6 AI in Corporations and in the Media

Robots in the Medical Field

There is no doubt that advanced technology (advanced from a human viewpoint) could help people, animals, plants, and our environment.

Here is a good example by The Washington Post, Nov. 28, 2015:

A young girl in the fifth grade has been diagnosed with a rare type of liver cancer and can’t attend school. Instead, every weekday, a robot that’s been dormant over the weekend is waking up in school and is taking the girl’s place behind her desk. The robot, nicknamed PAVS, which stands for “Peyton’s Awesome Virtual Self,” joins the daily activities in school, talks to the teacher and can navigate through the classroom. Peyton, the little girl with cancer, can visualize everything through the robot, seeing through the robot’s “eyes” via an iPad that is connected to PAVS. Peyton can then give her inputs via the robot and get feedback from the teacher. This way she can stay home and attend her classes remotely.

It’s difficult to object to such benevolent use of technology when it helps a very sick child to remain part of her friends’ community via a robot and an iPad. It’s a wonderful gift for Peyton, and it might help her to mentally overcome her cancer. This makes her more likely to respond to treatment.

Technology in our 3-D reality is here to keep us entrapped; meanwhile, it could also be used to enhance our lives to a certain degree. Examples, such as Peyton’s PAVS, will be used to systematically usher in the Singularity. By showing the public what extraordinary benefits are awaiting us, the Singularity will be the climax of all these benevolent ideas. The media have a huge responsibility to promote AI in such a way that it will win the population over in the end, or to make people relatively informed but passive, while the Administrator-dominated market spits out new seducing technologies to trap the masses. As the expression goes, they “give with one hand and take away with the other.”

There are many different projects running simultaneously. One such project is to cure or assist the disabled. The University of Washington (again) is currently working on an implant that will be placed in the brain which can make otherwise paralyzed body parts work again. It could primarily help people who have had strokes, or spinal-cord injuries, to be able to move their limbs. This is, thus far, a project in progress, but scientists and researchers at the university say that in approximately eight to ten years this technology could be applied to their patients on a regular basis. [Seattle Times, Dec. 29 and 31, 2015, “UW brain implant could help paralyzed limbs move again”]

It all started, not so long ago, with soldiers returning from war with serious injuries, often including those who lost a limb or two, or their limbs were not working properly. At that time, a metallic arm or a leg that could be remotely controlled by the injured person replaced the injured limbs. This was a breakthrough at the time and an introduction as to how we can replace biological body parts with artificial body parts in an effort to introduce the cyborg agenda. These days, they can do the same thing, without replacing a non-functional limb, by simply using this new brain implant — a more sophisticated way of replacing natural human abilities with artificial counterparts.

Finally, for now, I want to discuss how the media very subtly introduced certain people with super-powers as being bionic, Cambridge Dictionaries Online: “humorous: used to refer to a person who has greater powers of strength, speed, etc. than seem to be possible for a human.” The following story is, in my opinion, a very sad and vicious example of how they take advantage of a very sick 10-year old girl with a chromosome disorder. This girl never feels hunger or tiredness, and when injured — regardless how badly — she doesn’t feel any pain. She was being dragged about ten car lengths down the road to her mother and siblings’ horror, but afterward she just stood up as if nothing had happened, although having lost her skin in several places. [Express.co.uk, Jan. 15, 2016, Mystery of BIONIC GIRL who doesn't eat, sleep or feel pain - even when hit by a CAR].

The article described her as a bionic girl with super-powers, and it gives us the impression that even though we should be empathetic with the girl and her family, this is also something extraordinary she should be proud of. In reality, this is a very dangerous abnormality, which can potentially send her to an early death because she can’t feel the most important signals that help in keeping her alive.

Fig. 6-1: Olivia portrayed as a bionic girl with super-powers.

Olivia, the girl in the article, is neither bionic, nor does she have super-powers. She is just a normal girl with a chromosome disorder that will not benefit her in life, contrary to what the author of this article covertly suggests. Then, if we continue reading, we suddenly get an “aha” moment when we understand the purpose behind this unethical article. We get a better idea after we have watched the video, following the article: the video is about a man with “super-powers,” who can pull three motorcycles with his moustache, and another story is about a real bionic man with a robotic limb! It is totally unrelated to Olivia’s disorder, but the author makes the connection by calling Olivia bionic. The author (and I would argue that was done purposely) is taking advantage of a term that is normally being used in Transhumanism, and the videos related to the article clearly show the programming that undermines this article.

Unrelatedly, but very cleverly, the author connects Olivia to bionic robots. This is one example of how the media subtly, but very successfully, sneak in the true Singularity message in an otherwise empathetic story, and the unethical reporter happily does what her Masters tell her. Moreover, she is doing it very well and will probably get a raise and a pat on the head this year. Dogs get pats on their heads, but so do underdogs.

Next page: Robots Assisting Humans in Daily Commuting