A few days back I read in a national newspaper that robots—with flawless precision—have increasingly started replacing human work-force around the globe—which forced me to revisit the same–old debate, are robots (or machines) superior to most unique (supreme) creation of God on this planet. Or, in other words, are we about to lose our supremacy in the near future?
No doubt, robots are exact replicas of human beings, in fact what we can take whole day or even months to complete, like doing a calculation or building an infrastructure may be completed by non-stop working robots in a fraction of time taken by us. So, to some extent we can say that robots can replace human beings in work place. However, this is not all true.
What makes us unique is not our capacity to talk, walk, run or even sing but our ability to choose between the good and bad, to indulge into intricate thinking and to make a decision with utmost clarity and precision. Robots, on the other hand, are simply man-made machines with no or very little power to indulge into intricate thinking.
The following cute little story would aptly reflect on our superiority: An employer asked his newly appointed staff, a robot, to visit the market. As the robot got ready and had just stepped out of the office, he was stopped from behind by his employer who enquired as to where was he going. “I am going to market, sir”, the robot made his point vocally. “Agreed that you are going to market, but what would you do going there?” the employer enquired in discontentment. “Yes sir, you did not tell me what I would do there”, the robot concluded realizing his mistake of moving without a purpose. This made the employer realize that robots are in no way a guaranteed replacement of a human brain.
Another acknowledgement of the potential of human brain is that it can feel and make out the meaning of instructions used/given in a context, thus making it clear that he is blessed with creative faculties that are beyond the realm of any other living or non-living creature existing on this planet.
But to continue this supremacy man must not forget or get slow, as he often do being in his comfort zone, in exercising his creative faculties. Let not become robotic in our approaches and behave in a non desirable or pre-programmed way. All that is required on our part is our continuous acknowledgement and effort to make the best possible use of our brains, and then the question that will robots ever be able to overtake our supremacy, will itself lose its very existence!
THE END
© Anchit Barnwal
