Anthropomorphic/biomimetic robots creep me out.There, I said it.
Do markets dream of electric androids?
ROBOTS! AUTOMATONS! CYBORGS! ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE! ARGHH!!!Last week Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams, tackled one of the questions raised by the encroachment of humans into the world of robots-- "Robot Personalities":
Last weekend I attended Robots on Tour, a robotics, humanoids and cyborg exhibition put together by the Zurich-based Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Zurich....
...The sad truth is that even our most advanced robots still appear to be, to use popular parlance, somewhat dumb. Cylons, C3PO, Johnny Five and HAL are not just years away, but decades in the making.
Indeed, if you can find a robot that can kick a ball, pick-up an object or meet and greet you efficiently and without crashing — let alone one that can interact fluidly or on a fully autonomous level — consider yourself lucky....MUCH MORE, including photos, interviews.
Let's say that someday a young couple buys a robot to help with childcare. Version 1 of the robot isn't much more capable than a video baby monitor that can also rock the cradle and say, "There, there" as needed, perhaps in the mom's voice. Maybe it can do a few more things such as loading and unloading the dishwasher and feeding the dog. It's useful but still limited.Also at the Dilbert blog: "Management/Success/Leadership: Mostly Bullshit"
But here's the interesting part. That robot will mature, and get smarter, at about the same rate as the baby in the crib. Robots will have parts of their "brains" inside their bodies and parts in the cloud of the Internet, connected to the same data that all robots are connected to. As any robot anywhere gains knowledge, that knowledge is uploaded to the cloud and available to all robots. The day that one robot learns how to do your laundry all robots will acquire the ability simultaneously, although some robots might need sensor upgrades for new functions.
If robot makers are smart, all of your robot's parts will be modular for easy upgrades. Do you want your robot to have better sensors in its fingers? Just replace the hand with an upgraded version. While the robot's brain is upgrading automatically every minute, you'll be keeping its body upgraded. Eventually the robot will take care of its own hardware upgrades too.
But that's not the interesting part.
I presume that robots will need something like a "personality" for purely functional reasons, and to make decisions when the data is unclear. And they will acquire those necessary personalities largely by observation. For example, if the humans that the robot lives with are the types who are effusive in praise of others, the robot will pick up that trait. If the family is the snarky/jokey type, the robot will pick up on that too....MORE
Pursuing the thesis, and if you're getting just a tad sick of TED talks, adding just the right amount of pastiche, is America's Finest News Source:
Finally, the best video on the subject (and some think the best robot video of all time):
"Robot Soccer Goes Big Time"
The rule of thumb in soccer betting, bot or human, is "NEVER ever take the over".
Almost Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen.
From Slate V:
A hilarious and terrifying vision of our sporting future....
Previously:
University of Zürich to Birth Most Advanced Robotic Boy By March 9, 2013
