If robots are build with enough artificial intelligence that they become sentient, the world would change. Robots are interesting, to be able to preform task that normally human would do. There are wide range of robots that are used to accomplish task set forth by humans. The type of robot that interest me the most is humanoid robots or androids, because they are the most versatile robots. Humanoid robots has human’s physical characteristic to help it operate in a world that is build by humans.Humanoid robots combine with enough artificial intelligence that make them sentient, will question the value of life.
Will sentient humanoid robots ever replace humans and human’s unpredictable actions? For example if sentient humanoid robots were created and we sent them to war, labor camp, and enslaved them. Is it morally right to enslave a sentient being that we created? Will one day sentient humanoid robots replace human, due to human becoming inefficient? Humanoid robots will require immense amount of work to create, from the sensor such as human touch and feel to motor movement of fingers and the small expression human make due to emotions. Humanoid robots are mostly perceive to be dangerous in many science fiction literature, if the robot is sentient anything can be expected.
The article https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/31/erica-the-most-beautiful-and-intelligent-android-ever-leads-japans-robot-revolution, shows that we are closing the gap in making a functioning humanoid robot. They develop the robot to mimic human speech and the human physical feature. This robot will soon transform into something indistinguishable from human.
Thanks for this proposal Jorge. Humanoid robots are an interesting area of inquiry, especially because of the many ethical, moral, philosophical (and practical) questions they pose. The issue of “sentience” also complicates things further, and you present many possible directions this project could go, and so it remains fairly general. Can you proposed an even more focused topic (or research question) to pursue? Doing additional exploratory research will really help.