Stuff You Should Know - Will robots get married?

Episode Date: August 26, 2008

Some researchers believe that weddings between a human and a robot could be possible by the year 2050. Take a look at our HowStuffWorks article to learn more about robot rights. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. In 1968, five Black girls were picked up by police after running away from a reform school in Mt. Megs, Alabama. I'm writer and reporter Josie Deffie Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate the abuse that thousands of Black children suffered

at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro children and how those five girls changed everything. Listen to unreformed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Stuff You Should Know is brought to you by Visa. We all have things we like to think about. Online fraud shouldn't be one of them because with every purchase, visa prevents, detects, and resolves online fraud. Safe, secure, visa. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, staff writer here at HowStuffWorks.com.

With me as always is Charles Chuck Bryant, also staff writer here at HowStuffWorks.com. What up, staff writer Chuck? Well, Josh, I think as you can see, I'm just snuggled up with my real doll here, Samantha. I did notice Chuck. I wasn't going to bring it up. Right. She is a looker. I'll give you that. But she is what, polyethylene maybe? I don't ask. And she doesn't answer, so it works out great. I'm sure she doesn't. That reminds me of a movie. I haven't seen it. I've been told by several people to definitely see it. Lars and the real girl? Yep, I've seen it. It's really good. How is it? It's a good little indie. It's got Ryan Gosling, who's a really great actor. No spoilers, Chuck. I haven't seen it yet. Okay. Okay, go ahead.

But the basic plot outline is that he plays this lonely guy who gets a real doll and... It's a real girl doll, right? Yes. Is that what they're called? And I'd ask Samantha, but she wouldn't answer. And so he has this doll in the town, kind of just accepts it as being his girlfriend. And it's worth seeing. Yeah, it's really, it sounds really creepy, but it's actually kind of a sweet movie. Well, you know, that's actually not too far off from what some people are predicting is going to be a part of the future of humanity. Right. Not too far off at all, actually. Robot human weddings. Right.

And we're not even talking real girls here. We're talking about real girls that like... Mover deluxe real girls. Yes, exactly. And apparently there's this guy named David Levy, who is a, I think, some sort of futurist, maybe a roboticist, but he wrote a paper based on research he did in philosophy, sexology, which to tell you the truth, until I read his article, I didn't realize it was an actual discipline. Robotics, of course, all sorts of other stuff. Sexology, it's like the greatest word ever. Right. It sounds like an MTV show, not a real thing. Or like a drink you get in Cancun. Right.

So Levy combines all these disciplines together and comes up with the notion that by 2050, some states, starting with Massachusetts deposits, will allow human robot weddings, marriages. I know. Legally recognized. Yeah. In fact, I believe he said, quote, it is inevitable. Yes, he did. Even before that, though, another roboticist predicted that by 2011, should not too far off from, people will be having sex with robots. Right. Which, I mean, once you start having sex with something, it you, somebody eventually wants to marry it. We are a moral species. Yeah, you could argue that we're not. But yeah, generally, you're right.

Just like in Lars and the Real Girl, he had a lot of respect for his real doll. Okay. And I don't want to ruin it. Please don't, Chuck. But it was a relationship based on, if not mutual, at least one way respect. Right. Right. But with this, with a robot, it's going to be much more mutual. I don't know about necessarily feelings for robots. I don't think we're going to reach that point, but it will appear a lot more mutual. Because they can program respect, or at least things that you can say that would indicate respect. Right. Right. Now, one of the things that's leading the way that's going to be allowing

things like robots that people would want to have sex with or marry is like this skin that's being developed. There's a guy who used to work for Disney. He was a roboticist who created the skin that bunches and wrinkles. Right. When you have lifelike skin, you can convey emotions through lifelike facial expressions. Right? Right. Once you start having that, you've got a really realistic looking robot. Yeah. I don't think I'll ever go to the Hall of Presidents again with the same eyes. No, exactly. Abraham Lincoln. Yeah. The head of Abraham Lincoln. Right? Right. This whole issue of possibly marrying robots and definitely having sex with robots

has brought to the attention of some people the concept of robot rights. Right. Have you heard of robot rights? I mean, the movement behind it? Yeah. I know Japan is kind of at the forefront of this whole thing. They are now, but they were lagging for a little while. At first, it was just South Korea and Europe. Basically, Japan was conspicuously absent from the table and they're at the forefront of robotics. They needed to be there, so they finally caught up and now they're all about robot rights. Right. A lot of people are kind of like, what is this? Why would we even have robot rights? This is ridiculous. This is silly. To those people, proponents of robot

rights say, you ever heard of animal rights? Yeah, I've heard of that. Isn't that technically a silly idea in the same vein? But if you really think about it, these are animals, but we humans have established rights for how we interact with them, how we allow them to interact with us. It's accepted now. I think a lot of people years ago might have thought the same thing about animal rights, as they do about robot rights. Right. I think with robots, especially with robots that can give a lifelike appearance, really awful things are going to come out of humans. Sure. If you have a robot that can recoil in horror or wince in pain, there's going to be people out there who are going to want to kill them like a drifter or something like that.

Right. The potential for abuse is big. It's real abuse on a robot, but there's still something sociopathic about it. Definitely, but I predict that once lifelike robots are available and produced en masse, I think there's going to be a lot of awful stuff. Yeah. I think that it's good that we're preparing for this now because I think the first half of the 21st century is going to see an explosion in advancements in robotics. Yeah. I think South Korea said a robot in every house by the year 2020. Yeah. In that same year, actually, the US has said that it plans to supplement one fifth of its battalions with robots, which raises a whole other question. I mean, do robots that kill people are designed to kill people? Are they afforded any kind of rights? Should they

Exactly. Should they be free from harm, that kind of thing? Right. It's really, it's too much for my brain, to be honest. Let me get in the driver's seat here, Chuck. No problem. So basically, the main argument is that no, a robot that's programmed to kill should be able to have harm done to it. Right. Most robots that we're going to interact with aren't going to be designed to kill. If you see a robot that you know is designed to kill, you should turn and run really fast. Sure. Because it only is programmed to do one thing. Right. Yeah. Kill, kill, kill. So most of the robots we're going to interact with will be helping around the house. Sure. Serving in the sex trade. Right. They already have those, not the sex trade, although they may, but you know,

the little, the robots that clean the floor and do things like that. Well, yeah, the Roomba and the Scuba and all that kind of concept. Right. These things are going to look a lot more lifelike. Right. Like if you want one that looks like Mrs. Doubtfire, you can have Mrs. Doubtfire working for you if you shell out enough cash. So let's say you have Mrs. Doubtfire as a household robot and Mrs. Doubtfire is bringing you a hot cup of coffee. Unfortunately, Mrs. Doubtfire trips and spills the hot coffee on you and you get up and react by smacking Mrs. Doubtfire across the face. Right. Should you be penalized for that? Should you be punished? Right. And I think that's what Japan and some other South Korea are trying to work out are the parameters of what's allowed and

what's not allowed and whether or not a robot should have rights just like you and I. Right. Now let's say Mrs. Doubtfire doesn't trip, but she walks up to you and pours the hot coffee on you. Right. Who's responsible for that? What's the legality behind it? Yeah. The manufacturer of the robot. In my mind, I'm no lawyer. Right. Well, no one has any idea. All these questions are totally up in the air right now and they're trying to hammer them out. And the whole thing kind of goes both ways, actually. Humans are going to also need protection from robots, which is where Mr. Isaac Asimov comes in, right? Yeah. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, I think first, he was really one of the first people to talk about robots and humans living together and

getting along or not getting along. Right. And he established the three laws of robotics, I think in one of his short stories. Runaround, I think. Yeah, runaround, which was actually in a collection of short stories called iRobot, which Will Smith, as you know, made into a pretty substandard film. Yeah. Which he borrowed from a couple of these and he actually used the three laws of robotics. They refer to those in the film as well. You want to give them the three laws? I will. A robot may not injure a human being or, through an action, allow a human to come to harm. Sure. Great first law. Yeah. A robot must obey orders given, given it by humans, except where such orders would conflict with the first law. And a robot must

protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law. Right. And these laws just sound like there's no way around them. Yeah. I was reading a critical analysis of Asimov. And basically, the author pointed out that I don't think he didn't think Asimov thought these things were watertight. He basically used to like to use them as a theme to show how even these really great cohesive closed system laws could screw up, which is why nobody's going to go to Asimov to figure out how to program robots in the future. But we do need some level of protection. Like, our robots just kept from interacting with humans all together. Like, a robot cannot touch a human. Is that something that we would do?

Right. And there's already, you know, there's been casualties. There's been death by robots happen already. The first one happened in like 1982 when a guy was crushed on a factory line by, you know, a big robotic arm. Right. Sort of like the Terminator. Pretty not really. But yeah, kind of. And then since then, a lot of people have died, actually. One guy, the worst death by robot that I've heard so far was a guy had enough of an amount of molten aluminum poured on him by a robot that it killed him. Wow. I wonder if he was trying to make a little robot buddy. I don't know. Maybe so. We're hoping not. Sounds like a bad accident. Because we are talking about industrial robots. The thing is, these are isolated incidents. But what happens when there is a robot in every house

in not only Korea, but the world? These accidents could step up quite a bit. Exactly. And, you know, we need to figure out how to address them now before it happens. Right. And also, I think a lot of roboticists are really worried about the moment when robots are equipped with systems that allow them to learn. Right. Right when that happens, they lose all predictability whatsoever. And we won't be able to tell what they're about to do, what they won't do. They'll be as unpredictable as humans. And, you know, when you're on the subway with somebody you don't really trust, you got your muscles tensed in your ribs for a knifing, you know. Right. The same thing would happen with humans and robots. I think so. Probably even a little more creepy. Because

while humans are unpredictable, robots, you don't know what they're programmed to do if it's not your robot. Right. And also, there's also issues of morality that would factor into that. You know, you like to think that most humans would stop themselves from stabbing you, even if they wanted to. Right. Because they have some sort of moral judgment. Sure. How do you program morals into robots? Right. You know, it's a very big sticky ball of questions. It is. I have to say, I am pretty glad that the people who are trying to figure this out now are figuring it out now. Right. And they're a lot smarter than I am. Exactly. It's kind of one of the situations where you just kick back and say,

go to it. Yeah, I would have no idea. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully they won't use their advantage to make us their slaves, though. Yeah, that'd be bad. Yeah, I agree. So that's about that for robot marriages. But there's even more in the article that I wrote on the site, Will Robots Get Married on HowStuffWorks.com, and stick around to find out how to get water from a beach if you're ever stranded on a deserted island right after this. Stuff you should know is brought to you by Visa. We all have things to think about. Like say, what's the best site to buy a new leather jacket, or whether to buy the three or six megapixel camera. But thankfully, we don't need to think about online fraud. Because for every purchase you make,

Visa keeps an eye out for fraud, with real time fraud monitoring. And by making sure you're not liable for any unauthorized purchases. How's that for peace of mind? Safe, secure, Visa. Way to stick around, it may save your life. So Chuck, I'm going to tell these people, I already know you know how to do this, because it's based on one of your articles. But I'm going to tell everybody how to get water out of a beach on a deserted island. Right. It's called a beach well. Yeah. And it can come in really handy if you're, you know, like a castaway. A castaway. Yeah, exactly. Go ahead and let them know. I will. So basically, you find a sand dune, right? Right. And right behind it, you dig about a three to five foot hole. That's deep, right? Or wide?

Deep. Okay, three to five feet deep. Probably about a foot wide, just so you can reach down in there. If you can, you want to line the sides of the hole with wood to keep it from collapsing. You want to place some rocks in the, in the bottom of it, right? Yeah. And you basically just walk away for a few hours, right? Right. You come back and press so you've got about five gallons of pure water right there. Presto change. Oh, it's not salt water. No. And you recommended in the article that it was, if it was a little salty, just move back a little further. Right. And if you have a size 12 foot and you ever find yourself stranded on a desert island, just measure off 100 feet and start digging there. That's what Chuck recommends. Right. And drink out of your

shoe. Yeah, that's a good one. Also, you can find a myriad of other ways to save your own life, not only in Chuck's article, How to Find Water in the Wild, but on the Adventure Channel on HowStuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? In 1968, five black girls were picked up by police after running away from a reform school in Mount Megs, Alabama. I'm writer and reporter, Josie Duffy Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate the abuse that thousands of black children suffered at the Alabama Industrial

School for Negro Children and how those five girls changed everything. Listen to unreformed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. The cartels, they just killed everybody that was home. Setting an aspiring private investigator on a collision course with corruption and multiple murders. The detective agency would turn out to be a front for a drug pilot. Would claim he did it all for the CIA. I'm Lauren Brad Pacheco. Join me for murder in Miami. Talk about walking into the devil's den. Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.