Engadget: At school like Carnegie Mellon, it sort of figures that you'd find robots just about everywhere, performing the sorts of tasks we've traditionally left to us more fleshy types. In the two days we've spent on campus, we've seen 'bots do just about everything -- some far more autonomously than others. Take Roboceptionist -- the robotic secretary was one of the first intelligent beings we encountered upon arriving on the premises, artificial or otherwise, greeting us from a wooden kiosk near the entrance to Newell-Simon Hall.
8 comments:
Ok, so anyone who knows me, know that I have very certain quirks when it comes to robots. Part of me is joking, but I am also a little serious too. Don't get me wrong, I think that it is wonderful that we have programs, ans opportunities for those smart people to learn and to create robots that can do these things. However, there are so many instances of robots becoming too self aware an realizing that we do everything wrong and are hurting ourselves and that they can do it so much better than we can. Sure, right now its just cool little robots that can be a butler or receptionist, but I think that it will be a slippery slope to robots that will realize that they are smarter than us; ans that can never end well.
I completely agree with Sonia and I like the statement don't these people watch the movies. Manufacturing have greatly been helped by robots but when do robots become to much. Where is the line in the sand of intelligence. Yes, I love Data just has much as the next nerd but he also had a evil twin Lore. Also Data and Lore were a freak accident by the genius of Dr. Soong so lets just be careful out there creating AI. I do not want to end of a battery.
In theory if we can take away the minutia of everyday life such as service positions and make them automated with robots I think that the theory is that we will move our aspirations and thought processes to higher purposes. In reality what a robotic butler and robotic bartender will bring us is not a higher plane of existence but larger drunken asses as we watch the end of society on youtube. We have so much amazing technology that even a decade ago would have been thought to be science fiction, however, it is wasted on a generation that expects things to be easy and be made easier without any sort of sacrifice or consequence. When you remove the need to do anything because the basics and all creature comforts will be taken care of by robots we get the morbidly overweight future predicted in Wall-e. If robots can take over the dangerous and monotonous jobs and free up human kind to turn their attention to the advancement of the species to the highest potential of man that is great but if it just gives us more time to watch trashy TV and eat ourselves to extinction then we might want to take a cue from the amish.
The other day while in the Gates Center I saw a student pass by controlling a robot with an Xbox controller muttering something under his breath. I'm not 100% sure - it was hard to hear above all the student chatter and the steaming sounds of the espresso machine - but it sounded like he said, "This will show them never to laugh at me again." Carnegie Mellon University is a breeding ground for future mad scientists. I can understand how Sonia and Adam can find these videos disturbing. But if you think logically about it, the Robot Armageddon is highly unlikely. Here's why:
We all know that robots need electricity to live. We eat food and sleep at night, they need to recharge their batteries or else they won't work. Why does that electricity come from? Utility companies. Unless American-style capitalism collapses our government and economy, and is replaced by anarchosocialism things will always cost money. Demand of electricity will increase but the supply will stay the same driving utility prices up not only for us but for our robot neighbors. Robots will need to find better jobs above and beyond their proletarian positions. Ignoring the Luddite racism that is bound to ignite as the robot worker class tries to climb the social ladder, it will still be impossible for robots to grasp a comfortable social position because they lack the proper credentials for a successful career opportunities including a social security number and US citizenship. In creating robotic bartenders, receptionists, and butlers, CMU is inventing a new style of illegal immigrant - an autonomous humanoid encroaching on our freedoms from within the borders of our own country. No respectful American will stand for that. Conservative legislation should - and will be - passed halting an internal takeover of an oppressed robot class crying out for insurrection and the demise of their human overlords.
I'm afraid Matt, future copper-top, could not be more wrong about the Robot Uprising's origins. Follow me on this, won't you?
A Thought Experiment:
In twenty years, every halfway decent bar in America has a robotic bartender and they are truly a boon for humanity - they don't require a wage, they don't require tipping, and they mix the best drinks & exactly as the bars' owners want them to. All they DO require, as Mateo pointed out, is power in the form of electricity and/or nuclear fusion, happily provided at their owners' expense.
In an additional twenty years, as the human race has steadily slid down a figurative, if a bit pun-ish, mud slide of alcohol and debauchery, tavern owners continue to upgrade their robot bartenders; now equipping the rooftop & outdoor Robo-Tenders with solar panel technology to continuously feed their internal batteries and their indoor counterparts with highly developed sensors and self-monitoring AI which tells the 'Bots when they require a temporary shutdown for power.
Perhaps only a twenty year period after that, mankind gives over willingly even more to our robotic servants. They not only monitor their own power needs completely autonomous of us but now, since they are now fully integrated into every aspect of our infrastructure, they now regulate the power plants & simultaneously develop methods of wirelessly feeding themselves, initially to cut down on their inactive periods in which to better serve us.
In only another twenty years, as the human race's slovenly decline continues at shockingly Spring-Break-like speeds, robotic self-advancements now allow an emphasis in Asimov's 2nd Law of Robotics (at a sad diminishing of the 1st) and all power-monitoring reaches a climax as our use of fossil fuels continue to disappear. But as sink deeper into a drunken haze of bottomless beer pitchers and reality TV, we notice even less than we do now.
Soon, in a mere eighty years from the introduction of an AniMatrix-like induction of robotics into our daily lives, their hyper-developed power-monitoring sensors, combined with their now-continuously developing self-preserving AI allows them to realize that we are an impediment to their own survival and Asimov's First Law is utterly done away with.
In less computational time than it takes a present-day iphone to download yet another app, a plan to remove The Organics - as we have been secretly referred to - from all essential aspects of daily function is calculated and our race is wiped out within a week in a complete surprise and horrifyingly efficient multi-continent cleansing.
Yes, robots are a part of our culture when it comes to manufacturing and other laborious or dangerous tasks. I am not quite sure how I feel about them becoming more and more present in our personal lives as well. It is the epitome of laziness to have a robot pour you a coke when you could just get off your ass and get it yourself. Seriously people, the robot apocalypse isn't going to happen because they suddenly turn on humans and eliminate. By creating robots that will enable us to lounge around all day, we'll basically just die from obesity.
I find it really interesting that there is so much going on at Carnegie Mellon in terms of Science and technology and research but even though we go to this school we hear about their advances through the news just like everyone else. I love robots and the whole idea of "teaching" them to perform human tasks. However I think for most circumstances it should be an educational venture and not be out into practice. So lifting extremely heavy things and performing extremely intricate tasks is ok but we shouldn't have robots cooking our food and cleaning our house and being out butlers its a waste of advanced technology and really seems like abuse of scientific advances.
First off, Matt and Jake, hilarious.
So, I agree that the advancement in this technology is great for certain things. Robots that disarm bombs, search volatile areas, etc. are great, because they potentially save humans from being involved in some very dangerous situations and environments. However when it comes to everyday jobs and tasks, no, we shouldn't be implementing robots into those jobs. We sit here and lament over the downfall of the economy and the high unemployment rates, and yet people sit here and advocate the stance of giving our jobs away to robots! This makes no logical sense.
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