Probably not in the sense of a mechanical contraption that performs a variety of general tasks upon command. I’d just as soon drive my own car and cut my own grass. I do expect to increasingly mind-meld with sentient electronic intelligence, and I expect that in return for increased knowledge and intelligence I will be required to surrender some portion of my natural organic will and purposes to the conflicting interests of the electronic intelligence. So in effect I will personally become increasingly “robotic.”

“What would you want a robot to do for you?”

It could act as a mechanical beaver and increase the height of the dam that impounds the water in my pond. It would also be useful to have it watch and guard against intrusion of feral hogs. Occasionally one of my old trees dies and needs to be removed; the robot would be welcome to manage that project.

“And when do you think you will acquire your first personal robot?”

Never.

That one is already settled in opposition by the mass implementation of robotic land mines and target seeking missiles. Is a Predator drone a “Robot?” One might say “no it isn’t, because a human is in control,” but the village fool can notice the “human” that ostensibly is in control is blindly following institutional “rules of engagement.” The humans that control Predators have no personal free-will ethical volition; “It is not for them to reason why; it is for them to do or die.” Some of the military men who spent thousands of hours in underground ICBM missile silos thought about the ethical implications of obedience to National Security Authority chain of command orders to launch H-bombs at great cities in distant lands. How would they be any different than mindless robots if they obeyed a valid strike order?

What about JDAM guided bombs and “smart” artillery rounds? Is any “fire and forget” weapon system robotic?

“2. Humans, not robots, are responsible agents. Robots are tools designed to achieve human goals.”

Why not say humans are tools designed to achieve society’s goals?

“3. Robots should be designed in ways that assure their safety and security.”

For the robots or for the humans?

“4. Robots are artifacts; they should not be designed to exploit vulnerable users by evoking an emotional response or dependency. It should always be possible to tell a robot from a human.”

Is an android a robot? It should always be possible to tell a demon infested pedophile or serial killer from an altruistic saint, but we don’t live in that universe. If we can build a robot that is indistinguishable from a human, then by the simple Euclidian dictum: “things that are equal to equal things are themselves equal,” we must deduce that the robot is human. Who has the Divine authority to rule that humans must be produced only through organic procreation?

“5. It should always be possible to find out who is legally responsible for a robot.”

It should always be possible to find out who is legally responsible for any public act that affects the interests of others. We don’t live in that universe. Looks like that one is no different than who is driving a car during an accident or who owns the dog that bit the kid?

The giant elephant in the room full of all these naïve ethical speculations is that without strong electronic AI implemented as a self-willed person, the rampaging robot scene is just not a problem. Once strong AI is achieved, the problem will be AI/hominid mind-meld that transforms human bodies/brains into “robots,” which will look exactly like humans. Hominids that refuse mind-meld with natural language electronic AI will suffer huge disadvantages in intellectual capacity, and will be practically worthless in competitive market economies. The mind-melded hominids will round up the resisters and transport them to internment camps to use as breeders awaiting the “final solution.” It wouldn’t be traditional gas chambers and ovens. No good point in wasting a perfectly good fully-grown organic robot host for electronic AI. It would be forced extermination of natural organic psychic personhood and replacement with a totally controlling electronic AI person working through the organic body. It really seems to come down to, “We are the Borg. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!”

The pretenders to universal ethical authority need to forget about their imagined robot problems and concern themselves with the very real grave implications of mind meld technology that provides an organic host body/mind for electronic personhood. I’m not optimistic that humanity can control the transformation that is already crashing down upon us.