From Galileo, Issue No. 1
Yeshi Dror
Approaching the dreary factory in the suburbs of Tokyo, you may first imagine that you have stumbled upon the England of Charles Dickens. The windows of the factory are closed and almost total darkness reigns there. Compressed, unconditioned air fills the space of the building and smells of oil and metal parts make it difficult to breathe in it.
Although the plant is operating at full capacity, no human voices, giggling or side calls are heard. Darkness, suffocation and silence. The only sign of life given, if indeed it can be called a sign of life, is the tireless maintenance of the machines working inside.
The opening gate takes the visitor back to one of the Englands of the days of the industrial revolution to the Japan of today. The plant is one of the most modern in the world, and more and more plants like it are being established in the land of the rising sun. At this time of the evening, there is not a single person in the factory. In the morning, a small number of people are expected to arrive to check and monitor what is happening and to guide the tourists who come to visit. But now only the machines are working in the factory. Machines that themselves make new machines. robots
Man has toyed with the idea of creating mechanical beings in the image of those around him since almost the dawn of civilization. Already two thousand years ago, a Greek sage in his writings on the theory of gases described moving automata in the form of animals and birds - a veritable Disneyland in the style of ancient times. In the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci built a mechanical lion in honor of Louis XII, the conqueror of the city of Milan. When the king entered the city gates, the lion moved forward and revealed the French royal coat of arms. To teach you that robotics and politics may go hand in hand.
However, the serious occupation of robots is the fruit of the last century. This was started by the science fiction writers, who looked with great curiosity towards the third millennium AD. The fictional robot was traditionally a mobile device with an almost human appearance, albeit somewhat metallic. In today's reality, the majority of robots do not resemble humans at all. These are machines with a mechanical arm of one type or another, fixed in place or mounted on a "remotely guided vehicle".
Isaac Asimov once stated that the human form of the fictional robot is nothing but the worship of man. As one of the most famous science fiction writers he certainly knows what he's talking about. The operation of the robot in the police service, for example, will not improve if it has a human shape, two legs and a head with a snout. At the same time, the more robots multiply in our immediate environment, because then it would probably be better to create them in human form. This is because our environment is adapted to human movements, but also because psychologically it will be easier for us to stay in the midst of creatures that remind us of ourselves (or maybe not).
Meanwhile, anyway, the only robots running around in our homes are the Transformers. The place where the robots do proliferate are the industrial plants. The history of industrial robots is extremely short. In 1954, a man named George de Wall filed a patent application for a certain model, which today is generally considered to be the first industrial robot. The first practical use of an industrial robot was made only in 1961. These two events took place in the USA.
Although industrial robots originated in the West, the country that makes the most use of them is Japan. The population of industrial robots in Japan today is about 200,000. About 50,000 industrial robots operate in the USA and about 60,000 in Europe as a whole
The "traditional" roles of robots in industry include loading and unloading, casting, welding, painting and assembly of machine parts and devices. However, as robotics technology develops - it is, in fact, a fairly broad front of technologies such as computing, electro-optics and materials engineering - so the robots are assigned additional tasks, inside and outside the factory.
Some robots are already being strengthened today, installing nuclear reactors and handling nuclear waste, plowing and harvesting fields (with tractors operated by remote control), building buildings, exploring the depths of the ocean, landing on Mars (Viking 1 and 2),
and help the disabled. And this is, without a doubt, just the beginning.
The field of medicine is a favorite candidate for the use of robots. At the "Sutter General" Hospital in Sacramento, USA, a few months ago, a first robotic system of its kind was activated for delicate surgeries. The system, its name "Robodoc" (short for robot-doctor), was used by surgeons to drill a hole in a patient's leg, for the purpose of implanting an artificial femur (prosthesis). The precision achieved in drilling the hole prevented the movement of the implant inside it and the need to use glue.
In the future, robots will help not only doctors, but also nurses and auxiliary staff. Stanford University Hospital has found an innovative way to save time that hospital workers spend moving patients from one room to another. The solution: an automatic transportation system using robots, whose memory is programmed with a suitable navigation map and whose infrared sensors are able to operate elevators.
The operation of this system initially encountered unexpected difficulties. One of the three robots that participated in the experiment rolled down the stairs. A second robot decided to walk outside the building. Fortunately, no one was hurt in these accidents, and the rolling robot only suffered a break in the fiberglass sheath. Most of the "bugs" discovered in the first stages of the program have already been fixed, and today the three robots are used 24 hours a day.
From a quantitative point of view, the rate of growth in the use of robots in developed countries is about 40 per year. However, the qualitative development is more interesting. The robots that exist today are generally seen as robots of the first generation (for comparison, computers are already the fourth generation). These are robots that perform relatively routine operations in a defined and unchanging envelope of activity, with their "senses" (sensors) usually limited to estimating distances. Even those robots operating in changing spaces today perform what is required according to individual instructions they receive by remote control.
The next generation of robots is expected to have a greater number of "senses", which will allow the machines not only to perform more delicate and complex operations, but also to start and operate in changing conditions. The ability to operate independently in a changing environment will, however, reach a more complete realization only in the third generation of robots - provided, of course, that this succeeds. In this generation, the machines are supposed to gain a developed "artificial intelligence", which will bring about a real revolution in their ability to operate.
The term "artificial intelligence" was coined in the public consciousness by John McCarthy in the summer of 1956. Since then the debates about it have not stopped. The questions raised concerned not only the ability to develop and implement real artificial intelligence, but also the very meaning of this term. Without going into the details of the discussion on the subject, we will only note here that the term does not encompass all activities that have a "mental" component - such as, for example, memory or the ability to calculate - but refers to the same intellectual ability to utilize the information that comes through the various "senses" to develop forms New and additional response and action, beyond those dictated in advance by an external party. In other words, to be a "big head" and think more independently (an expression that still requires quite a bit of clarification), and not act only according to previous programming.
If we are already dealing with terminology, it will not be superfluous, as it were, to mention that the word "robot" originates from the play of the Czech philosopher Karl Chapek - "Wasom's Universal Robots". "Robota" in Czech is forced labor and "Robotnik" is nothing but a serf. Although the robots described in the play are not the same creatures we are talking about here, the term has taken root and become the common domain.
Introducing developed "artificial intelligence" to machines will clearly increase the benefits that can be derived from them, especially in complex situations that require a certain ability to improvise. On the other hand, this is exactly the same "artificial intelligence" which is a source of hidden anxieties about the machines taking over our world in the future. In the current conditions, it is clear that these anxieties have nothing to rely on, but who knows?
The advantages of robots are quite numerous. They don't get tired, they don't complain, they don't demand a raise. Their work is precise and efficient, contributes to improving product quality, increases production capacity and reduces waste in raw materials. If that's not enough, robots may replace humans in routine and boring jobs (remember Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times"?), in dangerous jobs (nuclear reactors, for example), and in jobs that involve a lot of noise or pollution.
A big question is, is there not a fear that the introduction of robots into factories will push the feet of human workers and cause the expansion of unemployment, which has been rising recently anyway. The answers in this regard are not clear cut. The number of robots is still too small to determine what their true contribution to unemployment is.
At the same time, it must be remembered that precisely in Japan, where there are many robots, the unemployment rate is lower than in most Western countries and even in developing countries. If it is possible, therefore, to draw conclusions, then they indicate that a country with many robots is not necessarily a country plagued by unemployment. It is also clear that the economic and technological contribution of the robots to the national economy will atone in the long run for all kinds of temporary injustices they may cause, if indeed they do cause such injustices.
Since the "robotization" does not happen overnight, it can be done in a relatively controlled manner, so that the maximum benefit is derived from it. so what to do? - also use a robot. Because, whoever does not go forward, is probably going backwards.
Knowledgeable in robotics and artificial intelligence
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~918214462~~~176&SiteName=hayadan
