Robotics is an important part of the technology field. Robotics is the design, construction, and use of machines (the robots), to perform tasks done traditionally by human beings. Robots are much used in such industries as automobile manufacture to perform repetitive tasks, and in industries where work must be performed in spaces dangerous to humans.

Many aspects of robotics involve artificial intelligence. Robots may be equipped with the equivalent of human senses such as vision, touch, and the ability to sense temperature. Some are even capable of simple decision-making!

Current robotics research is geared toward devising robots with a degree of self-sufficiency that will permit mobility and decision-making in an unstructured environment. Today’s industrial robots do not resemble human beings, a robot in human form is called an android.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

Ana Letícia Mendes - 12/15/2021

There is a lot of speculation involving this topic, and often some conspiracy theories. The fact is, robots are not 100% conscious nor intelligent yet.

First of all, is important to define what is consciousness and if something 'unconscious' is capable of changing its mental structure to acquire the said 'consciousness'. Various definitions of what is the neuroprocessing of the brain exist nowadays, but for a clear explanation, let's take the Freudian example. According to Freud, the mind is capable of expressing genuine wills and wishes through psychic processes. All these processes happen into three different layers: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. Conscious is our recent thoughts and world perception of things happening around us; preconscious is about memories and storage knowledge we are not using at the moment, but we are still able to access it; and unconscious is a state of things we cannot access through the mind, like fears, traumas, destructive impulses, etc.

With that said, robots are not considered conscious in the state they are today. It is difficult for us to imagine such 'perfect' developed machines having traumas or unconscious attacks, which can lead them to appear humanly scared, for example. Even though, we cannot completely discard the option of moving from unconscious to conscious: and there's where machine learning enters.

Machine learning is about using data and algorithms with robots to simulate human behavior. On Netflix, for example, when you watch various movies of the same category, the algorithm will understand your movie taste and will consequently start recommending more and more movies and series of the same category, to maintain you active in the platform. Machines will most likely be able to use this technology to understand human language and even slang. This event can result in a simulation of human consciousness, where there will be decision-making situations, panic attacks, and the capability of expressing opinions.

But, is a perfect simulation of consciousness the same thing as real consciousness? I will let you decide.

Sources: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/machine-learning

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-conscious-and-unconscious-mind-2795946

Helena Scussel Rosa - 12/16/2021