Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Robots Don't Have Hearts

I do not believe that robots can express emotions like love and empathy. Like the article we read for Tuesday’s class suggests, those emotions are rather complex. To me, this showing of complex emotion is only a façade for the complex coding or electrical work that goes into the creation of a robot or AI. Such complex emotions, in my opinion, aren’t built off of if/then statements that coding can be. I think complex emotions are something we as humans uniquely possess.
The robot’s inability to love in its truest form is shown in both “I Sing the Body Electric” and Ex Machina. The man who sells Grandma to the family explains that she is designed to love. To me, that means that “love” for people is built into the robot. This goes against what I believe love is. To me, love is built over time and experiences, not a snap shift or bolt in place. Grandma in “I Sing the Body Electric” is programmed to love the family no matter what environment she is placed in. Meanwhile, Ava’s character in Ex Machina further proves the fact that genuine love is impossible for robots and AIs. Ava used manipulation and false love to gain her freedom. This further shows that instead of genuine love, the love that Ava shows in Ex Machina is only a facade.

Love, a complex, uniquely human emotion, cannot be felt by robots or AIs. Although on the surface it may seem as though this love is genuine, as shown with the feelings of Grandma in “I Sing the Body Electric”, these robots are designed to show such emotions, rather than genuine love that is built over time. The false love is shown further by the actions of Ava. Her manipulation prove that robots and AI can’t feel human levels of love. 

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