LING 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Facetime, R2-D2, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Document Summary
It has been 10 years since the initial release of the movie irobot, a dystopian fantasy set many years forward in the future that showed viewers the true potential of robots. Looking past the predictable finale in which robots attempt to take over the universe, the film also shows us how extremely useful robots could be in our society. Just like in the movie, new research is opening up the possibility to robots as caregivers. These machines propose a more practical alternative to human caregivers as they are already able to assist children, especially those with disabilities, develop useful skills and their understanding of the world. Evidence shows that robots are more dependable, they are able to children manners and companionship, and children have the potential to adapt to changing technology rapidly. As it will be examined in the following paragraphs, actually replacing humans for robots as primary caregivers could yield more benefits than harms.
