MODULE 8
WHEN HUMANITY AND TECHNOLOGY CROSS
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Describe the different technological advancement in Philippine
society
2. Discuss the development of science and technology in the Philippines
3. Reflect on how artificial intelligence and robotics influence the ways
we live nowadays
Today, technology saturates our lives. Throughout human history,
many creative people have made possible an incredible array of technological
advances – from chemicals and medicines, to machines and tools that make
our lives more interesting, convenient, and healthy. Think of how immensely
different our lives are today compared with our earliest ancestors. Consider
their scientific knowledge, medical care, household conveniences, modes of
transportation, sources of energy, forms of entertainment, and methods of
growing, harvesting, storing, p processing, and distributing food. Not many of
us would want to live the way our ancestors did 2000, 200, or even 2 years
ago. At the same time, our ancestors did not have to worry about many of the
vast problems that concern us today.
Technology has given us the ability to live longer, healthier, easier,
and more enjoyable lives, but it has also created new perils that our ancestors
could hardly fathom. For instance, many thousands of chemicals created by
humans are circulating in our world today that did not exist in ancient times.
Today, they are practically inescapable in our air, water, soil, and bodies.
Many of them are known to cause harm to, or even kill, living organisms
including humans. Many others are suspected of insidiously threatening us
and the environment over the long-term, often in ways still largely unknown to
scientists and the general public.
Technology has also managed to harness enormous amounts of
energy to power our lifestyles, providing us with transportation, heating, and
power. But this energy comes at a great cost, producing such calamities as:
oil spills, landscapes devastated by resource extraction, foul-smelling smog in
our cities, or free-flowing rivers clogged by dams. In learning how to capture
the formidable energy inside the atomic nucleus, we have also created great
quantities of dangerous nuclear waste that we still have no proper form of
disposal. This same technology has the means – for the first time in human
history – of destroying our species and the planet itself. Our ancestors never
had to worry about such perils.
Now, it is clear that our thirst for energy is even changing the climate of
the planet. Specifically, the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) is
raising the Earth’s global temperature and creating a host of associated
problems, ranging from prolonged droughts in the Southwestern United States
to melting glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctic and rising sea levels worldwide.
In recent years, we have begun to suspect that we are confronting yet
another new technological risk, namely the impact that electronics are having
on our lives. Some have become concerned that the huge amounts of time
people (especially children) are spending in front of computer, television,
video, and phone screens are having unintended consequences: the removal
of people from nature and the natural world, the reduction of time youth spend
interacting with each other and engaging in free play, and even the physical
alteration of our brains.8 We are, in effect, carrying out a gigantic, inadvertent
experiment on ourselves. It remains to be seen what the full effect of modern
electronics will be on our society, environment, and physical and mental
health.
Technological Advancements in the Philippines
Many Filipino people especially the younger ones know what is the
effect of modern technology. However, not all Filipino people have known
about the effect and advantage of modern technology because most older
Filipino especially who live in the province still use the old technology that
they using. They don’t change easily about what are the advanced technology
is in here in the City.
Sometimes technology change people like, appearance, health, work,
education, and especially the attitude of people. Modern technology has a big
part of the life of people it helps to improve the way of living of each and every
one of us. It has a big influence on people because of the advanced
technology in it.
Modern technology is now one of the most things that every people want to
use or have when it comes to gadgets. People who use modern gadgets
always want the new and advance technology.
Before the use of technology is not that much in demand but now most
people have gadgets even the kids one. They now use that technology for
their everyday life and the means of communication.
Modern technology is the best thing that can help people to lessen their
time to anything that they can do. Like example for cooking, before especially
in the province they use wood fire for cooking, only a few Filipino people have
a gas stove when cooking. But nowadays almost all Filipino people use a gas
stove and electric stove. Now in this modern days, there are a lot of cooking
appliances. There are oven toaster, microwave oven, heavy-duty electric
range, heavy duty gas range, hot plates, high-speed oven, electric kettle, and
much more.
For transportation Filipino people before usually use a tricycle, horse
carriages (kalesa), old bus, and jeepney. But now there are a lots of modern
public transportation we can use for us to be more comfortable when traveling
like taxi, LRT train, MRT train, FX, UV Express, Buses air con and not air con
you can choose, and still the jeepney who are the cheapest means of
transportation and one of the most popular public transportation in the
Philippines.
However, the newest and most modern means of transportation now in
the Philippines is GRAB and UBER. These two public transportation must
require an android cell phone with internet so that people can be a part of it.
This kind of transportation is the advance information technology that most
Filipino people use especially who live in Metro Manila. It is very safe,
comfortable and efficient but a little bit expensive compared to other public
transportation. Because they use car who is a new one and most drivers are
the owner of the car.
In this modern day of living in the City, the use of technology is very
important and you can see all people using the advanced technology. Before
we only wash clothes through the hands but now using modern technology
like washing machine you can wash clothes even if you do another thing.
In communication terms, the advanced technology is very in-demand
most of it very useful. We can talk and see our family who leaves in abroad by
using video call in every time we want. It is one of the most useful and most
popular kinds of technology that everyone uses. By the use of this kind of
technology our communication become a necessity and become part of our
daily life. We can use mobile phones through texting, call, pictures, and video.
It can also use through emails, faxes, chats and for social media.
Communication through business is also most needed. We can do
business through emails, talking to those supplies or business associate
through video call, using a digital network for the weather updates, and using
social media interaction by Facebook, Twitter, Email, and other Google
accounts. You can order so many things using a computer with the internet of
course.
However when it comes to medical technology there also big changes
it becomes more advanced. It becomes more advanced in terms of
pharmaceutical and medical field. There’s a lot of new invention and treatment
for the different kinds of disease and cancer types. We all know that this kind
of treatment may help those people who suffer from illness without pain.
Medical technology also helps people appearance, they can change someone
to become better and look better.
Modern technology also best use in education. It is very easy now to
study because everything is in the Library App. In just one click you can
choose whatever you want to research about your school assignments. You
don’t need to go outside to go to store to buy books for your research.
Technology for today can use in teaching and learning. There are new model
or ways in teaching with the use of modern technology. Some young people
that can not go to school in a regular basis can enroll in online learning or
online program. In this modern days the technology we use can help us to
improve our education more easy and efficient. Even in correcting grammar or
spelling is one click away to know it you don’t need to open a book to search
what you want to its a waste of time. Now it easy, fast, and you can save
more time in learning.
Of Robots and Humans
We live in a time when robots clean our houses, drive our vehicles,
disable bombs, provide prosthetic limbs, support surgical procedures,
manufacture products, entertain, teach and surprise us. Just as smartphones
and social media are offering a connectivity beyond anything we imagined,
robots are beginning to offer physical capabilities and artificial intelligence
(AI), cognitive abilities beyond our expectations. Together, these technologies
could be harnessed to help solve important challenges, such as ageing
societies, environmental threats and global conflict.
What will a day in our lives look like, in this not-so-distant future?
Science fiction has explored these possibilities for centuries. Our lives will
likely be longer: with synthetic organs to replace defective parts of our bodies,
nano sized medical interventions allowing the precise targeting of diseases
and genetics, and autonomous vehicles reducing fatalities in traffic. Our jobs
will change dramatically. Certain jobs will not exist anymore and new jobs will
emerge – in the development of robot service apps, for instance, that could
run on available robot platforms in our homes. The way we are educated will
also change radically – our senses and brains may be artificially enhanced,
and our ability to reflect on new insights gained from the automated analysis
of vast amounts of data will require a different treatment of information in
schools.
But how will we relate to each other in a civilization that includes robots? In
what way will we meet each other, have relationships and raise our children?
To what extent will robots and humans merge?
Many of us wonder whether AI will become so intelligent and capable
in human communication that the boundaries between human and artificial
beings will blur. If it is possible to communicate in a natural way and build a
meaningful interaction over time with an artificial agent, will there still be a
divide in the relationships we have with people and technology? Also, once
our human bodies and minds are enhanced with AI and robotics, what will it
mean to be “human”?
Smart Tricks
From an engineering perspective, these advanced capabilities are still
very far away. A number of hurdles need to be overcome. For now, robots
and computers are completely dependent on a power source – they require a
lot of electricity, and this complicates integrating robotic elements with human
organic tissue. Another hurdle is the intricacy of human communication. While
a one-off natural language conversation in a specific context with a robot can
feel realistic, engaging people verbally and non-verbally over many
conversations and contexts is quite another matter.
For example, when you call an artificial lost-and-found agent at an
airport, a satisfying conversation is possible because there are only a limited
number of goals the caller has. However, in creating a more extended
relationship, for example, with a robotic pet, a much more complicated model
must be developed. The robot needs to have internal goals, an extensive
memory that relates experiences to various contexts, and it needs to develop
these capabilities over time.
Through smart “tricks”, a robot can seem more intelligent and capable
than it is – by introducing random behaviors which make the robotic pet
interesting for longer, for instance. Humans have the tendency to “make
sense” of the robot’s behaviour in a human way (we do this with animals too).
However, in order to sustain a meaningful relationship which deepens and
evolves over time, an extensive artificial inner life will need to be created.
How Machines Learn
A major hurdle in creating this rich artificial inner life is the way
machines learn. Machine learning is example-based. We feed the computer
examples of the phenomenon we want it to understand – for instance, when
people feel comfortable. In teaching a machine to recognize this, data of
people being comfortable is provided – this could be in the form of images,
videos, their speech, heartbeat, social media entries, etc. When we feed
videos to a computer, these are labelled with information on whether the
people in it are comfortable or not – this may be done by experts in
psychology, or in the local culture.
The computer uses machine learning to “reason” from these labeled
videos to identify important features that correlate with feeling comfortable.
This could be the body pose of a person, the pitch of their voice, etc.
Once the machine has identified the features predicting “comfort”, the
resulting algorithm can be trained and improved, using different sets of
videos. Eventually, the algorithm is robust and a computer with a camera can
recognize how people feel with high, if not 100 per cent, accuracy.
Towards A Complex Synthetic Profile
In order to develop an artificial agent that can have a sustained
relationship, over a long period of time, with a person, we need the agent to
have a compelling personality and behaviour, understand the person, the
situation in which they are both in, and the history of their communication.
More importantly, the agent would have to keep the communication going
across a variety of topics and situations. It is possible to make a compelling
agent, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, that you can speak to in
natural language and have a meaningful interaction with, within the specific
context of its use – set the alarm clock, make a note, turn down the heating,
etc.
However, beyond that context of use, the communication quickly
breaks down. The agent will find acceptable responses for a large variety of
questions and comments, but will not be able to sustain an hour-long
discussion about a complex issue. For instance, when parents discuss how
to respond to their child not working hard at school, the conversation is very
rich – they bring to it their understanding of the child, and their own
personalities, emotions, history, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds,
psychology, genetic make-up, behavioral habits and understanding of the
world.
In order for an artificial agent to take on such a meaningful social role
and develop a real relationship with a person, it would need to have a
synthetic psychological, cultural, social and emotional profile. Also, the agent
would need to learn over time how it “feels” and respond to situations in
relation to this synthetic internal make-up.
This requires a fundamentally different approach to current machine
learning. An artificially intelligent system that develops much like how the
human brain develops, and that can internalize the richness of human
experiences, is needed. The intricate ways people communicate with each
other and understand the world is an unimaginably complex process to
synthesize. The envisioned and currently available models of AI are inspired
by the human brain or have elements of how the brain works, but are not yet
plausible models of the human brain.
We already see AI achieving amazing feats – like reading the entire
internet, winning at Go, the ancient Chinese board game, or running a fully
automated factory. However, just like the English physicist Stephen Hawking
(1942-2018) said he had only scratched the surface of understanding the
universe, we are still merely scratching the surface of understanding human
intelligence.
It Won’t Happen Tomorrow
Robots and artificially intelligent systems will be able to offer us unique
abilities to support and enhance our decision-making, understanding of
situations and ways to act. Robots will be able to contribute to or
autonomously carry out labour. Perhaps robotics will be fully physically
integrated in our human bodies once a number of challenges are overcome.
Also, we will relate to artificial agents as we do to humans – by
communicating with them in natural language, observing their behaviour and
understanding their intentions. However, in order to sustain a meaningful
relationship with conversations and rituals, which deepen and evolve over
time in the rich context of everyday life, as is the case between people, an
extensive artificial inner life will need to be created. As long as we replicate or
surpass certain functions of human intelligence rather than the holistic whole
of human intelligence placed in the rich context of our everyday lives, it is
unlikely that artificial agents and people can be totally integrated.
Robots in Protecting Environment
1. Robots Plant Trees
Climate change start ups tend to pick a specific element of
environmental harm and solve a problem for it. For Mark Stewart, CEO of
SkyGrow, it’s planting trees. He developed his company to plant more trees
than we are cutting down — and not just in remote forests like the Amazon.
The team at SkyGrow developed the Growbot, an unmanned vehicle that
plants trees 10 times faster than a human can, at about half the cost.
Growbot plants established trees instead of seeds, because
established trees have a greater chance of succeeding in their new location.
Stewart and his team plan to manufacture 4,500 Growbots, helping forests
recover everywhere.
2. Robots Help Farmers Survive Droughts
As our climate continues to change, it affects our food sources. This is
particularly true in poorer countries and rural areas that can’t easily import
food from other regions. Using AI sensors and monitors, robots can track the
growth of plants and learn which species survive and thrive in harsh
conditions. With the help of this data analysis, farmers can choose plants that
have a greater chance of success, saving their income while they feed the
people around them.
3. Robots Can Grow Like Plants
Researchers at The Plantoid Project are working to recreate the
behavior and functions of plants to study the natural environment.
They have realized the best way to study the environment is to use the same
methods plants use to filter air, water, and other chemicals that they’re
exposed to. The robot plant they have developed even has a mini 3D printer
that helps the roots “grow,” allowing researchers to explore the soil that plants
are exposed to.
4. Humanoid Robots Dive to the Bottom of the Ocean
The team at Evolving Science recently profiled Ocean One, a
humanoid robot developed by the Stanford Robotics Lab to explore the
ocean and collect samples as effectively as a diver.
Ocean One was originally developed to monitor deep coral reefs in the
Red Sea. These corals are essential for a healthy ocean, but live far beyond
human range. Researchers needed a robot that could collect samples without
damaging the reef and observe deep-sea specimens in their natural habitat.
Ocean One mimics a human SCUBA diver, complete with arms, depth
perception, and touch feedback, plus it can survive significant depths. Since
exploring the Red Sea, the robot has traveled across the world, helping us
learn about the ocean without disrupting it.
5. Swarm Robots Collect Data
Interestingly, not all underwater robots are humanoid, or even human-
sized. Aquabotixis a technology development company that creates vehicles
for underwater inspection. It specializes in swarm robots, or multiple small
robots that can be controlled by one operator. As a whole, there are multiple
benefits to swarm robot submersibles. Swarm robots cover more territory than
one robot can. If there is damage to individual units, the entire research plan
isn’t affected.It’s more affordable to deploy a dozen swarm bots than one
main robot platform. In the field of marine biology, swarm robots can collect
more data and more diverse data than a single robot (or even a varied team
of researchers) could. This makes the data more reliable and helps scientists
learn more about the ocean and how to protect it.
6. Robots Harvest Wave and Solar Energy
If we’re going to fight climate change, then we will need to reduce our
dependence on fossil fuels like oil. Developers are turning to robots to help
collect energy sustainably and use it across industries and environments.
A great example is the Wave Glider by Liquid Robotics. It looks like a
surfboard and has built-in solar panels, collecting solar energy as it moves
along the ocean surface. It uses the stored energy for propulsion and to
recharge the batteries needed for its sensors.
Wave Glider’s applications include collecting high-resolution carbon dioxide
samples in difficult locations for a complete picture of global climate change.
7. Robots Eat Water Pollution
The Permaculture Research Institute in Australia recently covered the
development of a “Row-bot” developed by the University of Bristol that digests
pollution in the water and turns it into energy. The robot swims around,
ingesting microbes which then power the boat’s motor. It’s really no different
than a whale shark filter feeding krill and using that food energy to travel
around the ocean.
According to Jonathan Rossiter, who hosted a TED talk about these
robots, this technology could help reduce the impact of tankers that flush their
oil tanks into the sea and of chemicals that are washed into rivers and wind up
in the oceans.
8. Robots Kill Invasive Species
Sometimes protecting the environment means hunting invasive species
that take over and harm endangered plants and animals. One example of this
is the Crown-of-Thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. These
coral-eating starfish can kill off large swaths of reef, destroying the homes of
thousands of delicate species. Experts say this starfish is a threat equal to
climate change to the reef.The team at BiopixelTV recently shared a solution
to these pests: the RangerBot. This robot finds and kills the starfish with an
eco-friendly injection, preventing the starfish from doing further damage. The
results are staggering. Six human divers could only cover half of the reef in a
year, but six RangerBots can cover the reef 14 times over the same period.
RangerBots also cost half the price of a human expedition, operate day and
night, and can collect other measurements like temperature and salinity while
they work.
9. Robots Also Pick Up River Trash
Pollution comes in all forms, from oils and other chemicals to plastic
bags and straws. One company, Urban Rivers, developed a trash robot for
the Chicago River. It floats along collecting garbage to keep the waterway
clean.
The robot came to be after Urban Rivers installed 1,500 square feet of floating
wetland and urban garden. They noticed trash kept getting caught in the
plants and sent someone out each day to pick it up. The team realized the
trash was only going to build, and started developing a robot to help them
clean up the waterways. This robot keeps the plants trash-free and prevents
animals from accidentally ingesting the waste.
10. Robots Make Recycling Easier
As more people recycle, there is added pressure on humans to sort the
materials and determine what can be reused. This is highly manual work, with
people hunched over conveyor belts grabbing items as fast as they can.
AMP Robotics hopes to make recycling easier. Its robots use AI to “see” items
on a conveyor belt and record what they are. The robot can then sort the
materials and place them into designated bins.
This solution increases efficiency with higher throughput and better bale
quality. It also allows users, whether cities or construction companies, to
budget more accurately with fixed labor rates.
11. Robots Climb Into the Sewers
Our sewer systems have a massive impact on climate change,
especially when you consider what and where we dump our waste. They can
also impact public health.
Tech writer Luke Dormehl at Digital Trends showcases Luigi, a sewer robot
developed by MIT’s Underworlds project is operated with an iPhone app, the
robot studies bacteria and chemicals in manholes. It is the first of a team of
future sewer samplers that will collect and analyze raw sewage and send the
data back to the lab. The robots, using sampling instruments that upload data
remotely (and with plans for a real-time biochemical detection platform in the
works) will be able to collect more samples much faster than their human
counterparts, who were limited to manually hauling liters of muck at a time
back to the lab.
12. Robots Reduce Carbon Emissions
Senior environment reporter Emily Guerin at KPCC Southern California
Public Radiorecently discussed the rise of automated equipment in the Port of
Long Beach. While it is adversely affecting union workers there, the impact on
climate change is good.This is because the new equipment releases no
emissions and greatly reduces the pollution-causing tools and trucks needed
to operate the port. Guerin explains that heavy duty diesel trucks are
responsible for 150 tons of smog emissions per day (compared to 80 tons for
cars and SUVs). If automation can reduce this number, the air in Southern
California has a chance of clearing up.
13. Robots Reduce Personal Transportation Emissions
Transportation has a significant impact on climate change and carbon
emissions. Alexandra Gray at World Economic Forum reports that 23 percent
of global energy-related CO2 emissions are caused by transportation.
Today’s innovators are not only developing electric cars, but also better
batteries that reduce the environmental impact of all vehicles. In fact,
researchers at the University of Surrey are developing an alternative to
traditional battery power that is 1,000-10,000 times stronger than that used
today, allowing electric cars to travel similar distances to those that use gas
and to recharge in the time it takes to fill up the tank.
14. Robots Send Environmental Alerts on Social Media
Robots alone can’t save the planet. These robots need humans who
want to protect the natural environment and the plants and animals that live in
it. The developers at Climate Reality recently wrote a “Rapid Response
Team” program which sends messages to their Facebook fans whenever
there is news related to the fight against climate change. Fans can opt in and
then take action based on the message. This might mean calling their local
representatives or donating to a cause to help clean up after a disaster.
Thousands of people can come together with the help of a bot coded on
Facebook sending out alerts.
