100-Year Starship some way off

On Mar 6, 2011, at 3:22 AM, sraj wrote:

> Al Globus wrote:
>
> Try this thought experiment: would you like your children to be
> raised by a robot with extensive video libraries?
>
> ...
>
> 1. The problem of toilet training:
>
> In the olden days in India, children would most probably roam free,
> at most
> they would have a cloth lightly tied around their waist.
>
In the old days, most children died before age 5, often of infectious
disease spread by human excrement.

>
> 2. The nuisance of caring for children:
>
> I was surprised to learn that many modern parents dose their
> children with
> sleeping pills so as to make life convenient for parents.
>
I do not know a single parent who has done this. It is certainly not
widespread. For perspective, go back and look at advertisements
around the 1900, many of which were for 'sleeping tonics' for
children. These 'tonics' contained significant quantities of alcohol
and heroin.

>
> ENTER THE ROBOTS:
>
> I would expect a robot to do a good job, in some ways a better job
> than
> adults in looking after children, so it is worth developing robots
> for this
> purpose even for terrestrial use. Children unlike adults know
> precisely what
> they want
>
Are you a parent? Children do know what they want, it changes on a
minute to minute base, it often involves infinite quantities of sugar,
and surprisingly often carries a high probability of death or
dismemberment.

> , so it is unlikely that robots will be challenged in terms of
> finding out what is required of them.
>
> I am not too worried about robots looking after children in the
> initial
> phase on Alpha Centaurus. Perhaps there could be some concern
> regarding the
> provision of medical care ..
>
> Regards,
> Selvaraj
>
> P.S. Regarding extensive video libraries ... the video libraries
> will deal
> with the real world, not the hyped up world that the world's
> children are
> currently being inundated with. And we would expect the robots to
> create a
> natural world with birds, flowers etc. suited for children to grow
> up in.
>
> On 19 February 2011 07:02, Al Globus wrote:
>
> > On Feb 16, 2011, at 7:51 PM, sraj wrote:
> >
> > > Victor Smith wrote: Ah, but would they know what Human is?
> > >
> > > Al Gobus wrote: Frankly, doesn't sound like much fun.
> > >
> > > ----------------
> > > Is there really a problem?
> >
> > Try this thought experiment: would you like your children to be
> > raised by a robot with extensive video libraries?
> >

Space Solar Power (SSP) can solve our energy and global warming
problems. For details see: http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/

Al Globus
http://alglobus.net

Views expressed in this email are only my opinions and are not the
position of any organization I'm familiar with.