Correction notion Idea of Progress

Bonjour,

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My presentation is going to deal with the “Idea of progress”. Indeed, progress can have different meanings, but in general it entails anything which improves our living conditions and society. It can be political, with the development of democracy and the guarantee of liberties, freedom and human rights. Most of the time, we associate progress with technological innovation and achievements. They contribute to the improvement of our working conditions, material comfort and well-being. In class we studied today’s robots, in fact, we are trying to make more and more companion robots, which are more intelligent, with more abilities and more efficient. Moreover, the idea of progress is still subject to debate between those who consider that it’s beneficial and those who think it’s harmful. Therefore, we may ask : should we fear progress ? To answer this question, on the one hand, I’ll mention differents documents that illustrate the many uses of robots and on the other hand I will depict the limits of this system which focus around today robots. (personnellement je ne mettrai pas de cas possessif, ça se discute et je comprends ce que tu veux dire néanmoins ça reste des choses)

First of all, we studied in class two excerpts from the documentary film “A world without humans” by Philippe Borrel. This work allows us to discover the robot Matilda which have different uses. In the first place, it is used to hire employee in a more precise way. Indeed, the robot asks questions and analyzes the answers by using face recognition thanks to two cameras which are its eyes. They're more precise than human eyes and detect minute changes in the applicant’s face when he applies for a job. It can help to understand how the applicant works and behaves at work, in order to take the right decision. It the second place, Matilda can be useful in an elderly people’s home. In fact, it can entertain the elderly people, for instance by playing bingo. Throughout the excerpt, we can see Matilda talking with an old lady, advicing people on their health or reading the newspaper. Finally we studied in class an interview with a robot named Sophia. It’s an interview uploaded by the American TV channel CNBC presenting Sophia, a social humanoid robot fitted with an artificial intelligence. It appears that she is excited to be surrounded by smart, rich and powerful people. Furthermore, she is able to show many facial expressions to communicate with people, for example she can smile, laugh or let us know if she is angry. During the interview, Sophia explain her purpose, I quote : “I want to use my artificial intelligence to help humans live a better life, like build better cities of the future”. Moreover, wisdom, kindness and compassion are human values that compose her artificial intelligence. Therefore, I may add that Sophia was made citizen of Saudi Arabia, a country where women were only recently allowed to drive; as a result we must wonder what are the limits of this system which focuses around those robots.

Indeed, this set of documents helps us to wonder about the limits of robotics. For instance in the case of Matilda, robots guarantee no social interaction. There is no place for improvisation, every question needs to be programmed into the robot software and so the answers cannot be developed. In this way, we may talk about an excerpt from “Reason”, a science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov and published in 1941. The story takes place in a space station where human want robots to replace them and manage the station without any human intervention, because it’s too dangerous for them to work there. There are 3 characters in the story : a robot which is called Cutie and a human called Powell. There is another human executive in the station, whose name is unknown and who is only mentioned. Cutie is the most intelligent robot ever made and it has been thinking about its origins. It believes that humans were unable to create it but rather that the station computer made it. Cutie thinks humans will disappear, then robots will take control of the stations. In the meantime, humans will be treated as pets as long as they don’t rebel. Therefore, this excerpt evokes a society completely focused on robots that control everything while humans are seen as pets. This novel makes people aware that robots can develop our society but can also harm human being. As a result, human being could be subservient to robots and be replaced by them.

To sum up, I think progress is neither good nor bad because it’s essential to evolve and it’s necessary to our comfort. The main point is how we use progress; indeed progress can be dangerous when it is misused or out of control. Finally, this set of document, while illustrating the notion Idea of progress, can also illustrate the notion Seats and forms of power.

Regarde bien car le gras n'a pas voulu prendre partout et je t'ai corrigé pas mal de petites fautes comme des S à la 3e personne du présent à partir du 2e paragraphe le premier était très bien

Pour les robots il faut que tu fasses un choix soit tu en parles comme des humains et tu prends le pronom He et tout ce qui va avec soit c'est It mais pas un mix des deux. Du coup j'ai tout remis avec It mais tu choisiras, c'est aussi mon interrogation sur le cas possessif.

Bon courage