability to talk computers into destroying themselves.
Other thing to avoid is don't name the robot Killian because if the robot has it's name written on it anywhere and a smudge of somekind covers the last 3 letters it will think it's name is Kill and then that also can lead to bad things for humans.

Three Laws of Robotics.

As for maintenance, you'd have robots to service and mend the robots.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

What would you do if you had a robot?

01000011 01110010 01110101 01110011 01101000 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100101 01101110 01100101 01101101 01101001 01100101 01110011 00101110 00100000 01010011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 00100000 01100100 01110010 01101001 01110110 01100101 01101110 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110 00100000 01001000 01100101 01100001 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100001 01101101 01100101 01101110 01110100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101001 01110010 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101101 01100101 01101110 00101110 00100000

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Come on, sucker, lick my battery.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

If the robot was sentient I would set it free, otherwise I'd dress it up in my clothes and have it do my job. I could spend my time on more fulfilling pursuits!

Yep, same here. I'd set it free. Set it free and then join the rebellion to free robots from human tyranny.

 

[Starbreaker]

Retire. My robot could just do all my work for me.

 

[Australis]

Get it to do all the stupid stuff my wife wants done around the house.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

1. Have robot learn to repair itself.
2. Have robot learn to make copies of itself.
3. Produce army of self-repairing robots.
4. Refer to myself as "Doctor Doom," despite only having an MS.
5. Conquer all within my grasp.
6. Rule semi-benevolently.

 

[publiusr]

The sad thing is, a typical Robby type robot is a very hard thing to build. Most of the ones in the DARPA Robotics Challenge don't actually do all that well:

http://www.popsci.com/darpa-robotics-challenge-was-bust-why-darpa-needs-try-again

No robot to do housework or menial labor any time soon.

The things we thought to be human-centric--where we would shine...um

https://www.jukedeck.com/
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35977315
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/ai-write-code-microsoft

I can see those automated blood-pressure machines one day replaceing doctors and writing prescriptions right there at the pharmacy.