Robotic machines are now an everyday part of our lives. Things such as computers, toasters and even baseball softball pitching machines are utilized to help us in our day -to -day life. It’s quite easy to stand inside a batting cage and hit a round of balls that appear to be identical to those pitched by a real human. What kind of moral questions do such creations bring out? Is it fine to be so reliant on machines? My concern is not with robots taking over our lives in any horror movie sense, I don’t predict batting cages to come to life and try to destroy us all, but our reliance on machines to do the work that was completed by humans less than a few decades years ago marks a rapid change in the way we conduct our lives. This behavior is worth thinking about.
Obviously, with the creation of the internet, our whole mode of being has been altered. It’s hard to consider what it would have been like for Native Americans, for example, or even Europeans who lived in a country setting. These people would have seen perhaps only a few hundred faces in their lifetime, while we may talk with that many humans within the time of just a year, and the number of faces we see can hardly be counted.
While the changes may seem insignificant, it has to be acknowledged that such a way of life will have effects on our brains themselves. It’s been discovered that the brain is physically changed by the sensations and experiences it receives, so to say what we view changes our brain is in no way an exaggeration.
Has the growing use of robotics had a positive impact on our lives? If we think about this in terms of convenience and surface happiness, there’s no question that it has. It has never been easier to have food and entertainment delivered to our house within minutes of our wanting to have them. But this, obviously, is only true for those in wealthy situations living in developed countries. In order to exist like this, there are others in non-developed countries who must do the task of making the shoes, connecting the machines and packing the boxes. It goes without saying that most of these workers will be unfairly paid for their labor, as those in the developed areas would be unwilling to pay a higher price for things which we feel are deserved.
Along with the exploitation of other humans is the exploitation of non-human life. The way we treat nature appears to be an almost abusive relationship, with humans simply taking what they can see around them and staking it out as his own.
Undoubtedly, such a destructive relationship with the world around us has begun to have seriously damaging effects on the way we’re able to live our own lives of comfort. When the natural world and machine damage each other, it is nature that humans will need more in order to go on living. One would hope we are able to see this reality before it’s too late.