Poland trip hits a snag, Namibia trip is on

Some months ago, I announced that two of my papers were accepted for presentation and publication at IEEE Eurocon and IEEE African conferences. IEEE Eurocon will take place in Warsaw, Poland from Sunday, September 9 to Wednesday September 12 while the IEEE Africon will take place in Windhoek, Namibia from September 26-28.

I am not happy to report that I have failed to travel to Warsaw to take part in IEEE EUROCON. I was scheduled to present my paper in the Telecommunications and Multimedia Systems poster session on the final day of the conference. My failure to attend this conference stems from the Polish bank's failure to process my conference registration fees in good time.There were fears that my paper could be withdrawn because of non-payment. However, after exchanging emails with the EUROCON registration chair for a period of more than one month, the Polish bank processed the fees and as a result, my paper was included in the list of papers to be published. Although this was good news, it did not go down well with the organization which would have sponsored my trip because registration wrangle did not leave them with enough time to process my travel grant application. If my travel grant application went in earlier, I would have been crossing the Mediterranean Sea by now on my way to Warsaw. I will surely miss this exciting conference. I will also miss senZations 2007, a summer school on applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) which runs from September 10 -14. You see, I would have killed two birds with one stone in Warsaw. But the most important thing is that all things whether bad or good work together for our own good.

Now forget about my EUROCON problems because I will wind up this post on high note. The Meraka Institute in Pretoria has paid my conference registration fees , travel costs and accommodation for my participation in the IEEE Africon conference in Windhoek. I would like to thank them for helping me in this way. The AFRICON organizing team has also asked me to co-chair one of the sessions at the conference. This is the first time for me to take up such a responsibility at a conference :)

The Robotic Age and its Ethical Problems

The pace of development in robotics is accelerating very fast.While most people think that robots are futuristic, the situation is different on the ground.Robots are being used for automobile construction, automatic transportation of cargo, assisting surgeons in performing operations etc.Robots have also been used in patrolling toxic environments which are dangerous for human beings to work in.While all these developments are good for mankind, several ethical issues are now arising.

In an online document, one anonymous robotics researcher points out that the word 'robot' was termed in the 1920s.Its root is 'robota', which means forced labour in Czech.The learned researcher (I wish I knew his name) further says that the moral implications of machine slavery are one of the ethical issues to consider as the robotic age booms.The ubiquitous use of robots might eventually replace low skilled human labouur, leaving people without skills or with little education jobless. This will not be good at all to our society.In short, robotics specialists (I am striving to become one) will be the only people enjoying security in their jobs.What will the rest be doing?Stealing?No!In a robotic environment it will be extremely difficult to steal because robotic guards, complemented by wireless sensor networks, will sort you out.Maybe, witchcraft will work.The end result will be an economically paralysed society.The other ethical issue relates to the the treatment given to robots by humans.When do you switch them on?For how long should they work?At what point do these machines cease to be mere devices for work and become entities worthy of moral protection?Assuming a robot has been trained to do a specific task, is it moral to reset its memory and start it afresh?

In order to sort out these ethical problems, South Korea is drawing up an ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa (BBC).This will cover cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later this year. "Imagine if some people treat androids as if the machines were their wives,"said the South Korean robot team official. I laughed my lungs out when I read this statement. By the way, an android is a robot with human appearance. With the rampant promiscuity around, it is very easy for manufacturers to build an android which looks like a very beautiful woman in order to cash in on some immoral minds.Who knows, maybe it is already happening!