Ready for Robots?
In this week's survey of what's happening in technology, the focus is on robots. From a driverless car navigating the roads of Berlin to Israeli scientists implanting a mechanical cerebellum into the brain of a rat , we've come a long way from the simple robot vacuums that appeared for consumer use nearly a decade ago, and which looked more like roving CD players than an instance of machine intelligence.
While some people consider the idea of a robot future worrisome, others find only grounds for optimism. As an example of the latter, author and futurist Ray Kurzweil - who wrote The Age of Intelligent Machines, followed by The Age of Spiritual Machines - sees robots as a way of extending and enhancing our own brains. In the Online Q&A for his 2005 book The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Kurzweil claims:
We’ll have both the hardware and software to recreate human intelligence by the end of the 2020s. We’ll be able to improve these methods and harness the speed, memory capabilities, and knowledge-sharing ability of machines.
It's hard to judge the accuracy of Kurzweil's prediction from where we stand now in 2011. Of course, a lot can happen in another ten years. Already robots are taking over the jobs and activities that we don't want to do or can't do ourselves:
- From comforting children and the elderly, as the Paro robot seal was designed to do, to serving as a stealth weapon in war, like the robot BIGDOG;
- From the useful ability to carry heavy bags and packages like an uncomplaining mechanical servant, to the entertainment value of watching robots who know how to dance -
- Even serving as robot representatives of ourselves, i.e., going to meetings, research trips or discussions where we can't be physically present.
Almost anything seems possible, in technological terms. But a more interesting question to ponder may well be this: if robots represent extensions of our minds into the mechanical realm, what do their form (and function) say about how we first imagine, and then re-create, our most human needs and impulses in non-human form?
Readers' comments 33
Left under the original article, as archived.
About this article
| Published in | Choose Opera |
|---|---|
| Date | September 30, 2011 |
| Author | Anna Rohleder |
| Tags | bigdog, paro seal, robot vacuum, driverless car, roborat, robots, Ray Kurzweil, the singularity |
| Original | Internet Archive |
Andrei Daniel TicleanFriday, September 30, 2011 5:48:02 AM
didiryadyFriday, September 30, 2011 5:49:42 AM
Originally posted by operaterrestrial:
also not really
Henry whonana OBRIKIFriday, September 30, 2011 6:47:17 AM
chimasia okwemba jacktoneFriday, September 30, 2011 8:30:01 AM
Enoch 'Robot Boy' Appiah JuniorFriday, September 30, 2011 9:16:08 AM
michaelFriday, September 30, 2011 10:28:43 AM
Sami SerolaFriday, September 30, 2011 11:48:32 AM
MConorFriday, September 30, 2011 12:58:29 PM
Dustin WilsonFriday, September 30, 2011 2:19:47 PM
Charles SchlossFriday, September 30, 2011 3:47:13 PM
Originally posted by Khadgar:
+1
We have come a long way in the past 20 years
Paul ChiwezaFriday, September 30, 2011 7:55:46 PM
Paul ChiwezaFriday, September 30, 2011 7:56:37 PM
Rufus AlemikarFriday, September 30, 2011 8:38:16 PM
Lulu SimawatiSaturday, October 1, 2011 3:12:35 AM
Ud babySaturday, October 1, 2011 12:34:16 PM
Jose CamarilloSaturday, October 1, 2011 3:04:52 PM
JulianSaturday, October 1, 2011 6:48:29 PM
I think we should be more concerned about the enviromental impact that the robot production could cause.
Is really hard to create an AI that acts and thinks by itself.
Васильев Олег ЮрьевичSunday, October 2, 2011 2:19:35 PM
Originally posted by oghenevwarho:
Robots will benefit humanity. They do not need to fear. Today, we are not afraid of cars and planes, but in the last century, someone might say: "These evil things are not for Jesus"
Andrei Daniel TicleanSunday, October 2, 2011 2:50:55 PM
Originally posted by didiryady:
they will be really expensive,imagine that the internet,wich many of us see it as a granted thing isn't affordable for many people
AlgaMonday, October 3, 2011 9:12:09 AM
Andrei Daniel TicleanMonday, October 3, 2011 1:03:28 PM
BOYOTETuesday, October 4, 2011 5:21:17 PM
Coffee machines, answering machines, etc.Heck, a house is a machine for living in!
Andrei Daniel TicleanTuesday, October 4, 2011 7:45:32 PM
motogpnkWednesday, October 5, 2011 1:07:04 PM
Vasilis IlioglouSaturday, October 8, 2011 6:55:23 AM
Originally posted by motogpnk:
lol!
Vasilis IlioglouSaturday, October 8, 2011 6:56:06 AM
R.R.DubrowskySunday, October 9, 2011 11:13:32 PM
Bashar Abubakar LadanMonday, October 10, 2011 8:42:46 AM
HalahalaTuesday, October 11, 2011 5:49:03 AM
RendaniTuesday, October 11, 2011 8:29:44 AM
Phillip Robert O'ConnerFriday, October 14, 2011 1:30:20 AM
Originally posted by operaterrestrial:
All is About the Cling Cling.
Lulu SimawatiFriday, October 14, 2011 4:01:56 AM
imam agrisha azharilThursday, October 20, 2011 4:37:00 PM