INTRODUCTION

The ever-growing society has made people see technology as some form of
necessity. Tracing back its origins, the word "technology" came from the Greek words
techne and logos which mean art and word, respectively. Taking the two words
together, technology means a discourse on arts (Buchanan, 2010). It first appeared in
the seventeenth century where the concept was only used to talk about the arts,
specifically applied arts. However, as technology progressed, the concept also started
to have a wider range of meaning where art is no longer the only topic included.
Concepts like machine and tools were also attached to the word "technology" which is
the more popular sense of the concept nowadays.

The roles played by technology these days are very crucial not only to a few but
also to everyone. In one way or another, each person in the society is directly or
indirectly affected by technology whether he wills it or not.

It is with great effort that people were able to achieve such great inventions. It
makes life so much easier and more convenient than ever before. It can clearly be
seen from the simplest task at home to the most complicated ones inside the office or
laboratory.

Television Sets, Mobile Phones, Computers, and Humanity.

A number of technological devices can be easily found inside the home, the most
accessible place to anyone.

First, according to Kantar Media, one of the most trusted television audience
measurement providers, in the Philippines, 92 percent of urban homes and 70 percent
of rural homes own at least one television set. It is for this reason why television
remains to be the ultimate medium for advertisement placements (The Manila Times,
2014).

Television was a product of different experiments by various people. Paul

Gottlieb Nipkow, a German student, in the late 1800s was successful in his attempt to
send images through wires with the aid of a rotating metal disk. This invention was
then called the "electric telescope" that had 18 lines of resolution. After some time, in
1907, two inventors, Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton who was an English scientist
and Boris Rosing who was a Russian scientist, created a new system of television by
using the cathode ray tube in addition to the mechanical scanner system.

This success story gave rise to two types of television systems, namely,
mechanical and electronic television (Jezek, n.d.). These experiments inspired other
scientists to improve the previous inventions, which led to the modern television
people now have.

Second, Filipinos love to use their mobile phones anywhere, anytime. They use it
for different purposes other than for communication.

More than half of the Filipino population own at least one mobile phone
regardless of type. In 2010, global research agency Synovate conducted a survey and
declared 67 percent product ownership in the country. In fact, it was also claimed that
mobile phones are considered a must-have among young Filipinos (ABS-CBN News,
2010). To prove that Filipinos really love to use their mobile phones, the Ipsos Media
Atlas Philippines Nationwide Urban 2011-2012 survey results showed that one in
every three Filipinos cannot live without a mobile phone. In other words, 30 percent
of the Philippine urban population nationwide said that mobile phones are necessities
in life (Roa, 2012). Philippine streets are full of people using their mobile phones.

Just like television sets and mobile phones, computers and laptops also have a
long background history of trial and error. It was Charles Babbage, a nineteenth-
century English Mathematics professor, who designed the Analytical Engine which
was used as the basic framework of the computers even until the present time.

Here are some facts about Filipinos and their use of gadgets and the Internet
(Rappler, n.d.):

• Mobile phone subscription is at 119 million.

• Filipinos spend approximately 3.2 hours on mobile and 5.2 hours on desktop
daily.
• Currently, the Philippines has one of the highest digital populations in the
world.
• There are now 47 million active Facebook accounts in the Philippines.
• The Philippines is the fastest-growing application market in Southeast Asia.

Roles Played by These Technological Advancements

Television sets, mobile phones, and computers or laptops all have different
functions and roles played in the lives of the people, although some may be a little
similar.

For instance, television is mainly used as a platform for advertisements and

information dissemination. In fact, television remains to be the most used avenue by
different advertising companies not only in the Philippines but also all over the world.

Mobile phones, on the other hand, also have their own roles in the lives of the
people. They are primarily used for communication. Mobile phones offer services like
texting and calling. In the past, these were the only functions of the mobile phone but
as technology progressed, there have been many additional features included on
mobile phones.

Personal computers and laptops also have useful set of functions and roles.
Although most of the functions found in these technological devices are now also
available in mobile phones, they still offer their own unique features that make them
attractive.

Ethical Dilemma Faced by These Technological Advancements

While it is true that these technological devices are useful and beneficial, the fact
remains that there are several dilemmas faced by these "necessities." First, most
parents would argue that these devices make their children lazy and unhealthy. This is
because of the fact that people who are fixated on these technological advancements
start and end their day by using such devices. They have a great tendency to sit and
chill all day long without doing anything productive in their homes, thus making them
unhealthy because they do not just skip meals sometimes but also lack exercise or any
bodily movements.

Another dilemma faced by these technological devices is the moral dilemma.

People, especially the children who are not capable yet of rationally deciding for
themselves what is right or wrong, are freely exposed to different things on television,
mobiles phones, laptops, or computers, Because of the availability and easy access to
the Internet, they can just easily search the web and go to different websites without
restrictions.

On the first dilemma, it is really concerning to know that there are people who
develop different kinds of sickness because of too much use of technological devices.
Not only this, it also causes them to become reclusive, alienating themselves from
other people.

Digging deeper, it can be said that these reasons make such devices somewhat
unethical because they bring undesirable consequences to people. However, it can
also be argued that it is not the fault of the technological devices but the agents using
them or the ones making them. The classic deontological and teleological approaches
to ethics are already too old to be applied in such cases.

The word "responsibility" in the sense of being accountable for and accountable
to is very appropriate to the ethics of technology because it makes each and every
person in the scientific-technological development a proxy with reference to one
another.

On the second dilemma, the people in the scientific world nor the children are
blameworthy because first, the children are not yet capable of rationally deciding for
themselves what is good and what is bad. Second, even if creators of these
technologies went out of their way to inform children of the pros and cons of these
technological contributions, it would still be useless because the children have no
capacity to understand them yet. So in this dilemma, the ones to be blamed are the
adults who allowed the children to have access to such devices in the first place
without any supervision.

Robotics and Humanity

Another great product of the innovative minds of the people is the robot. Robots
are now widely used. For example, there are the so-called service robots. Robot is an
actuated mechanism programmable in two or more axes with a degree of autonomy,
moving within its environment, to perform intended tasks. Autonomy in this context
means the ability to perform intended tasks based on current state and sensing without
human intervention.

A service robot is a robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment
excluding industrial automation application.

Note: A robot may be classified according to its intended application as an industrial

robot or a service robot.

• A personal service robot or a service robot for personal use is a service robot
used for a noncommercial task, usually by laypersons. Examples are domestic
servant robot, automated wheelchair, personal mobility assist robot, and pet
exercising robot.
• A professional service robot or a service robot for professional use is a service
robot used for a commercial task, usually operated by a properly trained
operator. Examples are cleaning robot for public places, delivery robot in
offices or hospitals, fire fighting robot, rehabilitation robot, and surgery robot
in hospitals. In this context, an operator is a person designated to start,
monitor, and stop the intended operation of a robot or a robot system.
• To achieve a technological edge toward attaining key functions and
components that are suited for everyday use
• To create a reference architecture for mobile manipulation
• To promote the convergence of technologies through integration into a
common technology platform
• To conduct pre-competition research and development activities for new
products and technology transfer in start-up enterprises in the field of service
robotics.

Roles Played by Robotics

Robots play different roles not only in the lives of the people but also in the
society as a whole. They are primarily used to ease the workload of mankind. They
were invented to make life more efficient and less stressful.
 On one hand, they perform complicated activities which human beings are
incapable of doing. On the other hand, they perform the simplest tasks at home so that
their masters can perform the complex ones without stressing themselves over the
simple tasks.

Ethical Dilemma/s Faced by Robotics

Just like any other technological advancements, robotics also faces different
problems and dilemmas. Although the idea is to help people and make their lives a lot
easier than before, it is still not immune to different ethical dilemmas and possible
undesirable outcomes. One of the dilemmas faced by robots is safety.

Another ethical dilemma faced by robots is the emotional component. This may
seem a little absurd as of the moment, but looking at how fast technology progresses
nowadays, it is not completely impossible for robots to develop emotions (Evans,
2007).

So here, the questions become, "What if robots become sentient?

Should they be granted robot rights? Should they have their own set of rights to be
upheld, respected, and protected by humans?" It is interesting to know how people
would react if the time comes when robots can already feel pain and pleasure.

For the second dilemma, it is just right for the robots to be given their own set of
rights should they develop the ability to feel different kinds of emotion. It can be
argued that the same thing happened with animals. Before, animals did not have their
own set of rights because people believed that they were not capable of having
emotions.