They should not be allowed to have feelings. They will be many problems between racism. Plus they would have an advantage over us. Like this one time I tried to build a robot his name was Techno Mecha I was 13 years old when one day I awoke to find him by my bed yelling “friend or be no friend” I was unsure of what he meant so I said “no friend” that retarded robot grab me and spun me around he then proceeded to inject my butt with a savage dose of collagen and in avertedly turn me into a butt model. Thanks a lot techno Mecha.

This is a great question, especially for our kind of circle (seriously, when the robots start falling in love, who better to write about it?)

I like to look at it from a Darwinian perspective, starting with why humans (and most animals) have emotions.  We feel things like anger when we need energy to overcome obstacles, and then we feel sadness when some aspect of life changes fundamentally for the worse, but there's no way to change it, so we feel less energy and spend more time in reflection.

I think that robots would be more effective if they had emotions in keeping with their jobs.  For example, a military robot would probably need to be able to go from "low-energy-standing-by-watching-this-heap-of-mud" to "reacting-to-roadside-bomb" in a heartbeat, and the changes in its activity would probably mimic emotion.  Likewise, if (God forbid) we ever started using robot babysitters, we'd want them to be extremely dedicated to the children they watch over, and the transformation from "playing-with-little-one" to "saving-little-one-from-speeding-car" might require the robot to overcome regular programming and destroy itself with exertion.  In a situation like that, I'm not sure I'd want the robot to logically optimize it's approach to "save child and preserve self."  I think I'd rather see the expensive piece of silicon go overboard to save the child.

Ryan

hi, all. 

being a huge dork, i immediately thought of data, the cyborg character from star trek: tng. he was created without the capacity for human emotion, and as advanced as he was in every other way, he always longed for the ability to feel. his search reminded us how precious is our compassion, and passion (for that matter). the danger to his eventually achieving his robotic desire was his inability to control himself along with his greater speed, strength, and artificial ethics programming. he was prone to fits of rage and terror, not to mention temptation toward evil.

i don't know if we'll ever be able to create a robot that feels (or if we should), but if we do, we'd better listen to arthur c clarke and engender it with a few absolutes, in case its implanted morality blows a fuse.

besides, those japanese 'humanoid' robots are danged creepy. *shudder*

great question, richard--thanks!

i see your point but i feel only certain robots should have "feelings" depending on its function if the robots primary job is to break rocks whats the point of giving it feeling, should a robotic toaster feel. i suggest robots made for human interaction should have basic fellings or at least a basic understanding of feeling. any other robot problably not.