Blog Assignment #5: GLaDOS and Wheatly

The video game Portal 2 has an excellent example of the relationship between humans and robots.  A little backstory for this game is that you are a character, Chell, who is woken up by a robot named Wheatly, and learns that she is in a rundown laboratory.  Wheatly in the beginning of the game tries to help Chell escape the lab, but instead accidentally reboots GLaDOS, the robot who controls the entire laboratory.  GLaDOS continues her old antics of trying to kill Chell by making her run through obstacles courses, and all the while Wheatly still helps her.  In a turn of events, Wheatly manages to trade positions with GLaDOS by turning himself into the overall controlling intelligence of the lab, and attaches GLaDOS's personality core to a potato.  At this point Wheatly starts to act the same way as GLaDOS and now tries to kill both Chell and GLaDOS through a series of obstacles courses.  Throughout the rest of the game GLaDOS is reminded that she was once a human whose personality was transferred into the robot known as GLaDOS.  In the end, GLaDOS regains control of the lab, gets rid of Wheatly, and spares Chell.

It is quite obvious that this story plays on the fear in society of an extremely smart and powerful robot getting too much power and overtaking the humans.  What is interesting though is that this story seems to resemble what some humans may do if put under these conditions.  Hypothetically, imagine if one person in control of a kingdom or extreme amount of wealth was attempting to murder people who want him or her gone.  It would be assumed that the people under him or her would eventually team up and try to take that person over.  If that person is defeated, and one person assumes the same leadership, that new leader may start to become worried that people may get jealous or try to overtake the thrown again.  So it becomes a never ending cycle.  I think the story of GLaDOS and Wheatly is a great example of what humans are capable of doing when put in extreme amounts of power.  Studies show that people in power today that have some sort of control over others tend to show less empathy.  New research however shows that these people in power can be taught how to be compassionate again.  In the story of Portal 2, GLaDOS was originally in power who had no remorse for her actions, but it wasn't until after Wheatly assumed power when she finally starts to show empathy again and tries to help Chell.  An interesting part in the story though is that after GLaDOS regains power again, she remembers what it was like to have human-like qualities again because of her past.  She then proceeds to delete those memories and turn back to her old self.  This could be an example of a fear that society may have of robots.  Even if robots can be taught compassion, or even programmed to be compassionate, what is stopping them from deleting these files, or just overall ignoring this function of them?  In humans (unless you're a psychopath) we tend to know what is right from wrong, and even though we may deliberately choose to do wrong, we always know what the right thing to do was.  In powerful robots however, they could easily just ignore this part of their programming and do what is good for them at that time, instead of good for others.