The Burr in the Burgh

So I stumbled on this article today about Japanese scientists who have created the most life-like human-looking robot yet. Several times throughout the article, it says something like, "one day, we'll have androids that will fool us into thinking they're human." And all I could think of to respond was, "Why in the world would we want that!?" Robots don't have to fool us into thinking they are alive in order to perform the typical mundane or dangerous tasks or to rove across the surface of Mars.

Might there be some beneficial uses for a life-like android? Sure. Spies might use them to infiltrate cells of bad guys. They'd make swell decoys for the military. I'm sure perverts could come up with something. And the late night talk show host prospects are enormous!

But do you really want to live in a world where you can't easily be certain if the person you are speaking to, working under or flirting with isn't a machine?!

Long ago, some people thought they were pretty smart and determined to demonstrate their genius by building a tower to the heavens. "Let us make a name for ourselves," they said. The pagan Greeks called this kind of pride hubris. It always leads to tragedy. In Genesis 11, God confused the language of the people in the land of Shinar to derail their grandiose schemes. It seems to me that - at times - modern science doesn't know when to stop. Life-like androids may not quite raise the ethical questions of cloning or genetic engineering, but like all the best sci-fi movies prove: The wise man is cautious in the realm of science. Not everything that can be done, should be done. You can never predict all the outcomes of your inventions.