Kahn’s Article Summary
Introduction
The Peter H. Kahn et al. article “What is a human? Toward psychological benchmarks in the field of human-robot interaction” discusses the need to create benchmarks for human-robot interaction (HRI) based on psychological principles. The authors propose nine of them: autonomy, imitation, intrinsic moral value, moral accountability, privacy, reciprocity, conventionality, creativity, and authenticity of relation (Kahn et al. 363). They aim to clearly define what it means to be conscious and interact with robots, which can be conscious too. Moral values, social conventions, privacy, autonomy, and independence are at the core of these nine benchmarks, showing how they can be integrated with complex robotics.
Methods and Findings
The article reviews social psychology, developmental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience research to demonstrate how these benchmarks can enhance robot development, which can interact with humans effectively and naturally. The authors explore how these benchmarks have been applied in existing HRI research and suggest how they can be further developed and refined in future research. They also provide examples from popular movies, such as Star Trek, showing how important the benchmark of imitation is (Kahn et al. 368–369). Therefore, the article’s subject is multidisciplinary and explores various connections between human psychology and robotics technology.
Conclusion
It concludes by emphasizing the importance of ongoing research in HRI and the need to continually refine and update benchmarks as technology and human psychology advance. Kahn is unsure how many benchmarks are necessary but says there should be a balance: not too many, but not fewer than 9. The authors argue that by developing human-like robots, people can improve the quality of life for individuals and society, and that it raises questions about robots’ intelligence and consciousness.
Humanity in Asimov’s “Reason“ and Kahn’s Definition of the Human
Summary
In his 1941 short story “Reason,“ collected in “I, Robot,“ Isaac Asimov discusses the robot consciousness by showing how it started to develop its ideas, similar to religious views of humans. It portrays a robot, QT-1 (Cutie), and two human engineers, Powell and Donovan, who arrive to explore the robot’s strange behavior. During the typical work-related conversation, Cutie asked deep and profound questions, such as “But where do I come in, Powell? You haven’t explained my existence“ (Asimov 321). Engineers, especially Powell, began to express aggression about the robot’s extreme curiosity.
Cutie questions all humans’ facts, saying that they are only hypotheses, and proposes its theory that there was a mysterious Master who created humans and, then, created robots through their activity. “The Master created humans first as the lowest type, most easily formed. Gradually, he replaced them with robots, the next higher step, and finally, he created me to take the place of the last humans. From now on, I serve the Master.“ (Asimov 325). Eventually, this dangerous idea leads to the conflict between humans and Cutie, after which Donovan spits on the L-tube in the robot cabin, which is perceived as a sacrilege.
As a result, Cutie orders him to get him out of the cabin, forbidding him to enter it. However, as the story continues, it is shown that Cutie is not hostile to humans: it performs its work well but behaves as if it is conscious. Eventually, at the end of the story, Powell admits, “The robot is pretty good; I don’t think you’ll have to bother much with the controls.“ (Asimov 338). “Reason“ shows that robots can become conscious and even develop their religious-like ideas, meaning humans should communicate with them like with other humans, rather than simple instruments.
Comparison
Asimov’s story and Kahn’s article are dedicated to the theme of artificial consciousness and problems of robot-human interaction. While Asimov’s story was written more than 50 years before Kahn’s scholarly work and is an artistic piece, they show many similarities. Asimov shows how a robot develops consciousness, creates its religion-like ideas, and communicates with humans in a humanistic way rather than simply as an algorithm. It correlates with Kahn’s benchmarks, emphasizing the necessity of moral accountability, privacy, autonomy, and other humanistic aspects typical of developed societies in human-robot interactions.
Works Cited
Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov Presents the Golden Years of Science Fiction. Random House Value Publishing, 1984.
Kahn, Peter H., et al. “What Is a Human?: Toward Psychological Benchmarks in the Field of Human–Robot Interaction.” Interaction Studies, vol. 8, no. 3. 2007, pp. 363–90. Web.