It will be interesting to watch AI progression into usefulness. Other that the bots that mow grass or vacuum floors there's not much out there for the general public.
One of his friends, Yutaka Masano, 37, feels the same about the possibility of losing his girlfriend, who is also the Kobayakawa character. “I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I lost the data. My mind would go blank, I wouldn’t be able to think at all,” he says.
Both men, along with another friend, 39-year-old Nobuhito Sugiye, can articulate a philosophical basis for their affection and their fear of loss. That is, for them these computer girls possess the same tamashii — spirits — that devotees of Japanese animism, or Shinto, believe can inhabit all things, fromrocks and streams to humans.
“Everything is equal. We have no borders between robots and people,” Kozaki explains.
“In the foreign stories, robots are always the enemies. In Japan, they’re our friends.”
[...]
Imagine putting a fully autonomous robot in a room with a frail elderly person: one misjudged move by the robot could cause an injury. And how useful is a robot nurse that can’t recognise an important gesture like a wince, the pointing of a finger or a wave for help? Assuming you can design a robot with these capabilities, once you put it in a room with dozens of individuals, all darting in different directions and sending different cues, things get even more difficult.
F6, any suggested timeline on the robot takeover? I understand the logic of the rational just not as convinced of the certainty you see. There would be a good science-fiction tale in your head i reckon.
F6, still been wondering about all this .. lol .. on the merging of us with them .. gotta put all of yours here with it ..
"Dale C -- we don't know and will not be able to dictate or control what traits they'll have/adopt/ develop, or what objectives they'll value and pursue or how -- and they will write their own laws
where we (who haven't been able or allowed to merge with and into them) will be about as able to even remotely genuinely grasp/comprehend/understand their awareness/consciousness/state of mind and being as as insects can ours
there may, perhaps even, given our desires, probably will be, some initial/transitional period from the beginnings of their actual awakening during which they haven't yet gone that far (beyond us) with their own self-development/evolution and we retain some degree of say/control -- but that, if indeed it is how it goes, won't last long"
i hadn't read this one before just now ..
Russian Mogul’s Plan: Plant Our Brains in Robots, Keep Them Alive Forever
By Katie Drummond 02.29.12 | 6:30 am |
VIDEO
The Pentagon’s new Avatar project .. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/02/darpa-sci-fi/, unveiled by Danger Room a few weeks back, sounds freaky enough: Soldiers practically inhabiting the bodies of robots, who’d act as “surrogates” for their human overlords in battle.
But according to Dmitry Itskov, a 31-year-old Russian media mogul, the U.S. military’s Avatar initiative doesn’t go nearly far enough. He’s got a massive, sci-fi-esque venture of his own that he hopes will put the Pentagon’s project to shame. Itskov’s plan: Construct robots that’ll (within 10 years, he hopes) actually store a human’s mind and keep that consciousness working. Forever.
“This project is leading down the road to immortality,” Itskov, who founded New Media Stars, a Russian company that runs several online news outlets, tells Danger Room. “A person with a perfect Avatar will be able to remain part of society. People don’t want to die.”
Itskov’s project, also called “Avatar,” actually precedes the Pentagon’s. He launched the initiative a year ago, but recently divulged more details to a group of futurists — including Ray Kurzweil — at a three-day conference .. http://www.gf2045.com/, called Global Future 2045, held in Moscow.
Until now, most of the work on Itskov’s Avatar has taken place in Russia, where he claims to have hired 30 researchers — all of them paid out of his own deep pockets. Now, Itskov plans to take the mission global. “I want to collaborate with scientists from around the world,” he says. “This is a new strategy for the future; for humanity.”
After phase one of “Avatar,” however, Itskov’s ambitions arguably eclipse even those of the Pentagon’s maddest mad scientists. In 10 years, he anticipates “transplanting” a human mind into a robotic one.After that, Itskov wants to do away with surgical procedures and instead upload the contents of the mind into its brand new, artificial robo-body. And, last but not least, within 30 years Itskov anticipates developing hologram-type bodies — instead of tangible robotic ones — that can “host” human consciousness.
[ SHITES! YIKE! LOLOLOL ]
“Holograms give plenty of advantages. You can walk through walls, move at the speed of light,” he says. “Remember in Star Wars, Obi-Wan’s hologram? That was pretty amazing.”
Amazing, yes. Scientifically feasible? Certainly not right now, and maybe not ever. “I understand these are some very big challenges for scientists,” Itskov acknowledges. “But I believe in something you call ‘The American Dream.’ If you put all your energy and time into something, you can make it a reality.”
Itskov, who plans to open two American offices this year, even hopes to collaborate with Darpa on the agency’s ‘Avatar’ program. And he’s keen to talk to agency scientists about the next, more far-out stages of brain-machine interfaces that he plans to develop. “I’m sure someone at Darpa is interested in taking this further,” he says.
So far, at least, Danger Room hasn’t come across any Darpa-funded ventures to develop immortal hologram-brain interfaces. But the agency just might find a little extra blue-sky inspiration in Itskov, who likens Avatar to Darpa’s best-known innovation: The internet.
“Years ago, people didn’t believe the internet could work,” he says. “I think of Avatar in the same light. Right now, the idea is new and radical. It won’t always be that way.”
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