Robot Race - Utopian Society

Maybe they could have such needs. They have to run on something after all, and they would have to eat "fuel" of some kind, either as actual fuel for a built-in generator or electricity for batteries. As for sleep, maybe they would have to de-fragment their drives every now and then? Or it could be "downtime for maintenance".

But there are ways to introduce so much noise that wireless communication is rendered impossible or impractical. If teachers can use jammers to prevent cheaters from using their phones during exams, surely the military can do way better than that.

 

By definition, a utopian society is perfect.

So no, you are absolutely wrong.

 

Even maintenance time would be nowhere near the 1/3th of your life we spent sleeping. As for fuel I guess they could have atomic batteries or even cold fusion batteries, so they could run for ages at a time.

True, then again you're trying to interrupt a network of millions of runtime programs, they are bound to come up with counters in seconds.

Even in the scenario you could block their communications, that would be short-range at best. Their network and processing power would still be supreme to anything organic.

 

I'll make viruses then.

 

I'll take the Geth example from earlier: What kind of virus could you make that millions of runtime programs couldn't counter in seconds, minutes at the most. Worst case scenario they could simply format c:// and reboot from the main server.

I'm not saying Robots are perfect beings, I'm simply stating that in most cases they'd be vastly superior to organics.

 

Kind of going away from the current debait, what if the (former) Utopian socity had a glitch or virus that attacked the robots or their centrel mainfraim giving them all individual personalitys. the virus could aslo delet their stored data and they would have to evolve from a stone age allover again (reproduce by some kind of leftover factory). it could be the robot rapture ( For lack of a beter word ) and they evolve like humans and even make religions and stuff- point is, how long would the utopian socity last before some kind of disaster happened. Sorry for bad spelling/grammar. Wheelchair word document is not working correctly.

 

Interesting viewpoint. So robots as humans? For most the end would come near instantly, as they would lack the knowledge required to keep their programs running.

Assuming they know they much...it would truly depend on the speed of development. They'd have to advance fast enough to be able to reproduce robots, assigning rolls will be no different. It would hinge on how strong a place believe would take in society I'd say, and whether or not that is strong enough to start a holy war.

 

I did want to get the point that the robots could form some kind of religion around the Reproduction centers the "gods" left behind. Kind of continuing of breaking race steoriotypes.
Sorry if i come across as hostile

 

No by all means, it's very interesting. It would be logical for a race of sentient machines to turn towards a God, as it is clear that they are created. How far would that devotion go though? Would it be simple acknowledgement, admiration or will there dispute?

 

It could be as far as some humans take it -crusades or sacrifitial rituials

 

Society — yes, perfect. But this does not mean that the race itself lacks problems. People said that they like imperfection, and robotic civilization can have imperfection even with perfect social structure.

 

@Blazerer: Nice post, with interesting points.

With this Utopian way of thinking, even though Robots rely heavily on logic, they only go to war in order to defend themselves or their territory. Utopians would never seek out way themselves, because they do not need whatever other societies might own. Utopia is supposed to be a self-sufficient place and that's what I had in mind for the Robot folk. They do not seek more advancement besides what they already possess and even though they might have the ability to be a terrifying force, they choose to live peacefully.

This brings up an interesting debate. I wrote several posts ago that since Utopians are aware of the dangers that scientific progress may bring, they do not allow nor accept too much scientific advancement - it is limited. This could be interesting to see the robots with, since it's slightly ironic, them being a product of technology and all. But, in a way, they could be seen as the ones wanting to protect the Universe from destruction (thus showing their opposition against whatever destroyed the homeworld), not because of good morals, but because of logic - reckless scientific progress leads to dangerous discoveries, which threaten their existence. So, in a way, their logic would be tied with good deeds, with what is 'right'.

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In theory, yup. However, when it's put into action, it starts being a little shaky. These things all sound delightful in theory, but when they trascend to the real world, a few complications start arising. Still, even though obstacles may surface, Utopians may be able to conquer them with enough will and resources.


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I believe this could make for a quite interesting side-quest - a robot colony that, for the stated reason, has their citizens with individual personalities. It would be nice to see the duality between Utopian Robots not limited by emotions and such, against a society where each individual cares more about him/herself, rather than the community overall.

It would also be funny to see robots running around in pelts and spears, hunting huge animals and what not.

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Also added some extra info that I had previously posted on page 2 to the OP.

 

I'm not so sure a robot could find a middle ground in logical thinking. Robots do not last forever, and will make new ones as it makes the overall workload smaller. At one point resources will run out though, and there is where it gets somewhat muddy.
You stated 'Utopians would never seek out war themselves'. But robots aren't organic are they? They won't argue that every life has equal justification to exist, as it is illogical to put another race's survival above your own. Should they go to war with another race for resources, it would be logical to do so. The Utopian thinking would ensure the fair treatment for the race once it's defeated and both Utopian and logical thinking can agree that adding these people to the 'Empire' would benefit the universe as a whole, as they would develop vastly faster.

The necessary evils of a short war would be offset by uplifting the other race by decades, if not hundreds of years. Nearly everything in their society could be improved by the Utopians.

War is not evil in itself, it's simply a tool of diplomacy

Here we start having a problem though. Because logical thinking would see nor problem with scientific advancement. It could easily be tempered by the morals of Utopians, but for a robot scientific advancement is not evil, it might even go as far as calling it necessary. Simply calling Robots Utopians is impossible, as computer programs would some things logical an Utopian would be against. I assume you want to have robots, but use every guideline an Utopian would use even where this may inflict with logic?

 

Ah, this is starting to take a shape I'm starting to agree with. Nevertheless, wouldn't it be a better call for these secluded robots (Again, I'm going with the Utopian concept here. Utopians didn't mingle much with foreigners, as they viewed the foreign societies as extremely flawed) to, should resources be necessary, look out for them in areas, planets, asteroids and so forth that contained no sentient life, merely to dodge dealing with close-encounter situations. In a way, these Robots aren't ruled by logic only. While logic is the main thing that drives them, they still have that Utopian program running in the back of their minds.

Also, while Utopians are self-sufficient, they may conduct trades with outside folk. For instance, in the original book, Utopians would hire mercenaries to defend them when necessary - I'm not saying that robots should do this as well (a 100% copy wouldn't really work) it's just an example of trading with foreign powers. So, in terms of lacking resources, an analysis could be made... Is it more profitable, less risky, etc. to go to sector V and gather what we need OR trade with the local Apex community? It has to be applied to Starbound, too.

This is the fun, ironic part! :alien: Like I said in the above paragraph, we can't ferry all aspects of Utopia (as a few aspects might not work very well), but should update/transform them to fit better with Starbound instead. ^^ I actually think that robots, out of all races, are the ones who require scientific progress the least. For instance, mankind keeps on researching in order to have breakthroughs in medicine, since we still have millions of people perishing to a variety of medical conditions and what not. Robots have already researched 'enough', according to their standards, to be able to repair themselves or even construct new units when necessary. What Thomas More tells us in Utopia is that too much scientific progress will endanger humanity. As a result, technology is kept in check. Should the robots have a similar mindset, they would oppose this type of behaviour (which might contrast nicely with the Apex), as they see it more dangerous than helpful in the long run.

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A few more questions start arising. What are the robots' origins? What is the point of their life?

While I can't really answer the first, I'll have a go at the second one. Regardless of who created them, robots know that they exist in the now and, as such, must 'live' or 'exist'. But what's their point, their drive, to live? Perhaps they don't know. Perhaps they're aware that they're part of the Universe and that the Universe must live on as much as possible. Perhaps they're also aware that they are a different people but, in a way, since they exist, they start mimicking some aspects of typical civilisation behaviour. Eventually, they might realise that typical way societies act goes against their logic patterns - fighting against one another instead of aiding each other, too much power and money leading to corruption, etc. They would then start altering their life patterns in order to fit what they see is right, thus meeting this topic's idea. Since their existence, in a way, is pointless, they would live to benefit the Universe overall.

This is tricky business to talk about.

 

That is true, though I must say I was thinking from a Risk-like viewpoint. The Utopians 'locked in' between other races. Trade could be possible, though it would depend on the margins those alien races have on their sales. A too high a margin might make war the 'cheaper' solution. But indeed, in an Utopian place where aliens are far, far away. Mining asteroids in different sectors would be the 'better' way.

I don't think robots would alter already based patterns to try and mimick other societies, don't forget those societies are flawed in their eyes to begin with, and as such could barely contribute anything to their own. First priority would be self-sustainment, after that...I guess it could go either way, perhaps based on which runtime program comes with the wish to advance first. A robot would never fight against others of it's kind, so it may lead to either a schism or to a unified robot 'empire'.

I do doubt they'd simply do things based on being a benefit for the Universe, I'd say they would do things their own way, yet in ways the Universe could profit from it as well.

 

No. Not in theory. BY DEFINITION.

If it is not perfect, it is not utopian.

 

The modern definition of Utopia also states that it is impracticable, a concept of visionary nature. So, yes, while it may sound perfect when talked and written about, the tables turn when it's put to practice in the real world. I personally don't believe it is impossible, only quite difficult to apply.

 

Utopia is perfect. If it is not perfect, it is not a utopia.

Saying an "imperfect utopia" is, literally, saying "imperfect perfection". It is a contradiction in terms.

 

I have no doubt that if there are any real robot races in the Universe they would have a society very different from our own.
The OP is pure win as a concept for backstory in a game with a robot race and I applaud the effort.
Tiy and the other developers should read this thread before going too far with the development of the robot details.

 

Thank you, Voyager. ^^

I do sometimes wonder what's the actual background story that the developers will come up with. They've been doing a fairly good job with what we have so far, so I have no worries, though I'd like to see my suggestion, or at least part of it, being implemented.