Fig. 7
We need a large number of robots for all fields
of activity in order to save man's working time, to ensure the
variety of life and to allow man to spend time in cognitive and
creative activities. Much of the physical work performed by man
became easier owing to power engines. We say that man's intellectual
work and his command of information becomes easier with the aid
of electronic computers but we nevertheless overlook that so far
we have done nothing to reduce his robot-like quality. Even worse,
man's time is increasingly consumed in robot-like activities.
We may be unaware of this reality, or if we are aware of it, we
are tempted to regard these aspects as inherent to the time we
are living and consider that man's robotization is one of the
consequences of technology, information and economic development.
However, robots are not, nor could they be,
our enemies. Our true enemies are the robotless places, in which
we are forced to use men - the sole philosophical animals we know
and whom we use now more by virtue of their biological automaton
properties, thus deforming their being.
The criticism brought against industrialized,
technological or scientific societies is sometimes erroneously
focussing on several aspects, as as, for instance, technology,
management and organization. Once the stage of economic underdevelopment
is abolished, the unhappiness of the contemporary man springs
from his robot-like state, from his functioning as a biological
automaton subject to a more comprehensive automaton for the most
part of his available time. The philosophical compensation we
think of is ineffective if the time in the automaton involves
man entirely. That is why the economic development cannot by itself
warrant civilization and the philosophical future. The economic
development is not disentangled from the building of new robots
as intelligent instruments at the service of man. Against this
background, resting on science and technology, man could find
a required degree of freedom, according to the equilibrium of
his being which involves both action and work.
The robot appears to be an independent, intelligent
working item, similar to man during the working process. However,
man will have to be related to a diffuse information system covering
the whole society. The languages of the information system (which
are now specific and have to be learnt by man) are under continual
improvement so as to comply with man's natural ways of speech,
with his spoken or written language. Thus, the technological tendency
in the field of informatics is to adapt informatics to the man
of today as much as possible. To an idea expressed by man in the
natural language there may correspond a busy computation process
which may lead to important and intricate engine drives and machines,
vehicles, manufacturing units, a.s.o. In this way, man is trying
to dispense with involved computation processes (Fig. 8) which
he must nevertheless have envisaged during the joint work of a
team of programmers on a system to ensure the computation process.
It is however possible that the systems ensuring the detailed
computation processes for man should be themselves automatically
designed. Automated design and automated device of automata are
no doubt topical issues. The human mind may thus dispense with
detailed computation processes.
Fig. 8
However, this does not mean that man will
not use logic or mathematics. It only means that he will deal
with activities other than detailed computation. The electronic
computer and informatics provide an extension to the analytical,
computing man, and inspire other mental abilities in him: creativeness,
intuition, an over-all grasp of reality, insight into his self-awareness
phenomena, a higher spiritual activity and higher standards of
civilization. Technology can indeed back the spiritual evolution
of mankind.
The technological underlayer in the history
of mankind cannot be underrated. The change of the human society
during the pre-historical age from the hunting economy to the
agricultural and animal-taming economy is the result of man's
technological gains. The subsequent technological changes from
the Stone Age to the Bronze and Iron Ages gave a new impetus to
the production capabilities of society. Work is indeed the source
of society's welfare, particularly if it is assisted by appropriate
technology. However, society would have reached satiety in defect
of new technologies which could only derive from exertions towards
technological innovation. Like innovating processes have always
been at play during the history of the human society. In the train
of technology came science, which gave an unprecedented impetus
to technology in the contemporary revolution in science and technique.
Advanced technology can both resuscitate the
philosophical man and allow him to have time for work, leisure,
and cogitation and philosophy.
History, Philosophical Futureand Science
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