Can anyone remember the first time they saw the Terminator movie? I was 5 years old. Since then, I’ve always wonder what it would be like to live in a world with robots. Parents always tell children to live, play, imagine, explore, and wonder but when I told my mom I wanted Ideal Maxx Steele because my little sister didn’t want to pretend to be a robot anymore, she said, “Boy keep dreaming!” Even though robots have existed for years, they have been mostly used in manufacturing facilities to eliminate the need and cost of the human worker. All of this is now changing as we fully enter the 21st century. In 2010, Japan unveiled the first real woman robot and Honda had been working on their own humanoid robot ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) for twenty years. 5 days after my birthday, April 28, ASIMO debuted in St. Louis and sparked the robotics movement even further worldwide.
In terms of robotics, Indiana has been a lucky state this year. On Saturday, November 12th, 26 area teams competed at the First Lego League Qualifying tournament which was held at Elkhart Memorial High School. Also, on April 16th, 15 high school teams, competed in the Indiana SeaPerch State Challenge which was held at Indiana State University.
I said that I have always been infatuated with robots; however, they are taking our jobs and making us obsolete. If you’ve ever been on the toll-road, before it was a huge machine that you feed a ticket and money too, just think about it. More importantly to me, when people try to play GOD and give too much intelligence to machines that can run themselves, we’ve sealed our own fate. Science has a way of unmasking itself in the big blockbuster movies we watch (Class of 1999, I Robot, Eagle Eye, etc.). I use to be a Biology Major and I know that the main goal of science is to change real life experiences and/or problems. Because of this, we as people are always trying to figure out and create more but we often forget that we can create “death“ when we’re tying to cure. As humans, how far will we let it go before we can no longer depend on ourselves for survival? Ask yourself these 5 questions:
- If I was stuck in the woods right now without a lighter, could I make a fire so that I could stay warm, eat, or even survive through the night?
- What’s (3x+12y-√36) / (-5a+20b+√900) if x is 1/3, y is 5, a is 19, and b is 0.5?
- Do you want one of those Google cars that drives itself?
- What’s a pencil sharpener for all my mechanical users out there?
- Hey, what do I do with these and where’s Orville?
If you don’t the answer, it’s (-1) and the popcorn goes in a pot with butter on the stove. So the Ultimate question is posed, “Can robots take over the world?”
Our IUSB days 
mikedoyleiusb
November 17, 2011
Concerning the question of whether or not robots could take over the world, it could be a while before we see anything like Dr. Wily’s infamous robot masters roaming around, at the rate which technology currently progresses. This is especially so, when combined with social movements oriented around cutting back on usage of any sort of technology- robotics included.
youngreginald
November 19, 2011
I love your points. We often agree, to disagree, to ultimately agree again. The future may not always seem so far away. Yesterday was the past, today is the present, yet tomorrow is the future. Think about it! As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world — that is the myth of the atomic age — as in being able to remake ourselves.
– Mohandas K. Gandhi