The robot above is known as Robonaut2 and after 15 years in the making is the first humanoid to be sent into space. Unlike many other robots that have been sent into space that are designed to move large objects, Robonaut2 was designed specifically for dexterity in order to work alongside astronauts inside the International Space Station (ISS) . Much like the DARPA Grand Challenge that is attempting to replace human soldiers from the battle field, this project seeks to replace astronauts with “Robonauts” in high-risk space missions.
Being an Aerospace Engineer, seeing and hearing about technological advancements like this really excites me. We would no longer have to jeopardize the lives of astronauts nor cause any type of suffering to the lives of the astronauts’ loved ones if their lives were to be lost.
But even with all the nice things that this very complex technology allows us to have it does give rise to some unintended consequences. It is technologies such as this one that perpetuate the idea that machines should do all of the work for us. Although this machine, in particular, would not replace the vast majority of people (because astronauts constitute for only a very minute fraction of the entire population) it does further instill this notion into the minds of people. And because the works of NASA are very popular among the people in our society and also very revered, the process of instilling this notion into the minds of people becomes even easier.
But what exactly are these “unintended consequences”? For one thing, technologies such as Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) navigating systems make it so easy for people to drive around without getting lost (if the damn thing is working properly). This makes it easy for people not to force their minds to think where they are at and effectively lose their sense of direction and their navigation skills. Word Processors are another example of how a technology makes it very easy for our brains not to force themselves to spell correctly and thus this skill (of being a good speller) is also becoming extinct like the “good sense of direction” skill. Much like Vannevar Bush’s memex that was supposed to be an extension of human memory, computers nowadays also make it easy for our brain not to force itself to memorize things. Thus, our skills for memorization are being reduced by computers. And there are many, many more examples.
Now, much like the Boiled-Frog syndrome, this over-dependency on technologies is a significant problem that is occurring very gradually. Many skills that exist today might become extinct in the future.
