*The following was written without ‘ChatGPT’

(Robot in cover photo by Willy Jackson)

Elon Musk has offered to pay $6,500 for people to gather training data for humanoid robots by wearing motion-capture suits, and walking around neighborhoods, city streets, etc. All of this for the purpose of releasing a workforce of humanoid robots. (citation). These efforts are being undertaken with nowhere near the appropriate amount of ‘buy in’ or negotiation with the communities in which they would be released.

Signers of this petition believe this to be dangerous and want to stop this effort in order to properly negotiate on the release of humanoid robots en masse into society – as well as the data capturing needed to release said robots. 

Who is impacted?

Humanoid robots would in theory be used in all aspects of society (citation), affecting virtually every person. Once released, they would be a common feature of society for the foreseeable future. Any failure to account for the possible negative psychological and cultural impacts could be catastrophic in either the short or long term. 

What is at Stake?

This unprecedented technology could further isolate people from their community as well as their finding meaning through pro-social activity; it could also exacerbate our reliance on technology – and the systems that maintain them – resulting in a substantial reduction in the intellectual and physical development of our populace. 

In the long term, it is also our ability to 'define' and protect our humanity that is at stake. 

Why is Now the Time to Act?

This is a bad situation. There are no obvious times to draw lines when it comes to the progress of technology. Some argued to act with the invention of the production line; some with the invention of the television; and some with ChatGPT. In ten years, some might draw the line at computer-human hybrids. 

The signers of this petition draw the line at humanoid robots and the data-gathering efforts required to make them work. 

In closing, the desire to offload the work tasks we consider menial to dutiful robo-man-servants is a deep, and very human one. 

BUT WE MUST ALL KEEP IN MIND: we, especially in the West, either have – or are in constant proximity to – more material wealth than the royals and nobility of a 150 years ago. And yet despite this extraordinary achievement of our collective ingenuity, history has shown that whether due to the tendency of wealth to spread unequally between people or our inability as humans to make the most of what we have, we are infertile (citation), depressed (citation), and – broadly speaking – unsatisfied (citation) -- all this in spite of what we've achieved since the Industrial Revolution.

We believe it to be self-evidently unwise to not be prepared for that pattern to continue if not directly addressed.

Special Thanks to Raynola Dominguez for Reviews / Edit Suggestions.