Everyday, we use our information everywhere without giving any attention as to where this data is going, or how one day it might be used against us. We assume that any data shared on the web is as safe as it could be as long as it is in a reliable and well-known source. Little do we know that today, according to AVtest, more than 250,000 malicious computer programs are born everyday, giving access to thousands, maybe millions, of hackers all around the world to our most private and protected data.

As much as technology made everything so much easier for us, it also made us extremely exposed and has created many traps to fall in. Thanks to our reliance on exchanging everything online, whether information, purchases, or even messages, a whole new world was created. This world, the “cyber attacks” world has so far resulted in thousands of helpless people being spied on, blackmailed or even going bankrupt. Cyber attacks can be as harmful as causing someone to go into deep depression or even someone, especially kids, to commit suicide. For instance, everyday we hear about new games being created which manage to lure countless kids in and end up knowing more information about them than their own parents. This also goes back to the fact that the web nowadays is not monitored, and basically anyone can create any domain or account with just a few clicks, whilst also convincing people that this is a website to trust and share any personal data with.

Although it may seem difficult, but the more technology advances, the more we should be aware of its complications and dark sides. To many of us, the internet has eased many processes and made our lives heaven, but to many others, the internet is the best platform to access anyone’s life and know the deepest and most hidden secrets hidden on that computer. To many, the internet is a method to make some people’s lives a living hell. Therefore, we should be really careful as to what we post and what we don’t, what we reveal and what we don’t. Always have a backup plan; never use your main credit card, maybe use a subsidiary one or allocate one to online shopping only. Be super careful as to where you post your email or phone number. Finally, as much as we hate to admit it, we all might fall victims of clickbait or targeted ads. Well, think twice and just remember that you never know who’s hands your personal data are falling in.

Ever since our discussions about machines replacing humans in the workplace, i kept tracking most of the news sent on my email every morning about the new inventions and how do they are implemented in our lives. Two days ago i read this article that has the title “The Robots’ Latest Move”, honestly this was such any eye catching title; so after reading the first line of the article i found that Amazon started practically replacing order packers with machines as they are more efficient and to speed up delivery times. According to Reuters such job in particular employs about 2500 workers, so what about their future after such decision? are they financially secured to bare such inhumane decision? There are many aspects one could look at, however, the most important one is that all the plans and assumptions we were tackling in class are coming to reality and they are unstoppable. As we can see big companies care only about maximizing their profits and ensure their efficiency regardless of the consequences on labor. Based on such, i think that caring so much about reducing costs and maximizing profits could actually devastate our sentimental characteristics such as caring about others’ future. Moreover, i would consider that excelling in the robotic technology is a double edged weapon regarding the welfare of our global economy. Although its cheaper method to produce and much more faster, all this could collapse at any moment as any country regardless its size won’t bare a tremendous increase in its unemployment rate; and it could force this over developing technology to come to an end exactly as the Concorde plane coming to end although it was faster and it saved a lot of the time for many passengers, however, for the well being of the entire population it had to stop one day. i think that if robotic technology exceeded a specific limit it would face the same unfortunate ending as Concorde plane.

One of the readings that stopped me and made me think more about the dignity of humanity was the article “HUMAN RIGHTS VS. ROBOT RIGHTS: Forecasts from Japan”. Simply this article displays how automata is overtaking basic human rights in our today’s modern world, and that governments and institutions started issuing protective laws to ensure the safety of these robots. Taking the Japanese case for instance, the government accepted giving the citizenship for a robot ,however, foreigners who spent most of their lives working and building up an efficient Japanese economy were not granted this privilege and they are not allowed to have it by “law”. Such case draws anyone’s attention and makes us look thoroughly about the situation we are placed in, are our rights really coming to an end? Are we over developing automata to the extent that we overlooked the future of humanity? All these questions need to be answered before a drastic wake up call occurs.

I think that if we kept excelling in robotic technology with such pace neglecting the consequences, one day human beings will categorize such actions as discrimination between humans and robots and this will structure our society in a new unusual way, and since robotic costs are considered to be much less and more efficient than humans in many aspects especially from an economic perspective, our rights will continue to diminish over time until robots will be more superior than us.

Finally, since humans are the source of emotions, robotic creators should take that into consideration and draw this virtual line between the importance of humans and the importance of robots before our species takes a unified stand against violating their rights and overlooking their effort in building a prosperous life in many countries.

After discussing the videos we watched in class regarding the creation of sex robots and how they are planning to replace women in brothels by literally sex automata; i started wandering about the future of our natural intimate relationships such as making love with a human being who shares all needed emotions we are born with. First of all, by focusing on looking for robotic spouses this could be a bit creepy, however, this is the upcoming plan for many creator companies. So i think that men looking for automata to share their Psychological and physiological needs with, are not really into a complete commitment like in any relationships; they just want to treat these supposedly “partners” like slaves who obey their orders and fulfill their unlimited wants without any objections. The other possible scenario would be that men usually want to share their fantasies with an exceptional women that resembles perfection especially their physical appearance, they want to “own” the perfect model in everything without any defects; i believe that humanity is used to such demands and this goes back for many centuries, for instance, in the greek mythology Pygmalion’s artifacts were described as idealized women, more perfect than any real female.

There are any concepts that rise from such behavior, such as domination for instance. Men usually have the tendency to be dominant in their relationships and this might trigger countless number of problems with their partners which drives gives them the opportunity of resorting to having a robot that would just say want they want to hear to feel this inner satisfaction. Unfortunately, the concept of gender plays here a great role as all companies are working on producing mainly female sex robots and they display them in their factories in a dehumanizing image as if they are products that are shaped to meet the market needs. Based on such i think that women one day will call for male sex robots for the exact same reasons men desired, and this will be the beginning of the end of our human species as the human factor and and emotions will be stripped away from our interrelations.

This chapter started by giving us an insight of how automata is practically replacing humans in the battlefields, and for the safety of human beings they are no longer necessary for many missions during a war. It also tackled a very emotional aspect since automata started to be used for domination and showing off power, as a result people started to horrify automata more than fearing human beings which is even more humiliating for them. Moreover, the chapter was stressing back and forth on the gender inequality issue, as depending on technology and robots in war fields this gives women the opportunity to take place in combats even by controlling a drone from their offices. Unfortunately, women had this dream of participation, but it turned out to be the opposite as according to the article the most powerful states with the most updated technology are actually males, which means that the state itself won’t encourage taking such action to depend on females in war fields. For instance, exoskeleton was supposed to be a golden opportunity for some to be part of the war fighters, on the contrary, it turned out to be a new enhancement for men to be more superior and dominant not even for their protection, and Mary Manjikian added to this fact by saying that “again, robotic technology would thus reinforce hegemonic masculinity rather than eliminating it”. I believe that the change begins by making some amendments in the culture itself and try to introduce more feminine concepts in the society to ensure their acceptance for such new practices like taking part in the battlefield and so forth.

Finally, the chapter also tackled a very important topic related to the traditional hierarchy; this part is crucial to think about as the introduction of technology in general usually destabilizes the traditional hierarchal structure either in the military or in other jobs in general. I personally think that such instability is vital for real a change in old retrospective mindsets, as shaking some unjustified norms leads to more in-depth thinking about improving them to reach some sort of equality.

Ever since the evolution of technology throughout the past centuries, people amongst different cultures and ethnic groups were all exposed to technology and automation in various ways; either by living the era of mythologies when automatons took a great chunk of the Greek and Roman literature, or by vividly witnessing the progression of all technological advances and experience the application of most of these myths in real life. Generally, the motive behind creating artificial life is that humans cherish perfection and they want to create their own utopia which would definitely be considered a dystopia for others. We simply love to be in control and handle issues which is beyond creation. Therefore, such embedded concepts lead to the integration of people with technology resulting in a hybrid human-machine; this is obviously reflected in the economic and medical fields where human beings are meant to be a combination of both an organic body and a functional machine.

From an economic perspective, the introduction of automata had a booming effect on production levels; however, the unpleasant consequences on workers were uncountable. It all started back in the 6^thcentury BC when Mayor (2007) said “ Historians of robotics suggest that automata fall into three basic functions: labor, sex and entertainment or spectacle”; by focusing solely on the labor function one can infer that increasing the production efficiency was one of the main goals of any economy in various eras. For instance, during the 18^thcentury Karl Marx accused Adam Smith for inventing the category of unproductive laborers (Schaffer,1999). Marx’s claim was supported by the rise of Luddism in the 18 hundreds as the “interpretation which places Luddism less in the context of the French and American wars and more in the context of the rise of Laissez fair”(Thomis,1970), apparently the introduction of such economic system which was once introduced by Adam Smith had a major role in substituting workers by machines for the sole benefit of the owner’s wealth .This actually was the beginning of replacing humans with machines in the work place in the modern world, when the owners of factories started to take advantage of the technological advances to maximize their profits with the least possible production costs, and since then the role of workers started to diminish and is replaced by automation. On the contrary, there is a research “Will Robotization Really…” by Sorrels (2018) that negates Adams Smith’s claim of replacements as it said “For the short-term coming times, robots and computers will be more complements to, than substitutes for, human labor, in spheres of discernment, reasoning, and creativity, improving human workers more than replacing them”.

Moving on, by looking at the image from another perspective and examine the benefits of human labor in the work place, we would find many forgone advantages only for the sake of maximizing the profit. For instance, Schaffer (1999) referred to “La Metterie’s man machine was not an iatromechanical reverie of clockwork and pulleys, but a natural body subject to exercise and training, imbued with innate vitality and therefore simultaneously capable of, and requiring external discipline”; in addition a similar article tackled some human traits that should be valued such as “humans do provide judgment, logic, experience, and opinions. As a component in the system, we are interactive, variable and adaptable”(Haight et al, 2005). Surprisingly, a book called “the luddites” at the very beginning suggested some rewards for these traits such as “ a legal minimum wage, opposition to sweated labor and compensation for redundancy”(Thomis, 1970). Moreover, we have this opinion that machines and human labor are substitutes at the beginning, however, “due to complementarity effects, especially high-skilled workers may become more productive as they become co-workers of machines and both complement each other even at the same level of value creation”(Decker et al, 2017); the previous suggestion could bind with another research conducted by Elvira Nica (2016) who said “when automation or computerization advances in a labor mechanism more trustworthy, less expensive, or swifter, this raises the significance of the outstanding human connections in the production chain”. 

The other spectrum of this literature review is about the integration of humans and technology for medical uses. Surprisingly, technological advancements reached a very updated level where the introduction of some devices is either necessary for living or give someone the opportunity to overcome a specific disability. Such inventions became part of the human body interacting with organic materials to provide a healthy normal life for a person. One of the major inventions was the pacemaker which is a device that is implanted inside the body to regulate one’s heart beats. Another article discussed an interesting invention related also to the heart where it operates using wireless network, the author said “in establishing a wireless network the human body is broken down into pieces of information and then reassembled through data flows”(Grew and Svendsen, 2017). Hence, according to David Bell (2004) he defined cyborgs as a “hybrid of organic life with cyber technology”. This is a very controversial debate about declaring peoplewith implanted devices that are essential for their life to be cyborgs. However, this could be justified by the claim of Nelly Oudshoorn (2015) who conducted an experiment on heart patients that “people living with internal devices represent distinctive human-machine hybrid”. Also, people with such implant are performing their lifestyle based on the device inserted; for instance, any vigorous exercises without the support of the pacemaker would cause many discomforts and fatigues. As a result, patients have no choice except going to the technician for device adjustments to accommodate any changes in their daily routine.

The inventions that result in creating cyborgs are various and control many functions in the human body. The second invention is the cochlear inserted in the ear to enhance one’s ability to hear, and for many people this is another sort of being a cyborg. Such enhancement contrasts the trials in (AD 54-68) when “Daedalus created his human enhancement of flight by imitating the power of birds”(Mayor, 2009); although the latter experiment was criticized by many people at that time, it kept evolving until the invention of the airplane, However, people with hearing disabilities are not giving the cochlear invention the chance to progress and they said that any development would be considered “ taking steps which tend to reduce a minority culture who wish to remain as a community is regarded as unethical according to international law”(Lee, 2015). Although the divergence between these two situations is quite obvious, such medical invention would benefit the entire humanity and ensure them a healthy life. The fact of surveillance for medical uses too a great portion in the article “ Wireless Heart Patients and the Quantified Self” when the authors Grew and Svendsen (2017) said “The notion of the quantified self has continuity with the governmental forms that Foucault characterized as the panopticon: a form of power in which disciplinary surveillance shapes the making of the self”; this same discomfort was approved by the author Oudshroon (2015) saying “ during the observations and the interviews, I learned that many patients did not like this ‘hacking’ of their heart”. Accordingly, patients started anguishing for being controlled by an inanimate device that gives all the necessary information about their organic body.

I believe that the integration of technology with human lives has so far resulted in marvelous inventions whether in the economic or medical field. Humans may be reluctant to change at the beginning of any emerging invention like trying to imitate the flight of birds as humans, by nature, are skeptical and fearful of any change that is to come. However, when foreign ideas start to slowly settle and appear attractive to humans, this is when development and innovation takes place. The idea of a hybrid human machine was inevitable throughout history as one cannot operate without the other. Technology alone could not have boosted production forward or gave life to the pacemaker or cochlear without human cognitive and critical skills which are currently a human being’s most valuable asset, and technological advancements will never be allowed to take place without first passing through human acceptance and familiarity to change. In regard to the future, technology has become so embedded in our cultures that people will stop at nothing to develop and innovate new inventions and tools that would challenge current findings. Governments will continue to fully utilize their resources to excel economically using technology and machinery. Similarly, scientists and doctors will continue to capitalize technology to its limits to discover breakthrough medication, cures or even inventions to ease pain and humans. The human mind’s curiosity and endless need to control and challenge beyond creation as I mentioned above will always enable the concept of hybrid-human machines to flourish both technologically and mentally. Finally, I am a strong believer that, much like what Sorrels said, technology will continue to be a complement for the human mind; not just for the time being, but for many eras to come. 

The interplay between humans and technology kept evolving until it reached what we call now “hybrid Human-Machine”, which simply reflects how organic human bodies are interacting with automata either to overcome a specific disability or to save a person from a decrease in his lifespan. These hybrids mainly exist because of the recent medical inventions such as the pacemaker and the cochlear, they are both inserted inside the body to improve the function of a specific organ; and here comes the most controversial part, would humanity consider people with such implants as cyborgs? Theoretically they are, because hybrid humans have organic life with cyber technology. Moreover, in the case of heart patients their heart beats are practically controlled by an implanted device, and to accommodate any changes in their life style they have to visit their technician for some technical amendments in the device. The list goes one, however, our main concern is about the point at which such dominant inventions will reach in the future. Are we expecting something to control our thoughts or connect us all together through an embedded network? if we reached this level of automation such controversial topics will be finalized and we would easily be able to declare ourselves as cyborgs since the only thing that differentiates us from machines will be controlled by a specific device or a network. I certainly believe that we should set a limit for these technological advances in order to lose the essence of being human.

Ever since watching the movie there were a lot of thoughts in my mind about the origin of this story. The idea of the Golem itself revolves around overcoming human beings’ insecurities, for instance, the movie mainly focused on giving life to a pile mud and create a young boy with supernatural power in order to protect the villagers from outsiders. The creation of what we call today an automata did not have defensive purposes only, however, it had an emotional effect on Hana who lost her child seven years ago and it created this unrealistic bond between her and the boy. After critically analyzing this movie i could only relate the Golem with what we have now the destructive nuclear weapons that are used mainly for protection rather than attack, this could be the only relation between the movie and reality. on the contrary, the fact that the Golem and Hana were somehow physically attached together was not that convincing to reflect the tight bond between the child and Hana because there is no such thing that existed or will exist in our today’s modern world. Overall, it is actually interesting to know that even in ancient myths people tend to give life to objects for the sake of fulfilling their difficult needs and wants in an imaginary way regardless how the idea of creating life would clash with common religious basis.

After the discussions that took place in class about the “Enlightened Automata”, a lot of controversial issues were raised regarding the future of workers and their current position in any job. The decision of replacing human labor with machinery was taken back in the 1700’s, in fact, due to the technological advances nowadays this kind of labor replacement is increasing in many workplaces to the extent that in some places only employees with limited capabilities are hired for clerical tasks while other employees with high capabilities are left unemployed . From an economic and financial perspective depending on automata in production is the most efficient way to reduce costs and maximize one’s profits; however, this would definitely one day shaken the economic stability due to the upcoming increase in the unemployment rates if such kind of human replacement continued. Moreover, since the world started to be capitalist oriented where the only focus is maximizing the return regardless the undesirable consequences on other involved parties; this type of economic system won’t actually stop the train of introducing automata in all different job fields, and unfortunately the productive role of workers will continue to diminish over time. As a result of this implementation the benefits of “Free reason” will not be accessed anymore and the level of creativity will drop dramatically, and we will depend solely on the “inanimate reason”.

After in-depth examination of different cultures from all over the world, one can deduce the similarities between the past and the present regardless today’s advances. For instance, ancient automata focused mainly on fulfilling personal desires such as sex, entertainment and torturing; and all these desires still exist in human’s nature with different proportions and they strive to satisfy their wants regardless the method used. After looking closely for example on the “Brazen Bull” this inhumane way of torturing people, we can easily compare it with the lethal injection method of execution where people actually suffer a lot before dying and they witness and feel their body organs shutting down bit by bit.

Another incident that highlights a great similarity between the past and the future is that ” an inventor is killed by his own invention”, this quote was said when Perilaus the manufacturer of the bronze bull was tortured in it. This actually happens nowadays when countries invent weapons and start trading them with other countries; eventually one day these buyers will start turning their backs on the inventors and fight them back.