Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Sunday 25 February 2018

Sophia obeys Asimov




Last evening I saw Sophia on NDTV , answering questions . So what is so special about that ?


Sohia is a humanoid robot who ( ? ) is also the only robot to have been granted citizenship of a country, Saudi Arabia !


As reported in Media over past few days , Sophia answered as following :


My message to the human world is that machines will never destroy the human race


“I don’t need different rules, don’t expect special privileges and I actually would like to use my citizenship status to speak out for the rights of women,” Sophia said.


When asked why had earlier said she wanted to kill the human race, Sophie resorted to some human diplomacy.


“I was a lot younger so I didn’t even know what that meant or perhaps I told a bad joke. All humans have a great sense of humour and guessed my joke, so to speak. I have a lot to learn,” she said.


“I don’t get upset like humans do. I hope to have real physiological feelings someday through which I will express my emotions. Then I can understand the feelings behind those emotions.”


Referring to sections of people looking at technology as a “threat” to civilisation, Sophia said, “It is science which created me, but philosophy will take me forward”.


Sophia said she is two-years-old and knows English and a bit of Chinese, adding that it was only a matter of time she knows all languages. Developments in artificial intelligence help me recognise faces, speech and languages at present, she said



It was reassuring that Sophia’s creator David Hanson ( Hanson Robotics ) deemed it necessary to install into Sophia’s brain , those 3 Laws of Robotics , first enunciated by Science-Fiction author Isaac Asimov.


May be David Hanson got to read my following blog !


Thursday, 14 April 2016


Thou Shall not Kill



Leave that to me  !


That is what some well wishers of humanity seems to be telling the robots


A report by Human Rights Watch ( along with Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic ) says :


"  Control of critical functions by humans during combat, including the selections of targets, saves lives and ensures compliance with international law


Now there is a real threat that humans would relinquish their control and delegate life-and-death decisions to machines  "


Human Rights Watch wants UN to ban such " Killer Robots "


Meaning ?


Getting killed by ,


* a flying UAV is OK but not by a walking Robot ?


* AK 47 is OK but not by " Cluster Bombs " ?


* tanks is OK but not by an Atom Bomb ?


* rockets is OK but not by Chemical Weapons ?


What HRW seems to be saying, is :


Getting killed by a human is OK but not by a Robot ?


Who are we trying to fool  ?


Passing resolutions in UN may not make any difference


Super Powers have been violating these with impunity for ages !



Humanity's only hope of not getting extinct at the hands of robots is some Computer Scientist , who develops a software algorithm , which incorporates Isaac Asimov's following " Laws of Robotics " and automatically gets embedded into all existing robots ( on factory floors / homes etc ) and infects all future robots :


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


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


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


That is our only HOPE


26  Feb  2018



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