Folks!

If some people are telling you that robots can be remotely controlled - don't believe them! ::--))

Real robots cannot be controlled and they cannot be commanded. I mean real robots. Truly real ones. Things that are controlled should be called "remotely controlled rovers", "remotely controlled devices", R/C walking plastic human-like looking R/C toys - whatever. They simply should not be called robots even for simplicity, because anything that is controlled externally is not a robot.

We should be honest and clear here. The task to create something intelligent enough to appropriately react to the external world, move around or even do something useful, from our - human's - perspective, is very-very challenging. Not many people can design and manufacture such things, but too many want to pretend they do :-) We still must be courteous to those people, but we must not let them fool us telling that a thing that one commands with a remote control device is a robot. No, that thing is not a robot indeed! :-)

As we agreed, real robots cannot be controlled! ::--))

Now a bit grounds for my logic:

1. Intelligent machines/organisms/people act in their own interests. Only!
2. Highly intelligent organisms, like humans for example, forecast the impact of their deeds for many steps ahead or follow complicated rules developed in the society they live. It may confuse in the beginning and lead to a conclusion that people do not always act in their self-interest. I will agree to some extent adding that people's self-interest was replaced in these cases with the interest of these societies that are eventually in the interests of the organisms comprising these societies. In short, nothing is drastically different here, but one or two more layers added in the reasoning chain, i.e. people pursue not blatant direct self-interests, but more sophisticate indirect ones, because the evolution showed that it is a more winning strategy.
3. Intelligent machines (and humans) act based on their own sensory inputs, previous experience and the forecasted model of the environment in their heads/processors.
4. There is no place for external inputs like "R/C commands". Bypassing the whole chain of intelligent reasoning from sensing, analyzing, recognizing, thinking, making decision and acting and jumping directly to acting completely ruins the whole notion of intelligent behavior.
5. I imagine what would experience an intelligent robot receiving an R/C command: (1) a sudden loss of consciousness; (2) limbs cannot be controlled, they move unexpectedly and unpredictably for the robot; (3) robot tries to fix the situation by shaking limbs, straining muscles or increasing torque on motors, but in vain; (4) after the remote command completed, the robot finds himself in a strange place and hardly can understand what has happened to him and why.
6. If the robot were truly intelligent, he probably would not do what he just did - acted against his own interest. Why would such a device be called intelligent robot or robot at all?! :-)

And finishing for now, I would point out again - robots cannot be controlled!

Original blog: http://marvelmind.blogspot.com