Robotic machines are now an everyday part of our lives. Things such as computers, cars and even baseball softball pitching machines are utilized to help us in our day -to -day life. It’s quite simple to stand inside a batting cage and face a round of balls that appear to be the same to those pitched by a real human. What kind of ethical questions do such creations bring out? Is it okay to be so reliant on machines? My worry is not with machines taking over our lives in any scary movie sense, I don’t expect batting cages to come to life and try to destroy us all, but our dependence on machines to do the work that was completed by humans less than a hundred years ago marks a rapid change in the way we live our lives. This change is worth pondering.
Obviously, with the inception of the internet, our whole way of thinking has been altered. It’s hard to consider what it would have been like for Native Canadians, for example, or even Europeans who lived in a country setting. These people would have seen around only a few hundred faces in their lifetime, while we may interact with that many humans within the course of just a year, and the number of faces we see can barely be counted.
While the changes may seem insignificant, it has to be acknowledged that such a way of living will have effects on our brains themselves. It’s been discovered that the brain is physically altered by the sensations and experiences it receives, so to say what we view changes our brain is in no way an exaggeration.
Has the growing use of machines had a positive effect on our lives? If we consider this in terms of convenience and surface happiness, there’s no question that it has. It has not been easier to have food and diversions delivered to our house within minutes of our desire to have them. But this, of course, is only true for those in wealthy situations within developed countries. In order to exist like this, there are others in poorer countries who must do the task of making the shoes, joining the machines and packing the boxes. It goes without saying that most of these workers will be unfairly paid for their work, as those in the developed countries would be unwilling to pay a larger price for things which we feel are our right.
Along with the violation of other humans is the violation of non-human life. The way we act towards nature appears to be a near abusive relationship, with humans simply taking what they can see around them and claiming it to be his own.
Undoubtedly, such a destructive relationship with the world surrounding us has begun to have seriously damaging effects on the way we’re able to live our own lives of comfort. When the natural world and machine come into conflict, it is nature that humans will need more in order to continue their survival. One would wish that we are able to see this reality before it’s too late.