A Robot Thought

A Robot Thought

I think I want to become a robot

This is obviously a hypothetical, a possibility only in sci-fi or in a very distant future when a consciousness/mind can be digitalized and transferred to a simulated brain, inside a robot body. Yes, this has almost unending philosophical and metaphysical questions, like: Would the simulated brain behave the same as the real one? Would the process change the subject as a person fundamentally? Is the person the same person before and after the process, sort of in a Ship of Theseus kind of conundrum? I am not pondering these in this post, I assume this hypothetical can effectively "clone" someone, just making them into an electronic being. In any case, I wouldn't mind if the process was a little destructive or mutating, as I don't have much appreciation for the person I am, but that's also not the point of this article. With this basis in mind, I would like to offer a dream, or a wish I've had for a long time, and that takes much more potency in dark times: I would like to become a robot. There's many angles from which I've analyzed this, and I will try to explain this (what I assume to be, to many reading this) weird concept:

  • I don't like eating

    All my life I've had a difficult relationship with food. I don't usually get hungry, I've always been very thin and I almost never enjoy eating. When I do, it's also a momentary pleasure. I would gladly take an option which made me able to stop eating or taking so much time doing it. There's some shakes that claim to have every vitamin and nutrient necessary for a balanced diet, I'm looking into those (with doubts). I admit that unless some long lasting energy source, like a mini nuclear reactor, is developed and substitutes batteries, becoming a robot wouldn't solve this issue entirely, if we compare eating to charging. But I don't know, I think I would prefer being plugged into a wall rather than having to decide and monitor what I eat each day, buy groceries, having to prepare it, and taking the time to eat it. Yes, even if that means forsaking those rare fleeting moments when I enjoy food. Also, related bodily functions, fluids and solids go away too! I understand I'm in the minority here, maybe I'm one of a kind, but I'm talking about me, this doesn't affect you in any way, you can keep enjoying meals :)

  • Being able to reproduce actions almost perfectly

    As you may know, due to the nature of computing, achieving true randomness digitally is (depending on how you look at it) impossible. That's precisely what makes robots great for repetitive, precise tasks, like in manufacturing contexts. Being able to prepare a dish exactly right, or playing a song without mistakes and the same details and arrangements everytime are some ideas that come to mind. A counterpoint to this would be that sometimes, those little mistakes or inconsistencies are what make the end result memorable and human. Even if I agree with this (depending on the context), it's rare to see someone dedicated to their craft that doesn't practice and try to approach perfection or to be as reliable as possible.

  • Being able to be programmed/learn new things instantly (Matrix style)

    Have you ever thought about how amazing it would be if you could transfer, for example, a text book, directly to your brain? Or maybe someone's knowledge or muscular memory? In an abstract way, that's what downloading a program is. Some other programmer made the effort to develop and debug that software, but you can download it and replicate its behaviour. Imagine having proven instant sources of knowledge or skill. Want to do karate at black belt level? Download the karate program and the knowledge and muscular memory necessary are implanted in your brain. This is not a new concept, as I mentioned in this section's header, it famously appeared in The Matrix, but I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it (it's a classic, you should watch it. Just don't get too caught up on its concepts, like many people do, it's just a sci-fi movie).

  • No more bad emotions

    Yeah, I know this entails losing the good ones too. I don't care. I would like to do the things I want to do, that's it. No gratification, yes, but most importantly, no disappointment. This is maybe the most obvious and dramatic point. It has been said that intelligence (although I don't consider AI real intelligence, it's just a massive algorithm under the hood, and at the very least it's not similar to human intelligence) and emotions are what will always separate human from machine. Again, if losing emotions is losing the human experience, I think I would accept.

I am aware that this whole thing sounds like schizo-posting, or a little like the "men will do anything instead of going to therapy" meme, but this is my idea, this is how I feel about it. Maybe this helps someone, somehow, interpreted sort of like a poem. Maybe someday I will look back at this and not agree with it anymore, or even laugh at the idea. Maybe this reveals something deeper, darker or more horrifying about myself that I'm not catching. I don't know. I will leave you with a TL;DR I just came up with: "I want to be Turing complete but not pass the Turing test".