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The Joy of Robotics
John Himes
November 29, 2023
There’s something about watching an electrified hunk of metal come to life that’s just cool. Let’s explore why.
Robots viscerally smash the glass wall between the digital and analog worlds, especially compared to screens.
Rather than being something we observe, like a window into something happening over there, a robot is here and now. Not only does it inhabit the same space as us, but it moves in that space. A robot reaches out and is reachable.
Robots also exemplify human creativity. Is there anything else with so many degrees of freedom in its movement that’s also so totally controlled? Even as robots become more advanced and gain autonomy, the algorithmic structure of their “thinking” and “decision-making” finds its genesis in us.
Not Just Smart
To pursue this line a step further, if robots ever find themselves equipped with true intelligence, they will have their creators to thank for it.
So where does that put us? And does a robot with artificial general intelligence (AGI) have more moral significance than a cloud computing data center or a smart TV?
Robots are more easily personified than any other type of technology. Sure, people talk to Siri, name their cars, and curse the printer for its dysfunctionality. But when they encounter robotics, especially of the android variety, it’s difficult not to personify.
This makes me wonder about the spiritual implications. In an article for HackerNoon titled “Consider This: Theomorphic Robots; Not Losing Our Religion?” Yisela Alvarez Trentini explores the ways that robotics can be used as tools for “practicing and expressing spirituality.”
She writes that robots are a testament to human creativity, can offer invaluable assistance, and open up new possibilities to some groups of people, such as the elderly and disabled.
And not only can robots be used instrumentally for existing rituals, but the author also leaves us with another option: “As our societies change rapidly and become more dependent on new technologies and what they can do, it’s inevitable to wonder if innovation can actually allow a new form of religion and myth to emerge.”
Cue the Neon Genesis Evangelion theme song.
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Ghost in the machine
Will there come a day when people worship robots? Or is there at least theological significance in the fact that we are making them in our own image?
One possibility of how such a future could play out is told by the aforementioned ’90s anime. In Evangelion, NERV serves as the robo-cult, and the EVAs are humanity’s “angels.” Yes, they serve humans, protect them, and are even beings of immeasurable love, but the “real angels” seem to recognize how dangerous such a machine is for mankind.
Besides the trauma they inflict on their pilots, the endgame presented in The End of Evangelion (instrumentality) seems unattractive from all but the most cosmically oriented perspectives—and even then, humanity’s achievement is far from a guaranteed success.
Who benefits?
All of this is to say that robots have a spiritual quality, and that’s part of what makes them attractive. Just as people write about Old Testament God breathing into dust to infuse it with life, people want to use tech to energize the inert.
This is one of the most alluring sensations for the roboticist; with one’s own mind and hands, combined with civilization’s accumulated knowledge, we ourselves can spark motion. We feel the thrill of being prime movers, of defining a creation and then interacting with it face-to-face.
For all this, we’re still nowhere near a genuine imitation of life or humanity. Robotics is really hard. If anything, it proves to us just how magnificent life’s coming into being truly is.
For me, it was playing the Japanese Mega Man video games as a child that turned me on to robots. As an adult, I now have a new perspective when I listen to the Protomen, a rock band, sing about Dr. Light’s work in creating Mega Man and Proto Man:
“He’d set his skillful hands to the task of creating a device to bring about a change, to create a machine to bring freedom, to create a man to save the world!”
If we do see such a future come to pass, I for one would not be surprised if such a machine inspires devotion.
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