Can A Robot Truly Feel?

In today's society, people have made extraordinary advances in technology that exceed the expectations of human capabilities. With the rise of smart phones and robots, we are showing how much the human race is developing in science and technology. In the world of robots, we are trying to create the "perfect" living being. Today's robots are becoming more and more realistic. They look like us, respond to us, and even perform human activities. Even though robots are becoming more human like, the question that comes up is, can robots have the emotions of a human being? Although the technological advances of robots have become human-like and efficient, they cannot truly be equipped with the emotions of a human being which include pain, love and anger.

            The idea of having genuine human emotions in a robot is a good one, but there are too many factors that can lead to its downfall, one which includes the feeling of pain. In the movie A.I. a scientist has created a female humanoid robot that appears to be human. She looks very realistic and she can communicate with others. Later on the scientist stabs her hand with a needle. At that instance she does scream and when he attempts to do it again, she jerks her hand away from him. Some would believe that she has shown the emotion of pain, but when he asks her “how did that make you feel?” it is proved otherwise. She responds with “I don’t understand.” This one example proves that she doesn’t have genuine human emotions. She only pulls her hand away because she’s programmed to do so. A person with true emotions would say “Ouch” or “That hurt!” This robot didn’t know what she had felt. She was programmed to react like that when damage is inflicted to her, but actually understanding what had happened to her is not recognized. Pain is an emotion the only us humans can truly understand. A robot does not have pain receptors and they can only be programmed to react to any sort of damage. Technology can only go so far, but us as humans, we want to exceed expectations and scientists will keep on trying to attain the almost impossible.  There are many other emotions that robots cannot have as well, which is love.

            Love is one of the biggest things that humans strive for. We all want that one person that will take us for who we are and care for us. For many people, they do not get their chance at love. Many scientists today are trying to implement the emotion of love into robots so that humans may experience love with a robot if they can’t get that love from another human. One problem arises though when it comes to this. In A.I. a question rises that seems to be unanswerable. Can a robot love a human back?  The scientist in the movie asks the female humanoid “What is love?” She responds by saying love is “widening of the eyes, increase in breathing patterns and warming of the skin.” This robot knows love in the sexual context, but not the emotion of love, like the love for a baby and the love for one’s parents. The physical feelings of love can be implemented into the humanoid but it can only go so far, robots themselves cannot reproduce so the idea of love with a robot has its limits. When scientists try to incorporate love into robots, they are trying to make something that people could benefit from. Since many people don’t get their chance at love, scientists keep trying to put love into robots so those unfortunate people who can’t have love with another person, can have it in another living thing.

            Another emotion that seems to be difficult to reproduce in a robot is anger. This emotion can be very dangerous in a robot because it’s programmed to react in a specific way when it is agitated, and that can lead to many problems. In many sci-fi movies, robots who become angered in some way eventually start to rebel and they want to take over. One movie that shows that is I, Robot. The robots in the movie start to take over after robots have broken the “Three Laws of Robotics.” They are angered that cops are going after them and of course with the emotions of anger, they want to take over and have a world for themselves. They don’t know how to control anger like us humans do. Once they have “anger” they do not stop. As humans we think about what we have done, why we are angry and how we overcome it, but robots do not genuinely do that for themselves. It’s either impossible or it is programmed into them. For them to gain the emotion of anger, it could turn out for the worst.

            It’s very unlikely that robots will have genuine human emotions and one thing that needs to be considered when trying to implement emotions in a robot is the danger of emotions themselves. Emotions make humans do crazy things. If a man has a wife who cheated on him, his anger and jealousy can take over and he could hurt her, or even worse, murder her. If robots were given genuine human emotions, they could eventually do similar things. One example is from the book 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, where there is the conscious computer HAL 9000. Late in the book, the computer becomes very paranoid, and because of the fear and paranoia, it kills the crew of the ship that it controls. Emotions can be very dangerous in a robot and if it were possible to incorporate genuine emotions in them, this danger can become a reality.

Even though genuine human emotions can’t truly be equipped with a humanoid robot, today’s scientists are still trying to make them as realistic as possible because they want to achieve creating a robot that is close as humanly possible. In the article “Japanese Develop ‘female’ Android” by David Whitehouse, it is said that “we have found that people forget she is an android while interacting with her. Consciously, it is easy to see that she is an android, but unconsciously, we react to the android as if she were a woman." This android that they have created has shown promise; it has silicone skin so it resembles human-like skin instead of a hard surface. There are even motion sensors installed that detect human movement and it reacts depending on what the people around it are doing. In another article, “First Robot Able to Develop and Show Emotions is Unveiled” by Jha Alok, they introduce the robot “Nao” that depicts the real-life emotions of a human. It is show that “when Nao is sad, he hunches his shoulders forward and looks down. When he's happy, he raises his arms, angling for a hug. When frightened, Nao cowers, and he stays like that until he is soothed with some gentle strokes on his head.” This is another piece of evidence that supports the argument that genuine emotions can be implemented into a robot. The robot Nao reacts to whatever happens to him just like a human. Although technology is progressing on the idea that robots can have genuine human emotions, there are still many faults that will come with it and in result, it will not work out. When a robot gains emotions, it could possibly think like a human. If it gets mad, it can act on that instinct and inflict harm to another. If they act and think on their own, they can realize that they are stronger and more efficient than us and that can lead to overthrow. Implementing human emotions into robots would not be beneficial.

Emotions are strong and powerful things that us humans are gifted with. It’s what makes us very unique from one another. Many of us are happy, angry, funny and even crazy. For years now scientists have been trying to construct those emotions into robots. As of today, scientists are able to make robots mimic human movements. Some robots can make facial expressions when it comes across a certain interaction. Even though that may be possible, the emotions that robots seem to mimic are not genuine; they are programmed in their circuitry. Having these emotions in robots would be a bad thing. They could possibly start thinking for themselves and start to rebel. They can also bring harm to others if their emotions get the best of them. The experiences in life give us the emotions that we have as humans. We experiences certain things that only humans get a chance at and a robot simply cannot do that because it is not truly living. Even if there was a possibility of creating a robot with genuine human emotions, there would be many consequences that can come from it. Robots can come close to being human, but they have their technological limits.