Okay, Let’s Talk about Making Sex with Robots

 AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, Cybernetics, Future Already Very Pending, NBI, Robot, Robot Emotions, Robot Love, Sony, Technology, Technology & Culture, Technology Law  Comments Off
May 012012
 

Sex & Technology
Human sexuality is a helluva drug, and an unquestionably powerful force in technological trends. Think internet video, sexting, showing someone your junk via webcam, Photoshopping models to enhance sex appeal, increasingly lifelike non-biological “partners,” and a whole universe of hypo-allergenic and ergonomically designed, uhh… appliances.

Now, the global sex industry isn’t just passively implementing new technologies, it’s occasionally driving their development. A classic example from back in the day was pornography’s embrace of VHS video, which played an important role in the downfall of Sony’s Betamax alternative (ref.). Granted, Sony is rather inept at pushing their pet media formats (Memory Stick, UMD, DAT, MD), so, you know, context. Anyway, here’s the thing:

And its a Big One.
 I Think We’re Going to Make Sweet Love to Robots Pretty Soon. Continue reading »

Navy’s Firefighting Robot: Way More Than Meets the Eye

 AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, Military Robotics, Multimedia, Navy, NBI, Robot, Technology, WarBots  2 Responses »
Apr 172012
 

It’s Totally Not What it Looks Like
At the U.S. Navy’s new LASR research facility (Lab for Autonomous Systems Research), they’re making robot firefighters – and it’s really excellent work. But, I’ve seen a few robotics and tech websites (no names) kinda making fun of some recently publicized research (video below, and via Gizmodo). It’s really not fair, and kinda irresponsible.
Here’s why:

This is Not the Robot Anybody’s Looking For
Yeah, the robot above and the one in the video below, which do look a bit high, are primitive, slow, and physically ineffective. But what you’re seeing here is the software end of the mule. Robotics reporters should know that this outdated platform is an MIT facial gesture tester from 2008. It appears here simply to give a physical presence to the artificial intelligence that’s learning by observing gestures and parsing human speech – this is merely proof-of-concept, which obviously works better with a stand-in physical presence.

Obviously, right? I mean, in this project it would be silly to pursue a wheeled or tracked robot of any kind, because it’s like, you know, the Navy. With boats and stuff. They tend to be kinda cramped. And have stairs. And are made for people.
So… you know – just sayin.

2 + 2
Okay lets see, I’m going to go ahead and make the not-at-all unsafe assumption that the Navy’s fancy new Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research is pretty hip to what’s going on over at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Hell, the former might even be part of the latter! Looking just a bit closer at the issue – surprise, surprise: here’s a timeline of the NRL’s 85-year history of autonomous systems development, including the March 2012 announcement of the LASR facility, where the above seemingly baked robot is doing his thing.

Curious kids might wonder what else goes on at the NRL, and a few seconds of reading reveals a startling correlate! Continue reading »

Japanese Technology from the Future Friday!

 AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Genomics, Japan 日本 Tekk, Japanese Technology from the Future Friday, Mobile, NBI, Pure Science, Smartphone, Technology, Technology & Culture  Comments Off
Mar 162012
 

Welcome to Japanese Technology from the Future Friday!
It’s already Friday already here in Japan – we’re 16 hours ahead of the western U.S., which means I totally live in the future. And because it’s already Friday already, I’m left with little time to provide something original or worthwhile before the weekend hits.

So I aggregate!
(see all JTFF posts here)

Why Japan and J-Technology?
Well, I live here. So I’m uniquely positioned to tell you about the future, because I’m in the future. In Japan. And Japan has some of the best technology. See – simple!

Your Source for One-Upping Other People Who Care
JTFF is a conduit of specifically Japanese technological news that keeps readers a day ahead of half the world’s technologically interested/obsessed. I’m pretty sure.

::Japanese Technology from the Future Friday – March 16, 2012:: Continue reading »

DARPA’s James Cameron Mashup: Unsurprising, but Existentially Bananas

 AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Cybernetics, DARPA, Exoskeleton, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Military Robotics, NBI, Neurology, Prosthetics, Robot, Technology, Transhuman, Transhumanism, WarBots  Comments Off
Feb 212012
 

Remote-Controlled Humanoid WarBots
So DARPA got some so-called Avatar robot money in next year’s budget. This is interesting news that slips neatly into anthrobotic.com’s WarBot thread, but for those who follow the WarBot-machine-drone-non-directly-human-remote-watching/killing/delivering field of technology, it’s hardly a revelation. Becasue Predator, Reaper, Global Hawk, K-MAX, Sentinel, Packbot.
And more:
Drone aircraft and other remotely controlled vehicles in our unmanned arsenal already function as primitive avatars, so obviously this is a logical next step. But, as with most things DARPA, it begins an interesting discussion.

First, a question I haven’t quite figured out is:
Where’s the line between robot and R/C car or plane or whatever? Some consider our various military drones to be robots, but we wouldn’t really consider this here to be a robot:
Other than size and munitions and relocating to Nevada in order to play with it, isn’t a Predator drone essentially the same thing? Which is a robot and why? I don’t know, man!

What about an automated parking garage? Aren’t those kind of like building-sized robots lugging cars up and down and to and fro? Shouldn’t a gigantic semi-autonomous robot have geeks like me all kindsa dorktastically excited?
They don’t. Well, maybe me a little bit.

The thing is, there’s a kind of animal vanity at work here. I think in order for us to call something a robot, we want it to be at least vaguely modeled after something that is actually living. Or has lived. Because I’ve seen a robot T-Rex before, and it was unquestionably a robot.

Red = Pissed Off.

Continue reading »

Technological Utopianism is Way Better than Technological Apocalypticism. Robots, Robots.

 AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, Future Already Very Pending, Industrial Robots, Medical Robots, Military Robotics, NBI, Robot, Robot Art, Robot Emotions, Robot Love, Robots in Space, Technology, Technology & Labor, Technology & Work, The Beginning is Near  4 Responses »
Feb 142012
 

Robots in the Future are Coming to Take Your Job?
Oh No, Oh No!
Oh…  Not Really.
Okay, Maybe in China.
As my 6 regular readers know, I often go off on various angles of this issue. Have a look at the Technology & Labor category – one can see there’s certainly no shortage of hand-wringing, gee-whiz, and scare tactics. And why I think China’s economy is going to get hosed by robots.

One thing is for certain: putting “robot” in your title is shrewd marketing.

Two Futurists, Two Generations
Singularity Hub interviewed this younger guy Federico Pistono – talking about his upcoming book “Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That’s Okay,” which seems to be a commentary on our labor force’s pending inability to retrain itself, keep up with technological advancement, and manage/sustain continued growth (capitalism). Thereafter we get some riots and economic collapse. Hard to decipher where robots come into play – maybe just the marketing? Dude’s throwing out a healthy portion of pseudo-intellectual anti-capitalist hippy apocalypse babble, but while it might be somewhat myopic and one-sided it’s likely good perspective and food for thought. I wish him the greatest success with the book, but right now he sounds a lot deep in the danger of little information and little regard for the comprehensive, contextual, holistic nature of technological advancement.

Another position, recently unveiled at a TEDx appearance, is from older guy Thomas Frey. His bold proclamation is that by 2030, 18 years from now, 2 billion of the world’s jobs, that’s 50%, will have been lost. Frey lays out his 5 projections on areas of transformative advancement very soon to obviate current modes of employment, and he then proposes replacement jobs that will rapidly supplant that which was lost. Contrasting Pistono’s doom and gloom, Frey thinks we’re going to be okay, but there’s also an unsettling optimism in his words and bullet points. Are things REALLY going to change that fast in 18 years? And if they do, can humans really adapt so quickly? Maybe – I don’t know though. I dork out on the future all the goddamn time, and Frey’s timeline is challenging even for me.

Choose Humanity’s Adventure!
It makes me nervous when I realize I’m the moderate voice. Continue reading »

Where the Human Ends & the Machine Begins: Getting Unclearer…

 Aging Society, AI, Anthrobotic Originals, Artificial Intelligence, Brain, Consciousness, Cybernetics, Exoskeleton, Future Already Very Pending, Human Augmentation, Kurzweil, Medical Technology, Prosthetics, Technology, The Beginning is Near, Transhuman, Transhumanism, Transhumanism Test Pilots, We're Already Cyborgs Already  4 Responses »
Feb 032012
 

Cyborg Stuff
There’s an interesting piece over at NYT – The Dilemma of Being a Cyborg.
I’m not entirely sure what the dilemma is, but cyborg stuff is no small deal here at Anthrobotic, so it merits some consideration. Here are a few thoughts to roll the ball:

What are the Boundaries of my Physical Parts?
Okay, so I’ve got my guts, and my bones, and my connective tissues – like most people, that’s what I refer to as my physical “self,” the physical Me.

But… then I’ve got a few fillings and a few non-biological implants. Are those things any less Me? Are they just add-ons? What about the various bacteria and teeny-tiny bugs that at all times live in/on my body? Are those Me, too? As part of a whole bacterial culture, individual components pass and new are born – and at a molecular and sub-molecular level, nearly every cell in my body does essentially the same thing.

So my physical body, my Me, seems to be a bizarre combo platter of the co-dependent fauna, the implants (cyborg?), my body’s dead-cell accumulations of hair & finger/toenails, and transient molecules following a recursive pattern that results in my distinctly human biological structure, i.e., all my bones and squishy parts. In sum, these components make up my essential physicality, my manifestation, my both internalized and projected physical reference point for the world around me.

Well, I guess the thing is this: every living human is in a symbiotic relationship with the millions of other organisms contained by our bodies, and by definition many of us are already cyborgs (Dick Cheney, Stephen Hawking, Me). As such, what we routinely conceptualize as our discrete physical “self” isn’t nearly as cut and dried as we might think. Or quite necessarily, not think. Too much thinking about this would result in psychosis and/or a PhD in biological philosophy or losing one’s religion or something.

Technology’s helping us further explore and understand these ideas, but the catch is that it’s also totally complicating the issue.

Because What about the Boundaries of my Personhood?
Where is my Personality, or Soul, or Whatever? Continue reading »

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