China using technology such as drones and robots during outbreak
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From deploying drones to chide citizens for not donning masks in public, to using robot medical assistants to deliver medical goods and conduct disinfection operations, China is employing a tech-savvy approach to tackle the country's coronavirus outbreak.
"The gentleman wearing a red coat holding a white plastic bag in your right hand - yes, it's you. We found you are not wearing a face mask. Please wear it. If you do not have one, come to the patrol car by the street and get one," a drone instructed a passer-by
In Chengdu, a group of mahjong players had to disperse after an official told them through a drone that such activity had been banned during the epidemic, Reuters reported.
The robots are equipped with high-resolution cameras and infrared thermometers that are capable of scanning the body temperatures of 10 people at once.
Robots have also played multiple roles in the nationwide battle against the virus, such as to allow remote video communication, patient health monitoring and the delivery of medical supplies in hospital, to limit human-to-human contact
Meanwhile, officials in the southwestern province of Yunnan plan to ask residents to scan a QR-like code on their phones to enter many public buildings so that their movements can be tracked
Interesting anecdote on how drones and robots are employed during this current crisis, though the one about drone hovering above you and shouting out commands at you is a tad disturbing and reminiscent of an Orwellian scenario.
Relate also the surveillance technology that can be useful for contact tracing in this curretn crisis...
Anyway, this is a good example to show how tech can help humans in tasks that may pose a threat to our lives....think also the use of robots and drones in fire-fighting, in battlefields, to repair nuclear reactor metldown in Fukushima, in deep sea diving expeditions....
A major boon also in nations where there is a manpower shortage....
But one interesting angle to conisder is whether is will make us a less human society....if in our daily life we end up just interacting with machines and robots which had taken over jobs previously held by humans (think counter staff at pharmacies, postman, ATMS, bank counters, vending machines...) wouldn't our lives lack the human touch? This is esp so when machines are also making their presence felt in jobs like nursing, surgical operations, eldercare, etc. Realise that the human side of us (capacity for compassion and sympathy, our conscience) can only be manifested when we interact with humans. You probably would need to see a psychiatrist when u start feeling sympathy for a drone or robot. Over time, our interactions with machines will cause the human side of us to be buried and forgotten, so much so that our attitudes towards we fellow human beings will be one that is cold, unfeeling, calculative, etc...
We may even become numb to the sufferings of other human beings coz daily interactions with tech has conditioned us to be lacking in human warmth, not to mention that tech has the ability to alienate us from actual experience; e.g. the scene of a city being bombed on the screen is not 'real' to us for it is 'just something that happens on the screen'. Likewise, a soldier operating a drone from afar has less qualms about pushing a button that will release a bomb on the people below coz he is far away, cushioned from the effect of having to see the consequences with his eyes...it's almost like playing a video game to him,,,,,,
Qns:
1."Scientific advancement make us less human," Do you agree? (ACJC Prelim 2015)
2. To what extent is artificial intelligence replacing the role of humans? (Cam. 2019)
From deploying drones to chide citizens for not donning masks in public, to using robot medical assistants to deliver medical goods and conduct disinfection operations, China is employing a tech-savvy approach to tackle the country's coronavirus outbreak.
"The gentleman wearing a red coat holding a white plastic bag in your right hand - yes, it's you. We found you are not wearing a face mask. Please wear it. If you do not have one, come to the patrol car by the street and get one," a drone instructed a passer-by
In Chengdu, a group of mahjong players had to disperse after an official told them through a drone that such activity had been banned during the epidemic, Reuters reported.
The robots are equipped with high-resolution cameras and infrared thermometers that are capable of scanning the body temperatures of 10 people at once.
Robots have also played multiple roles in the nationwide battle against the virus, such as to allow remote video communication, patient health monitoring and the delivery of medical supplies in hospital, to limit human-to-human contact
Meanwhile, officials in the southwestern province of Yunnan plan to ask residents to scan a QR-like code on their phones to enter many public buildings so that their movements can be tracked
Interesting anecdote on how drones and robots are employed during this current crisis, though the one about drone hovering above you and shouting out commands at you is a tad disturbing and reminiscent of an Orwellian scenario.
Relate also the surveillance technology that can be useful for contact tracing in this curretn crisis...
Anyway, this is a good example to show how tech can help humans in tasks that may pose a threat to our lives....think also the use of robots and drones in fire-fighting, in battlefields, to repair nuclear reactor metldown in Fukushima, in deep sea diving expeditions....
A major boon also in nations where there is a manpower shortage....
But one interesting angle to conisder is whether is will make us a less human society....if in our daily life we end up just interacting with machines and robots which had taken over jobs previously held by humans (think counter staff at pharmacies, postman, ATMS, bank counters, vending machines...) wouldn't our lives lack the human touch? This is esp so when machines are also making their presence felt in jobs like nursing, surgical operations, eldercare, etc. Realise that the human side of us (capacity for compassion and sympathy, our conscience) can only be manifested when we interact with humans. You probably would need to see a psychiatrist when u start feeling sympathy for a drone or robot. Over time, our interactions with machines will cause the human side of us to be buried and forgotten, so much so that our attitudes towards we fellow human beings will be one that is cold, unfeeling, calculative, etc...
We may even become numb to the sufferings of other human beings coz daily interactions with tech has conditioned us to be lacking in human warmth, not to mention that tech has the ability to alienate us from actual experience; e.g. the scene of a city being bombed on the screen is not 'real' to us for it is 'just something that happens on the screen'. Likewise, a soldier operating a drone from afar has less qualms about pushing a button that will release a bomb on the people below coz he is far away, cushioned from the effect of having to see the consequences with his eyes...it's almost like playing a video game to him,,,,,,
Qns:
1."Scientific advancement make us less human," Do you agree? (ACJC Prelim 2015)
2. To what extent is artificial intelligence replacing the role of humans? (Cam. 2019)
posted by Dark Shadow | 1:29 PM
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