If Only the Robots Were Here
March 19, 2020
Too many lives will be lost as part of this COVID-19 crisis. Trillions of dollars are being spent to keep the world economy from collapsing, and I believe similar amounts should be dedicated to finding a treatment to rid us of this pandemic as soon as possible.
Moreover, in the future, another virus could emerge with similar or worse effects, stressing and threatening once again our societies and our lives. As the population of the world grows, and cities expand, it does so in a planet that has sustained life for billions of years, of which humans have been part of only a fraction. These pandemics are part of a natural cycle.
The world should continue trying to treat, cure, and prevent the COVID-19 threat and any other threat that arises in the future. But while thinking about the different approaches that need to be explored and potentially developed to solve this problem, we should add robots to the list.
Robotics has a potentially positive impact on our world, but it is feared for so many valid reasons. Deploying machines to help in a nuclear accident, or natural disasters, are all listed as potentially helpful scenarios where the machine does something otherwise harmful to a human.
Lack of capital and technology is preventing further progress in the day-to-day implementation of robots. Humans are still faster to train and are better at adapting and making processes efficient. Our brains have evolved to recognize patterns and utilize our bodies to interact with our surroundings in ways robots can mimic only in a small set of scenarios.
We were all amazed to see the dog-robot learn how to open a door in a promotional video a year ago. It was the culmination of years of research and development with millions of dollars of funding. Still, while the gap between humans and robots grows smaller each day, the human ability is a far distance to catch even with large amounts of investment. Until now.
A vast part of our health system could enjoy the benefits of using robots to treat patients affected by COVID-19, reducing, perhaps eliminating the loss of life of our hospital personnel. A large number of functions in our retail chains could use robots to maintain the flow of goods while keeping humans at a safe distance — far from passing the coronavirus to each other.
The associated cost of developing robotics, which has been blocked by sadly cheap human labor, has suddenly decreased. Nobody in their right mind should expect people to go to work at the risk of contracting a disease. Hence, whatever amount that was invested in the past to develop robotics is about to experience a tremendous increase.
However, this new paradigm should evolve with guardrails. It is imperative that robots are developed to support human life and increase its quality — not replace or kill us. It is important that once the crisis subsides, we humans emerge in control of our reality with better tools to deal with future crises. We must be prepared to better face what the future brings, ensuring the solution isn’t worse than the problem.
