Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University

Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited
Lesson: When Technology and Humanity Cross

Main goal of S&T: to bring about good life to everyone (and the society, as a whole).

One of the characteristics of living a good life is living in a fair and progressive society, whose citizens
have the freedom to flourish. Also, living a good life means having the autonomy or freedom to make
choices which may enable the flourishing of oneself and the society. In essence, one of the basic
requirements for living a good life is having and exercising basic human rights!

Human Rights according to UN Provisions

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on
December 10, 1948 as the global standard of fundamental human rights for universal recognition and
protection. They are as follows:

Preamble
“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the
human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged
the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of
speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the
common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against
tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental
human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women
and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the
promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full
realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN
RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every
individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching
and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national
and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the
peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.”

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 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited

Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any
kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political,
jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be
independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their
forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All
are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any
incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the
fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal,
in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited

1. Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be

presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the
guarantees necessary for his defense.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offense on account of any act or omission which did not
constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor
shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was
committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor
to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against
such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or
from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to
marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its
dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society
and the State.
Article 17.
1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.
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 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and

religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in
community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen
representatives.
2. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in
periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret
vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through
national effort and international cooperation and in accordance with the organization and resources of
each State, of the economic, social, and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free
development of his personality.
Article 23.
1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work
and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his
family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social
protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic
holidays with pay.

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 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited

Article 25.
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of
his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right
to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or
out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental
stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made
generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening
of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and
friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United
Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to
share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any
scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is
possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are
determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and
freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare
in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the
United Nations.

Article 30.
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 Republic of the Philippines
Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for

any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the
destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Things to think about

1. Can technology deny us of our basic human rights?
2. Which articles would be disregarded or bypassed due to unethical use of technology?

Humans vs robots: Progress or end of humanity?

A centuries-old question regarding the development of technology is “Can technologies (like machines and robots)
completely replace humans and make humans expendable?”

According to Stephen Hawking, a well-known cosmologist, "The development of full artificial intelligence
could spell the end of the human race." Moreover, Elon Musk, a renowned inventor and investor, insists, "I
think human extinction will probably occur, and technology will likely play a part in this."

Several questions come to mind, the biggest one being: Will hostile artificial intelligence (AI) destroy
humanity? However, it is more practical to focus on questions and answers that demonstrate the effect
robotics have on our current lives.

Three Stages of Technology Development

1. Putting machines (like trucks, ships, winches, etc) to work
2. Making machines automatic (like in industrial production, autopilot in cars and planes, etc) by
designing them to follow pre-calculated and stored patterns
3. Programming these automatic machines to learn and store new patterns (also called machine-
learning). Through the observatory process in stage three, robots and machines would be able to
cope with unknown or unexpected situations, such as offering better service for unpredictable
consumer behavior, navigating tricky traffic, or even providing trouble shooting suggestions.

Where does the problem arise?

A. Stage 1 machinery led to unemployment for a significant number of workers. However, these jobs
were often either too strenuous, impossible or sometimes deadly for humans. Consider logging,
transporting heavy items or mining. We should be grateful that these jobs are now primarily done
by machines since these jobs often proved more dangerous than productive when performed by
people.
B. Many more have also lost jobs because of stage 2 machines, a robotic trend with no end in sight.
The automatization of office-related tasks, food production and services along with robotic
assembly lines are some examples. Studies have shown that more than half of all jobs have either
already been lost or will be lost to robots within the next few years!
Should humanity be worried about robots and machines?

The value of human labor is decreasing because the cost of automatic machines is decreasing. This not
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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited
only affects those who have lost their jobs to machines, but also
those who are still working and getting paid less.

So, should we worry that stage 3 machines, robots with intelligence, could deal an even deadlier blow to
our well-being? Interestingly, neither Hawking nor Musk has yet to even bring up the topic. From their
comfortable seats - since neither of them will lose their jobs to an automaton - they talk about a future in
which intelligent robots will find humans completely unnecessary, leading them to dispose of us all.

The significant difference between stages 2 and 3 robotics is the machines' learning capabilities. If we
could understand how that works, we could perhaps fathom what the real, or imagined, future may bring.

Due to the pre-calculated and stored patterns in their memories, stage 2 robots repeatedly perform the
same action. For example, the automated machines peel and cut the carrots exactly the same way, every
time. If you give the machine a smaller or larger carrot, it will be wasted.

On the other hand, stage 3 machines will first have to learn how to cut different carrots during the
learning phase. Some of these learning experiments are performed in a simulated environment where no
actual carrot is used. Each carrot-cutting experiment is observed, and a score is assigned to its success
level. The algorithmic foundations of machine learning have found that thousands of carrot-cutting
experiments would finally configure the computational engine and create a pretty accurate carrot-cutting
robot. However, the learning does not stop here, as the robot continues to do its work in the field, it
continues to learn.

Acting according to the learned patterns creates a strict form of intelligence. The computer industry has
rushed to define it as the intelligence, often implying it is equal to or even better than human intelligence.
Certain examples have been exaggerated, for example, a chess program running on a supercomputer
named Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov. There is too much commercialism here, and the essence is
lost in the dust. There is absolutely no doubt that learning machines will make a big difference. For
example, it will make safe self-driving cars a reality. This technology will soon be applied to flying
machines too, starting with small delivery drones.

A machine that has learned, stored and used patterns to make decisions is just another form of a
programmed machine. We have absolutely no clue how a machine can act independently, either to start
learning a completely new set of patterns on its own or choosing to jump in the pattern space from one
corner to another. The learning process, on the other hand, may be highly detrimental to the health of the
machine. The machine may breakdown several times before it can be an effective enemy to humans.

A set of AI robots taking over humanity is far-fetched. Evolution provided a spectacular opportunity for
biological creatures, but this took an extraordinarily long time, several billion years and several
extinctions.

However, AI robots are already taking our jobs, particularly those requiring simple cognitive and
mechanical skills. This trend continues because engineers know how to make them, and because the
captains of the industry worship efficiency and profit.
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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
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The Ethical Dilemmas of Robotics

Dylan Evans wrote about the idea of robot ethics that sounds like something out of science fiction. His
descriptive narrative presentation is as follows:
Scientists are already beginning to think seriously about the new ethical problems posed by current
developments in robotics.
This week, experts in South Korea said they were drawing up an ethical code to prevent humans abusing
robots, and vice versa. And, a group of leading roboticists called the European Robotics Network (Euron)
has even started lobbying governments for legislation.
At the top of their list of concerns is safety. Robots were once confined to specialist applications in
industry and the military, where users received extensive training on their use, but they are increasingly
being used by ordinary people.
Robot vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers are already in many homes, and robotic toys are increasingly
popular with children.
As these robots become more intelligent, it will become harder to decide who is responsible if they
injure someone. Is the designer to blame, or the user, or the robot itself?
Software robots are basically just complicated computer programs. However, they are already making
important financial decisions. Whose fault is it if they make a bad investment?
Isaac Asimov was already thinking about these problems back in the 1940s, when he developed his
famous "three laws of robotics".
He argued that intelligent robots should all be programmed to obey the following three laws:
● A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
● A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict
with the First Law
● A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First
or Second Law

These three laws might seem like a good way to keep robots from harming people. But to a roboticist
they pose more problems than they solve. In fact, programming a real robot to follow the three laws
would itself be very difficult.
For a start, the robot would need to be able to tell humans apart from similar-looking things such as
chimpanzees, statues and humanoid robots.
This may be easy for us humans, but it is a very hard problem for robots, as anyone working in machine
vision will tell you.
Robot “rights”
Similar problems arise with rule two, as the robot would have to be capable of telling an order apart
from a casual request, which would involve more research in the field of natural language processing.

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Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited
Asimov's three laws only address the problem of making robots
safe, so even if we could find a way to program robots to follow
them, other problems could arise if robots became sentient.
If robots can feel pain, should they be granted certain rights? If robots develop emotions, as some
experts think they will, should they be allowed to marry humans? Should they be allowed to own
property?
These questions might sound far-fetched, but debates over animal rights would have seemed equally far-
fetched to many people just a few decades ago. Now, however, such questions are part of mainstream
public debate.
And the technology is progressing so fast that it is probably wise to start addressing the issues now.
One area of robotics that raises some difficult ethical questions, and which is already developing rapidly,
is the field of emotional robotics.
This is the attempt to endow robots with the ability to recognize human expressions of emotion, and to
engage in behavior that humans readily perceive as emotional. Humanoid heads with expressive
features have become alarmingly lifelike.
David Hanson, an American scientist who once worked for Disney, has developed a novel form of
artificial skin that bunches and wrinkles just like human skin, and the robot heads he covers in this can
smile, frown, and grimace in very human-like ways.
These robots are specifically designed to encourage human beings to form emotional attachments to
them. From a commercial point of view, this is a perfectly legitimate way of increasing sales. But the
ethics of robot-human interaction are more murky.
Jaron Lanier, an internet pioneer, has warned of the dangers such technology poses to our sense of our
own humanity. If we see machines as increasingly human-like, will we come to see ourselves as more
machine-like?
Lanier talks of the dangers of "widening the moral circle" too much.
If we grant rights to more and more entities besides ourselves, will we dilute our sense of our own
specialness?
This kind of speculation may miss the point, however. More pressing moral questions are already being
raised by the increasing use of robots in the military.
The US military plans to have a fifth of its combat units fully automated by the year 2020. Asimov's laws
don't apply to machines which are designed to harm people. When an army can strike at an enemy with
no risk to lives on its own side, it may be less scrupulous in using force.
If we are to provide intelligent answers to the moral and legal questions raised by the developments in
robotics, lawyers and ethicists will have to work closely alongside the engineers and scientists
developing the technology. And that, of course, will be a challenge in itself.

Intellectual Property

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