Can a computer be intelligent like a human? We already accept the existence of other animal intelligences, as long as they’re not as intelligent as us. That is a heartbreaking notion of staggeringly arrogant species-level narcissism.
Aug 252011
Aug 132011
As the writing staff here (which is, you know, me) have been stuck in a southern Japanese forest for the past four days, not much new has happened at www.anthrobotic.com. But we’re back in the stream now, and will put forth on Monday. Until then, have a look at a slightly remixed/remastered version of the site’s most popular post ever: Technology Created Organized Religion. Next Project: Cults For & Against the Singularity. (Now with snarky topical headings to ease the pain of the article’s length!) Futurism, Techno-Sociology, Technological Anthropology, Sociotechnological Studies, Anthrobotic Sociology – or just, you know, generic human [read full post]
Aug 022011
Above, dude with a Terminator accent and his team at the Bionic Learning Network (how perfect is that?) built an ultralight robotic bird – it flies at a similar weight and with many of the movement and aerodynamic faculties of a seagull. His team let it fly around in a TED (VIDEO) presentation hall – which was pretty awesome. DARPA will certainly come calling soon… [VIA SINGULARITY HUB] Below, Tokyo Institute of Technology’s SOINN (Self-Organizing Incremental Neural Network) robot is all kinds of learning how to serve stuff to humans (we appreciate the classy coasters). It’s, you know, incremental – [read full post]
August 2, 2011
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Drone, Military Robotics, Multimedia, NBI, Robot, Technology, WarBots
Aug 012011
“…Lately we have begun to consider the possibility that technology might change us more in a generation or two than evolution has done over millions of years.” The always excellent Economist takes on the issue of transhumanism and the Singularity in a thoughtful and well-rounded piece. I’m hard-pressed to find anything to make fun of here, even coming up with some snarky or cheeky comment is proving kinda difficult. So, just have a read! [VIA THE ECONOMIST]
Jul 172011
The Sunday robot roundup! (it’s Sunday here – anthrobotic.com broadcasts from southern Japan) Okay, well actually I’m only rounding up two projects. First is the serious: Making Robots Safer – adding sensing technology and intuitive dexterity to working robots such as Nasa’s Robonaut 2 – which is nice. And then the playful: Virginia Tech’s Robot Soccer Team – entrants into the worldwide RoboCup soccer game [chose your own lame verb-pun: terminated, disassembled, reprogramed, hacked, etc.] the rest of the world’s teams in robo-soccer. These robots and the women’s meatspace world cup team have revealed that, though we realize the enjoyment [read full post]
July 17, 2011
AI, Artificial Intelligence, NBI, Robot, Robots in Space, Space Technology, Technology
Jul 152011
Here Kurzweil addresses a laundry list of psychological and sociological questions about the future of human technology and how that currently defines and will come to define our species. Agree or not, it will definitely light a fire in your brains. anthrobotic.com is definitely +1’ing this one. While it’s possible that Kurzweil is severely overoptimistic and overreaching in his proclamations, in evaluating his position two things are certain: one should not listen too carefully to the non-scientists or those who criticize from outside the field (like, for example, robot hater and closeted homosexual Senator Tom Coburn – that sub-reference never [read full post]
Jul 122011
We are getting better, much better… But it’s slow, and hard. This NYT article focuses primarily on “top-down” AI projects – projects seeking to actually find a way to manually express the complexity of natural movement, behavior, and understanding in the physical world. That seems terribly challenging. For researchers seeking a more… organic, or spontaneously emergent kind of AI or NBI (non-biological intelligence), see the work of Dr. Andrew Ng. And please don’t be put off by his junior high-level site design – this really is a case of not judging the book… [VIA NEW YORK TIMES]
July 12, 2011
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Brain, Military Robotics, NBI, Neurology, Robot, Technology, WarBots