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Obsessive Geniuses Strive to Create Almost Human Robots

wired.com — Behind every Hasbro Butterscotch Robotic Pony and every NASA rover exploring Mars are teams of roboticists who've worked obsessively to bring their creations to life. In the book Almost Human: Making Robots Think, published this month, Lee Gutkind introduces us to some of the most prominent minds and memorable personalities among them.

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  • rlahiff, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22robot hookers - always disease free
    • englishganxta, on 10/12/2007, -12/+2thats just wrong...
    • VeryAngryJim, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12no, I'd say he's correct.
    • Prod1gy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16they're called Hobots, coming in 2012.
    • JCSaint, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17what about a computer virus?

      Patient: What do you mean my penis shutdown?
      Doc: You didn't use a firewall.
    • zxof, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2are you sure?
      how about mental illness?
    • soupyc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4AVG brand condoms? ™ of course...

    • skEwb35, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3They're already here, they're called real dolls. Disease free, running mouth free and will always stare in the same happy blank fashion.
    • giovanni666, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In the words of a great contemporary icon, I add;
      "I got a high speed modem, and a solid gold scrotum."
      http://www.tvacres.com/robots_pimpbot.htm
  • SaxxonPike, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4So we're scientifically re-creating the wheel. One side at a time.
  • acdcfanbill, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6While pouring over code for days, lets hope they remember to put in the 3 laws of Robotics.
  • Kumaku, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"No one would have guessed 15 years ago that a robot would do science or that a robot would play soccer."

    Really makes you wonder what we're going to see 15 Years in the future.
    • raithetarkon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm thinking humans will be fully integrated into artificial intelligence systems to augment their natural abilities.

      Kind of like now, except the computer will be a thousand times faster and you will interact with it through thought.
    • yournamehere, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1and you would be smoking dope. mimicking human behavior is one thing, even redirecting human impulses to drive motors is still humans directing robotics. interfacing with the mind in terms of thought and having a machine understand the thought is entirely a different animal.
    • raithetarkon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3We're talking about 15- 20 years in the future here. Interfacing with the mind is the same as interfacing with the brain. There is alot of research (ie IBM Blue Brain project) that is changing the way we think about computers and intelligence in general.

      Don't be so close minded, unless you want to end up like the people 15 years ago who thought that having a Gigabyte of RAM was impossible.
    • yournamehere, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i never said we couldn't do it.. i just think the timeline of 15 years is a bit steep.
  • SamyIsMyHero, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3This ***** is scaring me. In every movie involving AI the human race has struggled against robots, computers, or whatever you'd like to call them. If you let AI have physical responsibilities and give it the ability to learn it's only natural that they will evolve and decide to kill humans. Computers can evolve faster than humans and it is almost certain as demonstrated by evolution that they will want to destroy us. There are mutualistic relationships in the natural world, but I personally don't think computers will want us to live like we are right now.

    I know some of you will laugh at this, but this is not a joke to me and you should wake up and smell the coffee. If AI is developed it should never be given the right to develop itself physically without giving it restraints that leave the computer unable to expand past a certain point.
    • iamausername, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4what would the computers do after we all die? have big chess tournaments? maybe interstellar travel.

      i'm not fussed either way really, if we all die, why does that really matter?
      sure this is bypassing the basic instinct of race survival, but I don't think the universe will care too much.
    • raithetarkon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Those were movies, and very few people that write dystopian novels with robots in them actually know very much about how artificial intelligence actually works. Obviously there will be extensive tests done on the safety of each AI program before it is allowed to connect to other computers and especially before it is given a physical body.

      Even if you were going by those movies, then people like you would be the reason why the AIs decided to take the human race out. Remember the animatrix? The machines just wanted to live in peace as equals, but the humans thought they were superior and tried to destroy them. Alot of other movies have similar things happen..

      Newsflash, getting angry and hating AI is not going to stop research; it's largely privately funded. If they eventually do become intelligent, your xenophobia is probobly going to make the situation worse.
    • yournamehere, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1you are assuming they will have emotion about things. otherwise they will just behave in the most intelligent manner given a certain situation. of course that may mean they decide we should die. however before that point is reached they would have given us so many advances that we would undoubtedly go beyond our current form.

      if anything i think a synthesis is likely to occur some time in the future. However I'm still leaning against us directly interfacing thoughts to a computer in a way where they will understand it beyond that of impulses or change in state at a given level within the next 15 years.
    • lowerlogic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The Blue Brain Project is your worst nightmare. :)
  • FredSpeaking, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1I was ***** expecting some dancing robots and all I get is some ***** wall of text interview?

    Buried.
  • ZPWeeks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I, for one, welcome our new slightly inaccurate overlords.
  • wazzadoin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4WN: Do you watch Battlestar Galactica?

    Gutkind: No I don't.

    *Dwight from The Office appears out of nowhere and interjects*

    Dwight: No? Then you're an idiot.
  • caponumen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1My fembot left me for the Roomba.
    She said his suction was better.....
  • kidjay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3the cylons were created by man....
    • Kamill85, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No, they weren't, originally they were created by reptilian race.
  • weister42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2So "life-like" robots should eventually have everything that a human has, including reproductive systems? That would be really weird and cool in a crazy way.
  • maxhrk, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1I dont think Those Geniuses are not only one who obssesively bring things to life. God is obssesed with bringing his creation to life too!
  • Kamill85, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4In other news, if you buy a glasses that turn all you see upside down, your brain will rotate the input image back to normal after few weeks.
  • dude199, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sorry cant resist...

    In Soviet Russia Obsessive Robots make you.
  • mikehartor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well... Is anyone able to open this link?
  • demizu, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Quite doubtful. Things like this happen everywhere.
  • divatri, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Dugg. Seems the server is down. http://dogsbridge.blogspot.com
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