Make Friends...Literally BUILD them!

[GT Bulmer]

Hello, Forum Members:

Here is a link to a news story posted at Bit Rebels highlighting the latest in robot technology: imagine robots that look human and can mirror YOUR emotional expression!

Robots that show real emotion | Freaky!

In one of my favourite movies — Blade Runner, based on the Philip K. Dick story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep — one of the human characters, Sebastion, tells a visitor, "I'm not lonely; I make friends." You see, he is a genetic engineer and he literally "makes" friends.

Well, we are getting closer and closer to this sort of thing happening. Watch the 5-minute video and prepare to be amazed, maybe freaked out, maybe even a bit worried about our future!

The story also tells how robot toys are even now being developed as lifetime companions for children (remember the movie "AI Artificial Intelligence" with Haley Joel Osment (Sixth Sense, "I see dead people") as the robot boy?) These toys will grow more intelligent as technology advances.

What a cool invention! I want one! Check it out ...

GT

[David Hurley]

Good link. Thanks, GT.

I'd like to see and hear that P.K. Dick robot in conversation!

[GT Bulmer]

Good link. Thanks, GT.

I'd like to see and hear that P.K. Dick robot in conversation!

lol - Me too! It would be awesome if it were his words and in his voice. Maybe they have recordings they can integrate?

Or maybe a voice impersonator who is intimately familiar with Philip K.'s thoughts, ideas, frames of reference. He could speak through a remote mic and you could ask questions and feel like you are talking to The Man!

On the technology side of what is being demonstrated in the video story, I am both excited and aprehensive about where it is all going to lead. (Another favourite movie that offers a potential frame of reference is iRobot with Will Smith, based on an Isaac Asimov novel.)

GT

[Alan Mater]

Hi GT,

Very cool indeed. The technology available today is just insane. Toys like this have been around for a while now. Remember Furby? Now that technology is advancing, we now have robots that can compute responses and movements to things we do and say, able to literally interact with us. Talk about awesome.

I wouldn't mind having a robot friend, like a droid maybe? Like Data from Star Trek, now that would be cool. As long as the robot doesn't go AWOL like the robots on "I-Robot."

[GT Bulmer]

Hi, Alan:

Data from Star Trek (TNG)! Now, that would be TRULY awesome! Especially if you give him back that "emotion chip" he tried out one time - he would be a hilarious companion!

Here's another look at the inevitable future of robot technology ... and another movie based on an Isaac Asimov story: Bicentennial Man, with Robin Williams.

Williams' robot character becomes more intelligent and over time manages to advance robotics technology to the point where he replaces all of his parts with biological equivalents superior to human biology. Sounds crazy, I know, but if you do some research into current areas like nanotechnology, you begin to see the possibilities ... and the probabilities.

GT

[Alan Mater]

Hi, Alan:

Data from Star Trek (TNG)! Now, that would be TRULY awesome! Especially if you give him back that "emotion chip" he tried out one time - he would be a hilarious companion!

Here's another look at the inevitable future of robot technology ... and another movie based on an Isaac Asimov story: Bicentennial Man, with Robin Williams.

Williams' robot character becomes more intelligent and over time manages to advance robotics technology to the point where he replaces all of his parts with biological equivalents superior to human biology. Sounds crazy, I know, but if you do some research into current areas like nanotechnology, you begin to see the possibilities ... and the probabilities.

GT

Nanotechnology is simply amazing. They use a various form of it in the new Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen movie when the little tiny robots come together to form one bigger one. I believe with the way technology is advancing that we could be heading in that direction. Of course they can be used for just about anything you want. For instance, in The Day The Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves, the nanobots simply destroy everything in their path.

[GT Bulmer]

... Nanotechnology is simply amazing...
... Of course they can be used for just about anything you want...

Yes, as with all things, it can be used as a tool for good, or as a weapon for destruction. It all depends into whose hands it falls.

GT

[David Hurley]

A long time ago I remember hearing someone point out on a radio programme that if you were worried by robots or computers and machines taking over the world you were forgetting that they had an "off" button...

I guess GT's worry might be that if we can build them to be more intelligent than us they might find a way to avoid getting switched off... or to over-ride the effect of being switched off...

[Trent Brownrigg]

I guess GT's worry might be that if we can build them to be more intelligent than us they might find a way to avoid getting switched off... or to over-ride the effect of being switched off...

Yeah that brings the Terminator movies to mind.

[GT Bulmer]

Hi, guys:

Yes, Terminator definitely comes to mind.

Also, the later novels in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series: Computers (robots) evolved to the point where, in order to fulfill their ultimate mission of protecting mankind, they were able to justify "terminating" individual (or groups of) humans for the greater good of all. The problem was, they reached a point where even they realized they could no longer trust their own judgement in deciding who lives and who dies. They got "smart" enough to put that power back into the hands of humans.

So, if we wait long enough, it will work itself out!

GT

[mbrand2222]

... Nanotechnology is simply amazing...
... Of course they can be used for just about anything you want...

Yes, as with all things, it can be used as a tool for good, or as a weapon for destruction. It all depends into whose hands it falls.

GT

I agree. This all seems a bit scary for me.

[Ringo So]

Wow really weird stuff. Thanks GT.

Might be a bit off topic but as far as movie goes, Blade Runner and Terminator comes to mind, but I would actually recommend Bruce Willis's Surrogate (2009 film)

I think that while the co-existence of robots and human might not look like the movies, but our dependence on machines and technology is much more frightening.

Can you imagine just a week without technology? A month?

It would be like camping but much less fun

[mbrand2222]

It would be like camping but much less fun

That's true. I like that analogy. I think the world would stop without technology.

[ideasuniversity]

Well the beauty of friendly robots is that they can be relied on unlike men that will say good things beofre you now and go and spread ugly rumors about you behind your back

[GT Bulmer]

... Can you imagine just a week without technology? A month?

lol - A month? I can't even imagine five minutes without technology!

This morning, for some unknown reason, my computer would not connect to my network, so I was unable to access the Internet. What a panic! To make matters worse, I couldn't stay home to resolve it because I had errands I couldn't avoid this morning.

Fortunately, when I returned, all I had to do was shut down my computer and modem, then restart them and everything was back to normal. What a relief. Almost everything I do relies in some way on an Internet connection!

I hope my computer never gets smart enough to turn on me.

GT