How ethical is it to use a robot?

Robotics is a fast developing science discipline. Each week we hear about one more robotics based science project which is enthralling the world. Be it a team of robots playing football or a robot singing to a karaoke song. Robots are slowly but surely learning to do what humans can do.

Soon there may come a day when robots are independent of their human masters. They may no longer be remote controlled the way they are today, but be self regulated with some fancy algorithm in their computer chip brain. This is why it is important to think today about how ethical it is to use a robot.

Ethics have always been open to interpretation by the person talking about them. None of us would have a problem with a robot being used as a primary care giver to an invalid patient. However would it be correct to give the robot control over the human being? Can a robot understand the human emotions behind a frustrated statement that a bed bound patient would make?

It is easy to think that robots will make the world a better place for humans by taking on their work, but is that really going to happen? All the time saving gadgets that humans have come up with so far have only managed to add another layer of stress to their lives. Will robots be the same? Only time and science will tell.