Marynel Vázquez – Hard parts
Robots and the future?
I would like to collect opinions about robots in the future (what they will be doing and what they should do). I decided to try Amazon Mechanical Turk, and started paying little cents for people to give ideas about robots.
I had to use different strategies to get responses from people. I started with a very descriptive task with more than 20 lines of descriptions and examples about how to complete it. The task consisted in completing 6 sentences: “In X years, some robots will …”; and “In X years, robots should …” with X = {10,20,30}. Not many people filled the survey, and so I had the impression that too much description at the beginning of a task might make people think it’s too hard and not worth the effort. I simplified my description over time, and changed how much I was paying many times. At some point seemed like paying too much was also counterproductive, as people started thinking that they had to do more than simply filling the short sentences. After several trials, I concluded that paying $0.03 for the 6 sentences was the more effective strategy.
There is always the possibility that people will cheat in MTurk. To try to reduce the amount of rejected tasks I was getting with my 3 cents, I decided to change the task to rather write two 30-words paragraphs about about what robots will and should do. I started paying 6 cents for the paragraphs without much luck; not many people was completing the task. I raised the incentive to $0.11, but just a few people reacted to the new price.
My last test consisted in asking about “robotics” instead of “robots”, as suggested by a few people in the class. During the past data collection, I realized that too many people was thinking about robots killing us, controlling us, etc.. and wanted to see if I could get some more diverse set of answers. I got just a few responses this time as well.
The unprocessed list of valid ideas I got about robots is presented at the end of this post. Probably I ended up getting ~600 different ideas, though I still need to count the repetitions. I would like to be able to visualize the data in different formats (year, will/should, topic, agreement), so I started clustering the ideas by topic or by a single word description. Also, as soon as I organize a little better the data, I want to ask people to judge the ideas. Meaning, say how much you agree that robots will be doing this or that robots should be doing this other thing.
I would like to collect drawings about robots capable of doing what the people described. For this task I plan to ask people to draw by hand, take a picture, and upload it to MTurk. I expect price calibration to be an issue again :S
Finally, here’s the list of ideas (each sentence either starts with “In X years, some robots will…” or “In X years, robots should…”, but this is omitted to simplify the reading of the post),
| build houses |
| go on space missions |
| do housework |
| make dinner |
| fly planes |
| act as a personal assistant |
| be independent beings who can make decisions and act as citizens of the world |
| be able to express some sort of feeling |
| be free-thinking and helpful beings |
| be able to take on any physical job that is needed by the workforce |
| have feelings |
| take over jobs that are usually about manual labor |
| ruin a country |
| do the biological things |
| be appearing in all stages of life |
| control all man made activity |
| enter politics |
| do all things that a computer programmer can do |
| help rule the world |
| mingle in our life |
| conquer the world |
| work in most of the industries |
| start to work in governmental organizations |
| start to think like humans |
| have households of their own |
| be involved in the government |
| be driving |
| be able to fly people around |
| cook for families |
| be in all households |
| be competent enough to challenge humans |
| be independent thinkers faciliitating all aspects of humans life |
| try to overcome humans |
| bring complete change in travel and tourism |
| be at par with humans |
| be a part of our daily life |
| be able to communicate without humans knowing they are robots |
| be everywhere |
| be able to bake |
| do all the housework |
| complete complex original tasks |
| be able to navigate across a room without stepping on pets |
| be more advance than we could ever imagine |
| be destroyed |
| begin to have artificial intelligence |
| be slightly feared |
| take over the world |
| be a part of every day life |
| be so commonplace to humans that they do not give them a second thought, such as the way we look at automobiles today |
| become commonplace in medical treatment |
| serve as police and soldiers to perform dangerous tasks |
| be able to help human beings in daily life activities |
| perform surgeries without the aid of human control |
| drive our cars without need for human control |
| be roaming this earth |
| be able to extraordinary things to protect humans from danger |
| not exist because people won’t trust them |
| be able to be of good service for the world (should only be used for wars or other necessary actions of protection) |
| more advanced |
| only be invented if they are strictly used to fight in wars (this is the only use for something that can potentially be harmful) |
| be serving many of our needs |
| provide both services and companionship, and health and medical needs |
| become more integrated into our daily lives |
| be able to read our gestures and anticipate what we want |
| be fully integrated into our lives |
| be nearly invisible, part of the background, like a microwave or a couch |
| be designed to make sure they are not harmful to humans |
| be a common sight in everyone’s home |
| have taken over human kind |
| have advanced dramatically in capabilities from today |
| be used for hard labor jobs and tasks |
| be able to adequately serve human beings |
| be used for doing certain works for which humans take a lot of time |
| be used to earn money |
| be used for major operations |
| be used as fighting machines |
| have emotions in them |
| be used for jobs like cooking, driving, gardening, etc. |
| be sent for space expeditions and they will actually be able to think like we, humans |
| be used as a means of social entertainment |
| overcome the huge problems |
| take most of the human brain |
| predict the needs of humans |
| believe in life |
| carry humans |
| follow the crowd |
| be in most households in some form or another (ex: smart vacuum cleaner) |
| be commonplace |
| be able to self improve/diagnose |
| be able to accomplish a lot more than we can imagine right now (technology is growing exponentially) |
| be rapidly taking jobs previously done by people, like self serve at the grocery store but large scale |
| know what we need before we even tell them. They will analyze, remember, and predict behavior |
| be equals to humans for the law |
| help humans with complex tasks |
| want to have rights |
| serve the humans for domestic tasks |
| be a common property |
| improve its human aspect |
| be professors |
| be watchman at night and also local police |
| be a doctor |
| be in anti terrorist forces |
| be friends with people |
| be in the military |
| take rest in their depressed mode |
| be thoughtful like wise people |
| become famous for their outstanding contribution |
| think as human beings can |
| take part in scientific researches |
| be able to do our household activities |
| help human beings |
| be equal to humans |
| dominate human beings |
| rock |
| occupy the whole world |
| do all work without following human instructions |
| have baby robots |
| be assistants |
| work like most managers |
| work in companies |
| replace some humans |
| be more like humans |
| be already spread as commercial goods |
| be helpful to men |
| rule the world |
| think and analyze |
| talk |
| be able to do things independently |
| be able to reason out good and bad commands |
| be able to talk |
| be everywhere |
| be cheap enough for humans to purchase and use in their houses |
| be doing all jobs that human can |
| be cheaper and more available |
| be doing house work in homes |
| be able to serve people at restaurants |
| be able to drive cars |
| be able to have conversations with people |
| replace 90% of the human workforce |
| no longer be considered our friends |
| attain consciousness |
| be more widely used than they are today |
| be used for running elevators in shopping malls |
| be free |
| be self aware |
| be able to think freely an have basic emotions |
| be nearly indistinguishable from humans |
| be able to understand many languages |
| be able to express emotion and feelings |
| be able to communicate with us |
| not do anything more advanced |
| do the dishes and put them away |
| help protect rich people from poor people |
| do the laundry and put it away |
| replace some doctors for poor people |
| replace some caregivers for disabled people |
| bring back the greenary |
| replace all fuel |
| be there to help humans from all natural calamity |
| learn how to grow trees |
| be functioning only on solar energy |
| be using sun screen lotions due to UV rays |
| be more or less human in many aspects, able to have real conversations and interactions and act very human |
| dress and mimic humans in many ways |
| be visible all over the country to the point of being normal and accepted as something to interact with |
| be babysitting our children and working as communicative maids and domestic help |
| be working in offices, doing clerical and customer service type of positions, thereby lessening the number of humans performing these functions |
| be able to do household chores for those who can afford one |
| take care of basic house work |
| be smaller than the eye can see |
| be able to think for themselves |
| be self aware |
| be able to anticipate the needs of their owners |
| be doing jobs that require learning and quick thinking |
| as a human.. |
| do autonomous work but it should not control the human |
| be in all hazardous applications |
| be like humans (we can’t identify humans from robots) |
| think as like a man automatically |
| do automatic work |
| destroy the entire world |
| be capable of going to space and work there by themselves |
| rule human |
| be capable of doing risky works in battle fields, atomic plants, etc. |
| overcome human beings in some field |
| work with man in every fields |
| still be our slaves |
| clean the environment |
| clean your house |
| fight wars |
| be able to act, think and learn on their own |
| be able to sort and fold your laundry |
| conduct a polling collections |
| destroy everything |
| increase workplace safety (workers are moved to supervisory roles, so they no longer have to perform dangerous applications in hazardous settings) |
| be God |
| rule the World |
| be masters and peoples should be slaves |
| rule the world |
| drive the cars |
| replace all the workers |
| engage in wars |
| drive the cars |
| start doing some menial office jobs |
| be personal tutors |
| have valuable places in industry and the military |
| wash dishes |
| have the ability to perform household tasks |
| take the place of infantry |
| have more tasks to perform in industry |
| behave like man |
| drive cars |
| be our parents |
| have their own brains |
| be our partners |
| be our friends |
| be able to speak exactly like humans |
| take over the planet so humans can watch TV all day |
| be able to speak with human voices |
| go to work instead of humans |
| be replacing humans in the work force |
| start driving cars |
| improve quality of life for humans |
| be able to take over the world |
| be able replace soldiers |
| be able to talk like a human |
| become a part of human life |
| do all the work of human beings |
| become more helpful to human beings |
| be the new generation or kingdom of human life |
| become the leaders of human beings |
| progress their growth |
| be ruling the humans |
| realize earth is going to be destroyed and go to the moon |
| be as intelligent as humans |
| be able to form a government |
| land on the moon |
| be able to do all mechanical tasks |
| save the human race |
| be more energy efficient |
| evolve into life and reproduce |
| become cheaper |
| do jobs a human will do, like be a receptionist |
| perform surgery |
| do some work in a factory |
| be equal to human in doing anything |
| assist us and help us in house keeping |
| share the work burden of humans |
| do a lot of work and drive a car or even a flight |
| be very much helpful to human |
| be on par with human intelligence |
| go thru gravity tests |
| learn how to fly airplanes |
| be sent to other planets for exploration |
| be on board in a space shuttle |
| fly an airplane |
| be considered very dangerous! |
| be able to be considered ‘companions’ |
| be virtually indistinguishable from humans |
| be able to provide emotional comfort |
| be able to adapt mentally and emotionally to a situation |
| feel human-like emotions |
| go to a different galaxy |
| go back to where they came from |
| be extremely successful on Earth |
| prepare to dominate the world |
| be renewed |
| die out |
| start doing cooking |
| dispense fuel at fuel stations |
| do the job of a chauffeur |
| be a car mechanic |
| be a gun man |
| start doing the job of a watch man |
| refill ATMs |
| wash cars |
| be a prestigious thing for humans like TVs in the olden days |
| start robots rights commission |
| start to blame human beings |
| start to create a robot language and speak accordingly |
| think like human beings and have the capacity to verify the thinks |
| be used for protection purposes |
| should be protected from their vigorous activities |
| should be reduced in number |
| start to control men |
| be controlled |
| kill other robots |
| create other robots for themselves |
| begin to do things like being your personal assistant |
| become more commonplace for routine chores |
| be available to people who are hugely wealthy and eccentric |
| be limited so they don’t infringe on our rights |
| be available to many different households |
| be making life somewhat easier but in limited ways |
| perform surgery |
| pick up garbage |
| drive cars |
| assist with medical procedures |
| clean house |
| do housework |
| reproduce without human interaction |
| take the place of stupid people |
| be smarter that Earthlings |
| have brains |
| rule the world |
| be readily available to do housework and chores |
| be able to do all kind of things |
| be strictly supervised |
| affect the society |
| work the same like us |
| be part of our life |
| be able to help the peoples |
| be more efficient than most people |
| be surpassing our expectations in most areas |
| be breaking new ground |
| be able to fly planes |
| be able to drive cars |
| be able to prepare meals |
| a common household item |
| able to be ordered off the internet |
| work better and cost less |
| be able to perform surgery in an operating room from a doctor’s office |
| be able to cut the grass |
| wake you up in the morning, make your coffee and make your bed |
| kill all humans |
| be able to *think* |
| be capable of performing various tasks reliably |
| program humans to work for them |
| be way more advanced than humans |
| work instead of humans |
| be doing more involved tasks such as driving our cars |
| look more human and blend into society |
| be able to assist with domestic chores |
| be more advanced and able to handle more tasks that minimum wage people would handle previously |
| take over simple tasks in society |
| be more evolved with better technology |
| be the leaders of the world |
| give advises to the rulers of the country |
| be the rulers of the country |
| acquire the ability to have emotional life |
| be the soldiers in the boarder areas of the country |
| be able to grasp human language |
| look like humans |
| perform like a person |
| takeover all forms of government and run them efficiently |
| become human companions |
| takeover humanity and create a peaceful world |
| take the place of humans in dangerous jobs |
| learn how to reproduce |
| be capable of performing surgery |
| be able to prepare food and drinks |
| move heavy items from different places |
| fix things that are broken |
| be able to clean a house without making a mess of their own |
| take the place of some actors in movies |
| be able to drive a car. |
| become more useful in our everyday lives |
| completely eliminate humans working as cashiers |
| be humanlike and in every home |
| make homeowner’s lives easier (they should be commonplace) |
| replace humans in many facets |
| be used within every home to complete various household tasks |
| start destroying nature |
| do social service for free |
| start killing |
| start planting trees |
| rule the world |
| help people |
| be carefully monitored by actual humans |
| be useful to professionals in many fields |
| perform surgeries |
| be intuitive |
| recognize human speech |
| be available for average people to purchase |
| drive cars for us |
| serve as our military |
| go food shopping for us |
| be able to have emotions and converse with humans perfectly |
| become common household items |
| serve as janitors |
| guide the world |
| decrease the amount of green house effect |
| participate in social affairs |
| heal the world |
| take part in several invention widely |
| be able to communicate |
| fully run our home automatically |
| be considered a higher life form |
| take over our working factories |
| be more highly advance an more intelligent |
| run the world more or less |
| be advanced for assistance in the medical field |
| be readily available to carry out care taking work in day care, elder care and other types of facilities |
| be widely used in businesses for routine tasks |
| be companions to handicapped and elderly people |
| be readily available at reasonable prices for individuals and families |
| be able to do routine mechanics, such as repairing automobiles and completing some home construction tasks |
| be able to complete simple household chores |
| overtake human beings |
| not allowed to be so |
| start thinking like human beings |
| be the competitive to the human beings |
| not be allowed to think, they should always obey human orders |
| replace the jobs of many construction workers |
| exist in the classrooms as assistant teachers |
| assist in more homes as housekeepers |
| environmentally friendly |
| exist in more homes |
| be voice activated |
| be building buildings and developing land |
| be working in airports as baggage handlers |
| be more innovative in completing aesthetic tasks, like cut the grass of homes and companies |
| be able analyze personalities |
| be commonplace in our lives |
| guide our interactions with others |
| be familiar to many people |
| be used to further medical research |
| be able to do things we have never imagined |
| damage someone |
| stop |
| entertain the world |
| create some problem |
| be the nuisance of the world |
| rule the world |
| be considered very dangerous! |
| be able to adapt physically and emotionally, just as humans do |
| be virtually indistinguishable from humans |
| be able to feel emotions and react accordingly |
| mimic human beings and possibly substitute as ‘companions’ |
| be kept as pets |
| perform chores |
| take on more complex tasks |
| smile |
| be dependable |
| be stewardesses/stewards |
| be friendly |
| have a place in society |
| be smaller in size, but bigger in the amount of abilities they have |
| be driving cars and flying airplanes |
| be more advanced |
| be interacting with you in public |
| be doing the jobs that others do today |
| build the perfect human |
| take over the world |
| rule the Earth |
| have a reset button |
| be human |
| take over human jobs |
| be used wisely |
| have to be controlled |
| demolish the human life |
| be a part of human life |
| take the place of humans in the defense forces |
| take up the place of human in factories |
| resemble the human |
| replace humans in some work fields |
| undergo slight changes |
| be more in activities |
| talk like human |
| make a statement |
| be one of the working members in most of families |
| be the General Manager of multinational companies |
| become the familiar faces in industry |
| become an employee in all departments and industries |
| become just like a man |
| be able to manage some of the work done by human beings |
| be able to think |
| be in every household |
| be very life like |
| be available for industrial use |
| be performing everyday duties |
| be able to communicate |
| travel to mars |
| fly airplanes |
| fight in wars |
| help in home making |
| perform heart surgery |
| drive cars |
| be ubiquitous in the home, the office, and industry |
| perform many useful functions just existing as a box |
| kill |
| be capable of performing any human function |
| have undergone a major shift in the workforce as robots take over most jobs |
| assume most routine lab duties |
| ease out many jobs |
| do most of the work |
| be very very special |
| do most of the work that humans do in an organization |
| rule the world |
| replace managers and high post officers |
| make humans dependable |
| marry |
| do all mankind works |
| walk along the streets |
| reproduce |
| take over the world |
| cook food |
| be in all offices |
| be available in the market |
| conquer the world |
| be able to do our homework |
| be so advanced that they can do anything |
| be able to know what we are thinking |
| be really advanced |
| be able to drive |
| be able to do some of our daily duties |
| be able to translate from one language to another |
| remain subservient to their human owners |
| wear clothes |
| remain quiet while completing their tasks |
| try to write books |
| have specific warranties for their parts |
| be used in rescue situations |
| be used in place of humans to explore deep space |
| dominate assembly line factory work |
| be able to clean our ovens, just as the Roomba vacuums our floors now |
| be performing remote construction work |
| be used to assist physicians as microscopic robot-cameras in exploratory surgery |
| be defunct |
| should be as sophisticate and as close to human functioning as possible |
| be moving around the world |
| be able to help the elderly live a normal life as much as possible |
| be treated as obsolete |
| be useful medically |
| blend in with society |
| take away a lot of jobs |
| live in most homes |
| gain emotions |
| make it so humans have to do no work whatsoever |
| take anthropomorphic forms |
| drive cars |
| cry |
| replace children |
| be unplugged |
| be going to work in place of their human owners |
| be able to take over the world |
| be able to play the violin well |
| be indistinguishable from humans |
| be able to hold a conversation with a human |
| get older like humans |
| take decisions |
| look like human |
| understand nature |
| play guitar |
| achieve success |
| not talk to you but will get everything of you if you come in front |
| judge music and dance shows |
| check the intelligence of humans by their face, movement, etc. |
| anchor dance and music shows |
| be getting on the judge seat |
| be used in war |
| be more intelligent then humans |
| be functioning with humans |
| not be utilized for negative purposes |
| be obsolete |
| exist |
| be friend of the environment |
| marry people |
| improvise with dancers in popular concerts all around the world |
| prepare each and every thing in this world without the help of humans |
| drive the flight and do the unimaginable things itself |
| rule the World |
| influence humans and persuade them to think that they cannot live without robots |
| make another robots |
| become more powerful |
| become very smart, find us useless and take over the world |
| learn and think |
| walk and talk like real humans |
| be humanoid and perform actions like human beings |
| have emotions and feelings |
| be able to express |
| perform heart surgeries |
| land on Mars |
| be cab drivers |
| perform surgery |
| run the government |
| start a war |
| provide better personal assistance with greater mobility capabilities |
| have full artificial intelligence and unlimited battery usage |
| communicate better |
| process paper work |
| determine what’s wrong with someone at a hospital |
| drive cars |
| be brain controlled artificial limbs |
| be a high resolution artificial eye implant for humans |
| do voice recognition in houses and commonplaces |
| be flying cars |
| be taxis |
| clone |
| function as lost limbs in a fully functional manner with a person’s motor skills |
| replace humans that operate public transportation (busses, trains, and taxi cabs) |
| do basic surgeries revolutionizing the health care industry |
| be able to work |
| be able to think |
| react agains opposition |
| become merge with humans |
| help in homes |
| drive our vehicles |
| control all vehicles (no need for drivers) |
| turn agains the human race |
| surrogates representing humans |
| replace blood cells with thousands of times higher efficiency of work |
| be able to work as replacement for most of the vital organs of human beings |
| provide companionship to their owners |
| work in architecture-related tasks, doing the most repeating jobs like drilling or checking the stability of buildings |
| help doctors and surgeons |
| support everything from rescue teams to spaceships to hospitals |
| build a building |
| automate all easy tasks inside our homes |
| work as implants in human bodies |
| eliminate the need for human soldiers |
| do simple, non-invasive surgery |
| drive vehicles to their destination without human intervention |
| perform surgery on a human being with little assistance from humans |
| drive city buses down city streets shared by passenger vehicles, pick up passengers from bus stops and collect fare |
| be able to move cargo from docked ships to trucks without constant supervision from humans |
| be a fully functioning and true to life imitation of an actual human being, making it difficult to differentiate human and robot apart |
| be able to work as fully functional limbs, stronger than their organic counterparts |
| be capable of advanced thought processes, such as technical problem solving skills, on their own |
| be humanoid and suitable for companionship |
| be tiny and go in the bloodstream performing tasks like delivering medicine and attacking cancer cells |
| be a bionic arm that can be attached to nerves in the body, so that a person can control it and feel it like a normal hand |
| make the world dependable upon them |
| be like human beings |
| will rock |
| be very intelligent |
| help humans without any commands |
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