Robots and Education Labor

Audrey Watters @audreywatters

Robots and Other Ed-Tech Workers

Rossum’s Universal Robots (1920)

“The human brain must be made to conform to the much more advanced brain of the machine.

And education will no longer be an unpredictable and exciting adventure in human enlightenment

but an exercise in conformity and an apprenticeship to whatever gadgetry is useful in a

technical world.” — Jacques Ellul

Sidney Pressey’s teaching machine (patented 1928)

B F Skinner’s teaching machine (~1950s)

From Isaac Asimov, the “Three Laws of Robotics”: !

1: A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

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2: A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

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3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Laws.

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0: A robot may not harm humanity, or by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.