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Androids that look human

lrkun

New Member
arg-fallbackName="lrkun"/>
Cellphones, almost everyone has them. Imagine that imagine in your mind. Now superimpose the image of an android that looks human, where it will be difficult to distinguish one from another except, perhaps a halo or a symbol. Do you think, you'll be able to consider such a thing? What ethical issue will be involved?

Whether it's possible is no longer a question, because the technology is already available.


(1)
http://www.livescience.com/technology/060508_android.html said:
EveR-1, a Korean android capable of realistic facial expressions to express happiness, anger, sadness and pleasure was introduced to the public last week.

(2)
http://scientists.penyet.net/scientist-builds-female-android-robot.html said:
A Toronto-based researcher has built what he claims is the world's first fully functional female robot , a lifelike android named Aiko that is capable of recognizing faces, identifying medication, and even buttering toast.

I think it'd be cool to have. A new accessory likened to a cellphone or maybe something more. Who knows. What do you think?
 
arg-fallbackName="nasher168"/>
I don't know. Holding an android up to my ear and talking into it might be a bit tricky... :p

Joking aside, it would be pretty cool to have a robot to do chores around the house, but I doubt people would be very comfortable with one that looks too human. I wouldn't mind a humanoid one, but I wouldn't like it to have a mega-realistic human face. It'd just be too creepy. Something looking like C3PO or the robots in the I, Robot film (the old-fashioned ones, that is) would be alright, since it doesn't look too human and always has just a neutral expression.
To be honest, I can't imagine household robots are any more than a few decades away. If they catch on, that is. It could be that they'll just be like flying cars or video calls-no one actually wants one when the technology to have them is finally there.
 
arg-fallbackName="lrkun"/>
nasher168 said:
I don't know. Holding an android up to my ear and talking into it might be a bit tricky... :p

Joking aside, it would be pretty cool to have a robot to do chores around the house, but I doubt people would be very comfortable with one that looks too human. I wouldn't mind a humanoid one, but I wouldn't like it to have a mega-realistic human face. It'd just be too creepy. Something looking like C3PO or the robots in the I, Robot film (the old-fashioned ones, that is) would be alright, since it doesn't look too human and always has just a neutral expression.
To be honest, I can't imagine household robots are any more than a few decades away. If they catch on, that is. It could be that they'll just be like flying cars or video calls-no one actually wants one when the technology to have them is finally there.

20080821_eve-no-jikan-1-2.jpg


The image above can be hypothesized where androids look like humans, only that they are distinguished from people where they have that halo thing. Issues like having dependency on such an android comes to mind. Hehe.
 
arg-fallbackName="quantumfireball2099"/>
nasher168 said:
I don't know. Holding an android up to my ear and talking into it might be a bit tricky... :p

Joking aside, it would be pretty cool to have a robot to do chores around the house, but I doubt people would be very comfortable with one that looks too human. I wouldn't mind a humanoid one, but I wouldn't like it to have a mega-realistic human face. It'd just be too creepy. Something looking like C3PO or the robots in the I, Robot film (the old-fashioned ones, that is) would be alright, since it doesn't look too human and always has just a neutral expression.
To be honest, I can't imagine household robots are any more than a few decades away. If they catch on, that is. It could be that they'll just be like flying cars or video calls-no one actually wants one when the technology to have them is finally there.

With this, I agree. I think they should stick with a slick looking android that looks more like a robot than anything. I always found the hyposis of The "Uncanny Valley" very interesting in regards to this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
The uncanny valley
is a hypothesis regarding the field of robotics.[2] The theory holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's lifelikeness.
 
arg-fallbackName="Duvelthehobbit666"/>
I would opt for one that doesn't look human. They look way cooler in my opinion. Bit of a nerd with this but I would rather have something like C3PO than one looking totally human.
 
arg-fallbackName="nasher168"/>
Now that's different. A "cyborg" is still human, regardless of what augmentation they might hav. Personally, I would jump at the chance to have a few augmentations-maybe the ability to see in ultraviolet or perhaps muscles that don't tire.
Perhaps conversely to what I've said earlier, I think cybernetic additions to a human should look realistic. Apart from anything else, people stare at things that stand out as non-human additions. Wheelchairs, crutches, bionic limbs etc.
 
arg-fallbackName="lrkun"/>
Cyborg human hybrid
In 1998, Kevin Warwick, a Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University, became the world's first cyborg. Well, to be exact, he had a radio frequency ID implanted in his arm. As a result, he can turn on lights by snapping his fingers; once he let his wife's brain waves take control of his body (she's also cybernetic).

The rest is found in the link.
 
arg-fallbackName="PatrickTheScienceGuy"/>
nasher168 said:
I don't know. Holding an android up to my ear and talking into it might be a bit tricky... :p

Joking aside, it would be pretty cool to have a robot to do chores around the house, but I doubt people would be very comfortable with one that looks too human. I wouldn't mind a humanoid one, but I wouldn't like it to have a mega-realistic human face. It'd just be too creepy. Something looking like C3PO or the robots in the I, Robot film (the old-fashioned ones, that is) would be alright, since it doesn't look too human and always has just a neutral expression.
To be honest, I can't imagine household robots are any more than a few decades away. If they catch on, that is. It could be that they'll just be like flying cars or video calls-no one actually wants one when the technology to have them is finally there.
i dont know id rather like a robot like Data or the NS. but there is always the problem of people who fear them, this would cause some to become rouge like Lor. then we dont engineer emotions, then we have the problem of them gaining them through experience, like in Blade Runner, then we have to engineer a way of stopping them from gaining emotions, but some gain them anyway go rouge. there is an unending chain of events leading to our robotic slaves not doing as we wish. so then the best way i can see is make them look and act human and produce a way of telling them apart. or perhaps phase them in, in a way that society cant tell. the second seems more likely. example roomba, i know its a huge step from vacuum cleaner to humanoid, but its a start.

Edit:
i want a Kevin Warwick style implant allowing me to control robotic arms and such.
 
arg-fallbackName="lrkun"/>
http://gizmodo.com/5263015/16+real-life-cyborg-technologies
Why fight the machines when you can become the machines? As Oobject points out with their list of 16 cyborg technologies,bionic eyes, ears limbs and organs are already a reality. [Oobject]

 
arg-fallbackName="televator"/>
The way I figure, mobile devices have become pretty well rounded as compact multipurpose tools. It seems like just matter of time before they become more organic and/or integrated with our brains. Once that happens it'll open up a whole new realm of possibilities. Taking a picture with your integrated device would in effect be like having selective photographic memory...

I think human cyborgs will be more expedient in reaching a level of flexibility and practicality than a pure robot built from scratch. I think we might even find applications for them like the replicants from Blade Runner. Maybe even send them off to colonize off world territories for the rest of humanity to follow... Assuming we don't annihilate ourselves before then.
 
arg-fallbackName="Time Lord"/>
i am fine with human cyborgs, as along as they are programmed not to harm humans because then they can not over run us like they did in I-robot or BSG!
 
arg-fallbackName="lrkun"/>
http://www.orwelltoday.com/mooncyborgnasa.shtml
Cybernetics is the study of the relationship between
computing machines and the human nervous system...
There are scientists who now believe that
the human body could be run cybernetically,
i.e., it could be automated.
 
arg-fallbackName="nasher168"/>
Time Lord said:
i am fine with human cyborgs, as along as they are programmed not to harm humans because then they can not over run us like they did in I-robot or BSG!

A cyborg is a human that has had it's body replaced by mechanical parts. Say, for example, if I were to replace my eyes with higher-resolution, UV-detecting cameras and my limbs with stronger mechanical replacements then I would be a cyborg. I would still have my normal brain though, so programming a cyborg in any way is arguably a form of mind control.
 
arg-fallbackName=")O( Hytegia )O("/>
The Uncanny Valley is a species thing - almost all species in the world can tell what is their species and what isn't.
Humans... We know what a human is. If it's something that's supposed to look like a human, but is clearly not, would incite fear into most of us. If a human turned it's head 180 degrees (because it's a robot), I would have flipped the fuck out, whereas if I saw that it was clearly a robot the response would be entirely different ("Lolz you just turned your head backwards").
nasher168 said:
Time Lord said:
i am fine with human cyborgs, as along as they are programmed not to harm humans because then they can not over run us like they did in I-robot or BSG!

A cyborg is a human that has had it's body replaced by mechanical parts. Say, for example, if I were to replace my eyes with higher-resolution, UV-detecting cameras and my limbs with stronger mechanical replacements then I would be a cyborg. I would still have my normal brain though, so programming a cyborg in any way is arguably a form of mind control.

If technology became so advanced that you could download a person's memory and store it digitally, and then run it on a cybernetic body - then what defines Human and what defines Cyborg? At that point, isn't it just AI?
What about AI being downloaded into a similar body that the Cyborg has?

What you have now is a question of what makes us human - is it our memories? Our experiences? Our bodies? Our brains?
What about a "Ghost in the Shell" - where AI suddenly becomes self-aware, and begins making decisions and speaking for itself? What makes us more human than the AI in question?
 
arg-fallbackName="BrainBlow"/>
A manga I follow called "Franken Fran" had quite an interesting view on the whole robo servant thing. (read from right to left)
ufranken_fran_v05_c35_12.jpg

Can't say I disagree.
 
arg-fallbackName=")O( Hytegia )O("/>
BrainBlow said:
A manga I follow called "Franken Fran" had quite an interesting view on the whole robo servant thing. (read from right to left)
ufranken_fran_v05_c35_12.jpg

My authority on robots is a mix between Franken Fran, and Ghost in the Shell.

But, that is not always the case.
Fran's idea would serve in the case of, say, owning a dog. Loyal, Faithful, kind, likes to lick your face, and can even learn to fetch the paper for you and learn to cut the light switch on and off (and other incredible things).
But, what of people that own Cats? Ferrets? Other high-maintenance critters? They do nothing but demand loyalty and attention to themselves, and can easily be portrayed as actually owning the people who "own" them.

See how easily this topic derailed? xD
 
arg-fallbackName=")O( Hytegia )O("/>
lrkun said:
*Robot Singing*
I have just entered the Uncanny Valley...

We know that it's a robot - because it is not behaving or looking like a human.
It's probably the smaller things, more than the obvious ones - her lips aren't moving realistically to match the words. There's no emotion in her face. It's... Sadly evident that this is not human.
:[
 
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