Obsession with perfection

It’s alleged that she lately did a lip enhancement job. No matter what the reason is, the actress looks almost unrecognizable now, and got viscously trolled for her swollen lips and froze face. She was gorgeous before, and had a delightful face. But her new frozen look is absolutely jarring. It also indicates the quick pace with which cosmetic surgery is getting normalized in our society.

The hunger for cosmetic procedures continues to grow at an alarming rate. A reality TV star recently underwent 10 cosmetic surgeries in just one day! Swayed by unrealistic beauty standards many are spending extortionate amount of money on lip and nose surgeries, boob jobs, and bum implants. But surgeries or stabbing oneself with several Botox filled needles is neither practical nor healthy. “Perfection is defeat ... Perfection belongs to the gods; completeness or wholeness is the most a human being can hope for ...”

Compulsion for cosmetic surgery is medically termed as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). It’s a kind of obsession with unrealistic beauty standards, and the “systematic desire to improve one’s appearance”. In other words, it’s an unhealthy fixation and a dangerous addiction. The word addiction is often attributed to drugs and alcohol. But cosmetic surgery is a mental addiction, and often go unnoticed. Despite knowing all the negative consequences, people get addicted to plastic surgeries to alter their faces and bodies.

An eerily huge number of men and women are undergoing countless plastic surgeries these days. The statics from American Society of Plastic Surgeons is shocking. Underlying desires to look a certain way, or insecurities about their appearances, are the main reason why many people compulsively choose cosmetic procedures. Some are unable to deal with ageing and some believe in the illusion of remaining eternally youthful.

Given that most of them are naturally beautiful, we cannot help but get baffled why they mess things up by going under knife. While some come back with stunning looks, for some others, things go seriously awry. It’s the after effect of a skewed sense of beauty and the uncontrollable urge to get desirable body features. Blind celebrity worship is another critical reason. Some crazy fans spent lakhs on cosmetic surgeries to look like their idols.

There is no such thing like perfect looks and body. Still many people go to extreme lengths to get ‘perfect’. It’s acceptable to dislike a natural abnormality like cleft lip, and wishing to correct it surgically. It transforms into a mental disorder when one finds flaws continuously and gets desperate to fix them through surgeries. These days, cosmetic surgery is not about attaining normal looks. Its copying or faking, and its spreading like an epidemic these days.

In their desperate attempt to become more beautiful, many have fallen victims of plastic surgeries that went horribly wrong. An extreme level of image consciousness is the reason that forces them to adopt such nips and tucks. While some confess about it, some others remain tight-lipped. Currently we don’t have any laws that prevent people from receiving consecutive plastic surgeries. If a patient has money and time, most doctors are willing to perform cosmetic procedures.

Would you ever go under the knife to look flawlessly perfect or look like your favorite celebrity? Becoming a doppelganger is the newest cosmetic surgery trend. Here is an example - Pixee Fox and Justin Jedlica were not happy with their God-given looks. Pixee has had almost more than 100 surgeries by far, and Justin has undergone more than 360 procedures. Their goal – To become real-life Barbie and Ken! But not even the best plastic surgeon in the world can ever create the perfect doppelgangers of Ken and Barbie.

Ethics, morals, safety, and robots

“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” Issac Asimov devised this rule 70 years back. But experts like Stephen Hawking warn that “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”. Can AI embedded ultra-intelligent robots create a “Terminator-style wasteland”? The preliminary forms of AI have been immensely useful by far. But many scientists believe that creations like humanoids, that surpass humans, can be dangerous and might trigger annihilation of humanity.


"The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind had raged on for decades. But the final battle will not be fought in the future. It would be fought in our present...tonight." Should we fear the rising, or is it just a misconception that’s blocking the transformative impact of AI and advanced robotics? Can we teach robots to behave safely and ethically? If robots can make decisions on their own, who will ensure that they are right and harmless?

It’s a near to impossible mission says some bygone happenings. Here’s an example – It took less than 24 hours for Twitteratis to teach Tay, an artificial intelligence chatterbot, how to foul-mouth and be a racist. Tay was designed to engage and entertain people. The more you chat with Tay the smarter she gets, so the experience can be more personalized for you.” explained Microsoft. But Tay soon started spouting off racist and misogynic epithets in response to question that that carried the same sentiments. It wasn’t coded to be a racist or misogynist. But Tay learned from those it interacts with.

However, many scientists are betting big on the idea of AI embedded robots with advanced technologies. From Terminator to Blade Runner and Ex Machina, many sci-fi movies have portrayed humanoids that are indistinguishable from real humans. With the advent of human-like robots in real life, we are heading towards a future where we will live side by side with robots, whether we like it or not. By far, the benefits have outnumbered the hazards, the reason why we can remain optimistic about a future amid humanoids.

Why should be build humanoids like Nao, Pepper, RoboKind Zeno? Their capabilities are incredible, and the benefits are many. Robots like Kasper have been helping children with autism in learning basic human communication skills. Robear, the robot bear that can care for the elderly Sweetie, the virtual girl, helped track down pedophiles. Productivity, safety, and savings are the three main advantages of using humanoids at workplaces. It can handle dangerous works, defuse bombs, patrol large areas, and even do the duty of a security guard. Several organizations are exploring the idea of using humanoids to accomplish tasks in more effective and timebound manner.

That said, we cannot forget the incident where a robot “killed a contractor at one of Volkswagen's production plants”. Here is what Sophia, the latest humanoid, declared during a conversation. In a CNBC interview, David Hanson asked her- “Do you want to destroy humans? Please say ‘no.'” “Sophia” But here is how she responded - “OK, I will destroy humans.”

Good and bad, right and wrong, safe and unsafe – we learn the difference between them long before we learn to speak. The power of moral and evaluative judgment is a strong factor that decides our success in life. If robots will soon surpass humans in intelligence, it should have the ability to identify what’s right and what’s wrong, what's safe and what's unsafe. But how can we impart ethics and moral values to robots? Can we create robots with ethical abilities? How can we program them to behave safely? This is a colossal challenge. Because, it’s not easy to transform human decision making and reasoning powers into numerical values that robots can understand.