Computers/Robots |
Are Robots Becoming Humanized?
Robot Robotics has always fascinated me. In the old days robots were very crude and were entirely mechanical. You might go to the movies and see Hollywood's idea of a robot in a film and it would be a mechanical man that you would have a hard time not laughing at. Lately all that has changed. First of all there are so many different types of robots that they are beginning to rival the variations of life on earth. There are bug robots, fish robots, human like robots, even robots that exist on the cellular scale. If this keeps up and man were to disappear from this planet, some alien visitor might conclude that this was some sort of machine planet like that featured in the original Battlestar Galactica. Some say that as robotic life diversifies it is getting more like natural life. I had a hard time accepting this concept until I read about some of the tests being conducted. Before I get into that, it is important to know that all robotic life is no longer mechanical, but more cyborg like. This is not to suggest that we are using human brain tissue in robots, but we have begun to use animal brain tissue.
NASA Explorer Robot One test that was conducted that used animal cells, they were rat cells I believe. The results amazed not only the scientists that were in the field of robotics, but also the social scientists. Small robots were built that were put into a test area that rewarded and punished the robots. To do this, one section of the area would recharge the robots as a reward, this was the food area. At the opposite end was an area that would drain the charge from the robots and this was the punishment area. In the beginning the robots would travel aimlessly over the course. After a certain time the robots that maintained their charge were kept and more created like them. The others were discarded. These were learning robots. After 50 rounds or so, or what you might call 50 generations of robots, strange things began to happen. Some robots would actually sacrifice themselves to prevent others from going into the areas that would drain them. Others would flash lights when near this area to indicate food was present when really it was not.
NASA Space Suit Testing Robot When the experiment was concluded and the results studied, it was felt that the robots that tried to trick the others into losing their charge were actually evil, just as evil exists at the human level and the robots that would willingly sacrifice themselves to save others were good. So there you have it, good and evil were created at the robotic level. I have to question this result however, in lieu of the fact that rat brain tissue was used. Could it be that some rats are good and some evil? Has anyone ever studied rats at that level? Would one rat be willing to sacrifice itself to save others? We know that a dog will sometimes sacrifice itself to save a pack member. I do know this, self sacrifice is not unusual among animals as many mothers will gladly sacrifice themselves to protect their offspring. A mother Cheetah will throw itself in front of a lion to protect its cubs. Self sacrifice is certainly not unknown in the animal kingdom. In line with the developing robotic life forms, some people are beginning to ask the question, “are we organic robots”? I guess this was inevitable. If we look at some of the robots and then look at the way we operate, it could certainly seem that way. There is a bigger picture here however and that is the way we develop these robots. We are modeling them after us, not the other way around. Look at the following video and you can see what I mean. It is a video of a robot running and demonstrates the balance of the object. Notice I said object. Anyway it looks very human in its movements and if it had skin and was modeled a little more like us, you would think it was a human running. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv35ItWLBBk The motions of some of these new robots are so human like it is scary. Robots are being made to mimic us in so many different areas. An example of this is the Japanese robot violinist. It has perfect string control and its motions look very human like as it plays. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzjkBwZtxp4&NR=1 You can see by the motions of these robots that if the body was more human like, they would look very human. Here is an example of a robot that looks even more human. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8TkVqnlj3A Admittedly some of the motions look jerky, but when they are ironed out and the machine can move more smoothly, will it be possible to tell this robot from a human? Here is another robot in an interesting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4dwcxiDTcA&NR=1 Here is a video of a robot learning how to pick something up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRG1jia2lJM When we think of robots we think of clumsy metal machines that could easily crush a fragile object, but not so with the latest robots, who have been designed in such a way that this won't happen. Actually they are being designed to assist people that can not help themselves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CETUmThm8Rg Here is a video of the most advanced Asimo robot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiw-jbjnyzc&NR=1 Finally here is a video that shows some robotic progress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3f6BOrD9Ek&feature=related I don't think that there is any doubt that robots will be in every household some day. People didn't believe that computers would be in every home. As a matter of fact one company said that they thought that there would only be about 7 computers made. Robots are already assisting the elderly in Japan and will soon be running errands for them. The technology is far more complex than computers because robots are not only computers but they are machines and everything they do must be safe for humans. We wouldn't want a robot to crush an elderly person as it was helping him or her into a chair. We also wouldn't want it to run people down as it was making its rounds. I am convinced by everything that I see, that we as a race will never be satisfied until we are able to build a human like robot that will be indistinguishable from a human being and who knows, this just might lead to our undoing? |
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