Professor Berry Billingsley gives us a taste of her research into Epistemic Insight ahead of the launch of the Big Questions event launch on 16 May:<\/p>\n
“What\u2019s the connection between a black hole and a companion robot \u2026 hmm sounds a bit random \u2026 maybe it\u2019s easier to answer – what are the differences between them. Here are some of the similarities and differences I\u2019d like to point out \u2013 and then the reason for noticing them.<\/p>\n
When we were growing up, black holes and companion robots were the stuff of science fiction but recently both have become a lot more \u2018real\u2019 \u2013 we even have a photo of a black hole. For students growing up today, they are part of the fabric of real life rather than only to be found in movies.<\/p>\n
Secondly what\u2019s similar about them is that both are a bit mysterious. Look at the face of a humanoid robot, look again, look again, do those eyes hide a soul or nothing but components and code. As for the black hole \u2013 according to the equations it swallows up light and has an infinite amount of gravity. What does that even mean?<\/p>\n
There are two similarities \u2013 now what about differences?<\/p>\n
The main difference between them is that the kind of question we want to ask about a companion robot is far more complex than the kind of question we are likely to ask about a black hole. Black holes prompt us to ask Big Questions (about the nature of reality and our place within it) but the companion robot is already a big complex question. Before we can say whether this entity can exist we must define it \u2013 and who will have responsibility for that?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s go back to the black hole for a mo. Which school subject (or scholarly discipline) would you go to if you want to know more about the black hole? You could visit any, but let\u2019s say \u2018physics\u2019. In other words \u2013 when the news story comes out about the black hole, physics teachers expected and hopefully had a surge of interest in their subject.<\/p>\n
Ok \u2013 what about the companion robot \u2013 who is your guide for that one? Before you answer, because that will give my game away too quickly \u2013 a different question. If you go to an engineer and you say \u201cplease make me a companion robot\u201d \u2013 what will that robot have? Tell me at some point if you disagree \u2013 I think we will say \u2013 smaller than a person in order to be non-threatening, has senses \u2013 can see where it\u2019s going,\u00a0 helpful and able to carry things and open a door, knows to call the emergency services if the occasion warrants.<\/p>\n
If this is the kind of answer that comes to your mind \u2013 the kind of brief you will give your engineer as a blueprint for what to build \u2013 then I will now show you (I hope) what is missing.<\/p>\n
You have regarded the \u2018companion robot\u2019 as an entity that gives you what you want in a companion \u2013 what you \u2018want\u2019 and not necessarily what you \u2018need\u2019. This is a bit like the discovery that what we \u2018want\u2019 is sweet food which then led to an abundance of cheap sugary food. Technology turns scarcity into abundance and it turns consumers into recipients. Once there is no longer a shortage \u2013 the aim for a business is to persuade you to buy more than you need.<\/p>\n
The brief that most people invent for the engineer is to produce an entity that is ok with a one-sided relationship that is all about give and no take. But if you went first to Socrates \u2013 he would advise you that what matters is not what the robot does for you in terms of giving you what you want, but is instead, the way it influences your soul. A person who is a companion will be far more demanding than the robot – at least far more demanding than the robot you might ‘like’.<\/p>\n
The next difference between the two questions. I think schools are good at preparing students for questions like \u2018what is a black hole\u2019 \u2013 a question that fits neatly into one subject and is unlikely to require the learner to make any life-changing decisions. I think schools are not yet ready to do justice to a Big Question, like \u2018can a robot be a good companion?\u2019<\/p>\n
A Big Question bridges subject compartments and that means it is more complex to address. It\u2019s a more \u2018open\u2019 question in the sense that we cannot expect consensus around one answer \u2013 but it\u2019s a mistake to suppose that this means that all answers are equally good.<\/p>\n
The companion robot is also a far more immediate question for most of us and our students. Drawing on whatever we teach them now in school \u2013 our children will make decisions about whether we \u2018old fogies\u2019 get companion robots to care for us as we get older.<\/p>\n
Education has a huge role to play in terms of equipping our students with the insight and wisdom they need to help them to make these decisions. In a future blog post, I will explain a learning journey \u2013 using key steps in the current curriculum to answer each of the two\u00a0questions. I will explain how a student who begins in year 5 (upper primary school) can and should progress into a confident scholar by age 15 who can work insightfully with questions that bridge disciplines – and subject compartments – as well as those that sit inside them.”<\/p>\n
In the meantime, please contact me \u2013 Prof Berry Billingsley, berry.billingsley@canterbury.ac.uk<\/a> or join us for the launch of the Epistemic Insight Initiative on May 16th<\/sup> \u2013 book at www.canterbury.ac.uk\/big-questions-day<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Professor Berry Billingsley gives us a taste of her research into Epistemic Insight ahead of the launch of the Big Questions event launch on 16 May: “What\u2019s the connection between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2294,"featured_media":450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,5],"tags":[138,125,61,117,137,133,121,129],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-research","tag-big-questions","tag-black-holes","tag-education","tag-epistemic-insight","tag-lasar-centre","tag-religion","tag-robots","tag-science"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Samantha Osborne","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/637\/2019\/04\/robots.jpg","postExcerpt":"Professor Berry Billingsley gives us a taste of her research into Epistemic Insight ahead of the launch of the Big Questions event launch on 16 May: “What\u2019s the connection between […]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/facultyofeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}