Shoutbox

Hey all

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If You Build A Robot Smart Enough To Do The Dishes, Would It Be Smart Enough To Find Them Boring?

Could machines have a consciousness? This and many other thought provoking questions will be addressed by Judy the Robot and her human companion, Tom Sgouros. The show, which has been brought to The Robert Gordon University (RGU) by its School of Computing, will be staged on 7 March.
Tom Sgouros believes the search for the answer to the age old question of whether machines have a consciousness has overlooked the obvious - if you want to know if a computer has consciousness, ask her. Tom has conducted extensive interviews with Judy to address questions at the very heart of our identity as thinking beings: Can machines think? If you build a robot smart enough to do the dishes, would it be smart enough to find them boring?

Tom built Judy in his basement from pieces of old computers, bicycles, a photocopier, a marine stove and an old sink. After weeks of intensive tutoring in elocution, phonics and the elements of logic, Judy made her stage debut in January 2000 and since then, they have performed throughout the US and Canada, receiving rave reviews. The show in Aberdeen is Judy's most northerly destination on her mini Scottish tour.

Tom said, "The battles continue to rage about whether a machine could ever approach consciousness in the way that we understand it, and make meanings the way that we do. Oddly enough, in the search for the truth of the matter, both camps seem to have overlooked an obvious strategy - interviewing a computer and asking her opinion."

Professor Susan Craw, Head of the School of Computing said, "Tom Sgouros's witty play, co-starring the charming robot Judy, is an imagination-stretcher that delights while it exercises your mind. If you think you can't imagine a conscious robot - you must meet Judy. The show cleverly explores deep and quirky philosophical questions of consciousness in relation to Artificial Intelligence. The show will suit everyone - entertainment with insight for youngsters and the curious, deep relevance for those interested in Intelligent Computer Systems."

Tom and Judy will be performing his play 'Judy, or What is it Like to be a Robot?' when he explores such matters as free will, self-awareness with her and how to explain a chair to someone who can't sit down.

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I'm wondering if anyone from here has seen it and wants to give me their opinion as it coming to the university I am studying at.

Cheers

i haven't seen it, but i heard something either about that or something very similar.

it's sort of interesting, but in truth computers/robots are man made devices -they only posses "qualities" that we program into them. it is not the same thing as passing on ideology to a child for instance. we have an inborn consciousness. i think that this would be fun to see, but highly irrelevant

Yes I've seen this.  It was actually posted on the forums not to long ago.  but I wont post the "old news is so exciting" picture,

As long as the robots don't friggin attack us, I think it'll be interesting to have robot companions. (With our luck though, America will build some that understand their own strength and they'll kill us all. Bastards...)

Speaking of Americans and building robots, has anyone seen this?


By Francis Harris in Washington

Republished from Telegraph Group Limited

"The American military will have these kinds of robots. It's not a question of 'if', it's a question of 'when'."
The Pentagon is spending £70 billion on a programme to build heavily-armed robots for the battlefield in the hope that future wars will be fought without the loss of its soldiers’ lives.

The scheme, known as Future Combat Systems, is the largest military contract in American history and will help to drive the defence budget up by almost 20 per cent to just over £265 billion in five years’ time.

Much of the cash will be spent computerising the military, but the ultimate aim is to take members of the armed forces out of harm’s way. They would be replaced by robots capable of hunting and killing America’s enemies.

Gordon Johnson, of the US joint forces research centre, told the New York Times: “The American military will have these kinds of robots. It’s not a question of ‘if’, it’s a question of ‘when’.”

The American military is already planning units of about 2,000 men and 150 robots, among them land-based “infantry” devices and drone aircraft.

In the far future it is hoped that the miniaturised robots will walk like humans, or hover like some birds. Others may look like insects.

Scientists say that, working at full tilt, the process is likely to take at least 20 years.

Robert Finkelstein, the head of one development firm called Robotic Technologies, said the Pentagon has established the goal “but the path is not totally clear”.

In the meantime, the military is developing simpler technologies.

The US military has already bought a tracked robot which can enter highly risky sites such as cave complexes favoured by al-Qa’eda.

The machines have been deployed in Afghanistan’s caves, digging up roadside bombs in Iraq and guarding weapons storage sites.

The Swords robots come in several versions, carrying either a machine gun, grenade launcher or a light anti-tank weapon.

It is controlled by a soldier from a distance of up to 1,000 yards.

“We were sitting there firing single rounds and smacking bull’s-eyes,” said Staff Sergeant Santiago Tordillos, who helped to design and test the robot. “We were completely amazed.’’

That human involvement has proved critical in convincing military lawyers that machines can be used on the battlefield. More advanced machines which can decide whether to kill would also be legal, said Mr Johnson.

“The lawyers tell me there are no prohibitions against robots making life-or-death decisions,” he said.

The programme is already causing other nations to reassess their military priorities. Britain’s Armed Forces in particular will need to follow the American lead if only because the two militaries fight together so often.

While the cost of the scheme is huge, it may ultimately save large sums of money. Professional soldiers, their dependants and pensions are pricey. Once robotic technology is developed, the Americans say, the cost of a robot soldier might be only 10 per cent that of its human counterpart.

A US navy research centre in San Diego has already produced a robot built to look like a human. At 4ft high, it has a gun on its right arm and a single eye and could shoot at a target.

One researcher, Jeff Grossman, said the intelligence of the machines was increasing. “Now, maybe, we’re a mammal. We’re trying to get to the level of a primate.”

When researchers succeed, a number of troubling moral dilemmas will have to be addressed. Some in the American computer business are asking whether it is acceptable to have machines decide for themselves whether to take human life and what will happen when, inevitably, the robot makes a mistake.

Bill Joy, who helped to found Sun Microsystems, said 21st century machines could become “so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses”.

The US navy is to name its newest £1.3 billion hi-tech submarine the USS Jimmy Carter, in honour of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Mr Carter, the only president to have served as a submariner, will attend the launching ceremony for the 12,000 ton, 450ft vessel at the submarine base of New London on Saturday, with Rosalynn, his wife.


Source: http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/1195/Pentagon_prepare...ld_70bn_robot_army

I'm ashamed that they're even planning another war.

Bush "Rumours have been circling that we're preparing to attack Iraq........That's nonsense"

I think they are already ready

but yeah whole robot army thing is a bit bleh to me. We wouldn't have any skillful people left

Area 51 is full of secrets

IMO robots arent any good for humanity..and why?
Here is my theories and stuff about robots.

I think robots are and will be made (im pretty sure they will be developed in the future) with the objective of making our lifes easier..by other meaning: we dont have to move a shit.
If that happens your brain will no longer face that daily challenges that you are used to and gets lazy and you get a dumbass, except you do some exercise with the brains like playing chess and other activities that make the brain think!

With the robots if the right laws arent made in the right time the bosses of the companies would use them as employees and has they wouldnt have to pay them that would be "better" for the company, more profits..

In a very advanced state when the robots are really intelligent, and if they keep developing robots like they are trying to do atm( this means, imitating the human being ) they will get alive in some way!
They will start asking for their "rights".

As robots in that age are intelligent as hell and people dont use their brains to do nothing they will takeover the world kill all humans and bye.

that is so awesome but i dont see it having any feelings or human traits, a robot only does what we program it to do, we say this->robot does that not we say this->robot thinks about it and goes on welfare

Well no. I have not seen this before.. Though... everything of course, as mentioned is a matter of "free will" and "self-determination". If someone decides to really make a robot, then ook~ It's their decision. Just as long as the robots are programmed correctly. i guess everythign would be alright.

though.. I hope it won't turn out like Arnold Swarzennegar's "Terminator". =_=" I think I spelt his name wrongly? TT.TT

quote:

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Originally posted by Vazza

I'm wondering if anyone from here has seen it and wants to give me their opinion as it coming to the university I am studying at.

Cheers

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u want to study electronics? hehe thats what i want to study

and i find it very very very interesting..inventing and stuff