Self Replicating Robots And The Developing World.

Last month, I wrote a brief entry on Robot Life, which I had gotten to courtesy of Saheli's entry on Robots Building More Robots. The news, of course, was self replicating robots. Today, CNN has a different story along the same lines, which I got courtesy of an email from Willy Smith.

'The machine that can copy anything' is an interesting article along the same lines, based on the RepRap Project -

The project described in these pages is working towards creating a universal constructor by using rapid prototyping, and then giving the results away free under the GNU General Public Licence to allow other investigators to work on the same idea. We are trying to prove the hypothesis: Rapid prototyping and direct writing technologies are sufficiently versatile to allow them to be used to make a von Neumann Universal Constructor.

While this is obviously something very interesting for commercial entities, it is also somewhat interesting in the perspective of developing nations. Why? Well, because they can adopt it and use it without licensing fees. But what use are self-replicating robots?

Robots In The Developing World

Manufacturing of objects - be they computer hardware or automobiles - is largely done by robots, presently. Though there has been a lot spoken of sweatshops, and McJobs, robots are actually doing a lot of work right now. In fact, you may well be using a device to read this that was at least partially built by robots.

After the initial cost of the robots is recouped in a business, prices can lower on products and the same amount can be made at a lower recurring cost - up to the point of maintaining the robots. But displacing workers is also a problem as well - and where some things remain proudly hand-made (human-made), the items most people use are not because of simple economics: They are cheaper.

So it becomes an issue of society when people are replaced by robots - machines that don't require sick days, that don't have months off for having a child (maternity and paternity leave), they don't need lunch or bathroom breaks - and the cost of maintenance may well be lower than insurance and malpractice bloated medical costs. So what do the displaced people do?

It's not a new problem. The 'developed' world has already been through the initial stages of this, and people simply have to find new jobs which are less repetitive and mindless. This, of course, means that the displaced will have to use their minds - and that, in and of itself, can mean breaking the conditioning of generations of culture which reinforced the 'mindless, repetitive task'.

Suddenly, even as we are defining what a robot should or should not do within the context of society - what we are really defining is what a human should or should not do in the context of society. Elevating the status of circuit-solderers, garbage collectors and shoe stitchers is an idealistic task (and one I agree with), but what becomes of them? What are they qualified to do? This pushes a lot of people, for better or worse, into customer service where no robot dare tread yet.

The answer is fairly clear: The people making money off of lower prices through use of robots (automation) should probably invest some of the profits into the education of the people who will be displaced. Of course, this increases the cost of the initial investment into robotics - and a substantial increase in cost of initial investment is often the excuse given by companies and even countries for not implementing things such as use of solar energy.

Cost will be a hurdle, but more importantly a culture of short term yield with no long term plans is the real issue. Especially in a situation where the robots must be manufactured elsewhere.

Also, bear in mind that the issue of social robots hasn't been addressed.

The Universal Constructor And The Developing World

A Universal Constructor, or Clanking Replicator, or Von Neumann machine is basically a device which can self reproduce. While we're still working out the details of human reproduction (at best, the average person has a working knowledge) we're beginning to create machines that can build new machines like themselves. Isaac Asimov would be proud, and while we think that we're on the dawn of a new era the truth is that computer software has been doing it for quite a while. But where computer software is intangible to many (like software writing software or computer software, using hardware, copying computer software) the creation of machines that we can touch and feel makes this somehow more real to the masses. Even as genetic engineering is seeing challenge, it's apparent that there will be some upheaval with the advent of machines creating themselves.

Yet there are benefits. Lower manufacturing costs means not only servicing local markets better, it also means competing with the 'developed' world on even footing. The fact that the General Public License is being used on the RepRap may not be of interest to the casual observer - but consider that a machine that can be produced without licensing legality as far as design can produce machines such as the Simputer which can run Open Source software which can use Open Content... suddenly, the 'developing' world is on even footing with everyone else on the globe, where they can compete based on merit. Utopian? Perhaps. But if you're not working toward some form of Utopia, what are you working toward anyway? The status quo? How noble...

The implications of self replicating robots need to be thought of in such a context - there will be real problems associated with the use of them. This is an opportunity for the nations of the world without technological advantage to come closer to being equal in potential for creating not only what they need, but also what others need. That there will be problems is a given, but the nature of the problems are already known from the experiences of the Industrial Revolution and the last 5 decades in the more technologically advanced nations.

How could this not be an important issue? It certainly is an interesting one, and perhaps a fruitful one.

Update, 10:00 p.m.: RepRap Wikipedia entry done. Looks like I'll take ownership of this in the Wikipedia.