Robots: irreplaceable loyal machines in your home by 2025

By Dick Pelletier

      

    Imagine a machine that cleans house, sets the table, creates and serves dinner, provides household security, all while expressing human-like emotions, but rarely complains. This may sound like something out of The Jetsons, but researchers believe that we will soon share our homes with robots that gladly tackle mundane chores, freeing us for more fulfilling activities.

    One of the greatest challenges for most people is to gain control over our increasingly complex lives. Today, we face a bewildering maze of information overload, complex relationships, bureaucratic goofs, and confusion over the pace of technological change.

    Tomorrow's robots, loaded with strong artificial intelligence, will help us get the most from futuristic holographic virtual reality entertainment, and make our daily routines less frustrating.

    Roboticist Hans Moravec believes that by 2025, we will create humanoid robots that can express reasoning, emotion, and are eager to perform household tasks. These machines will prepare and serve meals, find and fetch things, express feelings of compassion and love, and become a strong home security force. We will quickly find them indispensable.

    Computer power is expected to match that of the brain by 2020, and surpass human intelligence by mid-2030s. Honda's Asimo can run, climb stairs, make conversation, and serve coffee. Japanese scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro recently unveiled an android that can appear male or female and old or young. Ishiguro developed the device for education and elder-care use.

    However, tomorrow's robots will be nothing like today's versions. The IBM-Swiss effort to simulate the human brain on a microchip, which they hope to complete by 2018, will enable developers to program human-like consciousness into machines.

    By 2020, 'bots will not only look human, they will also express emotions like love, anger, boredom, and happiness. Most people will treat these sophisticated creations like a family member.

    In fact, experts predict that by 2030, these intelligent human-like androids could become so much like us that turning one off without good reason might be considered a civil rights violation.

    By mid-2030s, when experts believe our silicon cousins will surpass human intelligence, some say they could reach a level of awareness where they wouldn't need us anymore. If we're lucky, naysayers argue, our creations will serve and adore us. If we're unlucky, they might consider humanity an impediment to their progress and exterminate us.

    Not to worry, though, says artificial intelligence expert J. Storrs Hall in his book, Beyond AI. As robots mature, technologies will be in place to interface our minds with these clever machines and share their wisdom. This will always keep us ahead in the race for superiority.

    During the 2020s, experts predict that robots will become the most valued family possession, even more important than the car. When we begin interfacing our brains with these powerful creatures in the 2030s, robots will become more like us, and by accessing their intelligence, we will become more like them. The line between humans and machines will become blurred.

    Some wonder where this technology will take us. Clearly, our journey winds around unknown, possibly even dangerous turns; but strong commercial support guarantees that we will one day experience what promises to be an amazing robot "magical future."

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.