CategoryRobotics
RoboCop 2014: Murphy Is a Real Boy After All
After his wife confronts him with troubling news about his son, Murphy starts a chain of events that enables him to confront key sources of crime and corruption
Does a Lack of Empathy Make You More Efficient?
Robocop (2014) tests out that thesis when Murphy, now a robocop, is matched against actual robots
Robocop 2014: A Good Movie Hampered by Bad Timing
The 2014 remake of RoboCop is considered a failure by most. I disagree. It has its problems but it is pretty solid in many respects
Alien Resurrection (1997) Part 3: Call Up the Reluctant Robot
Amid the harrowing crew escapes, Call survives being shot because she’s a robot. She somehow has sentience and hates being a robot
Study: Robotic Preachers Reduce Interest in Religious Faith
They are certainly not the answer to declining attendance and involvement that some have hoped they would be
Using Nanorobotics to Kill Cancer
There are some major breakthroughs in nanotechnology that could hold great promiseShlomo Nedvetzki, CTO of Nanorobotics, discusses the panel “The New Nanocosm” at the COSM Technology Summit 2022, which explored emerging technologies that hold great promise for advancing human prosperity. Nedvetzki focused on nanorobotic machines that can target and kill individual cancer cells. There are some major breakthroughs in nanotechnology that could hold great promise. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author of Beyond Capitalism: Read More ›
All We Need To Do To Give a Robot a Soul Is… (Error 404)
The author of Robot Souls argues that programmers have failed to put the “junk,” that is, the soul, into machines — but that they could do soAcademic publisher Taylor & Francis asks in TechXplore, “Should robots be given a conscience?” (June 11, 2023). I spoil no surprise by revealing that we are meant to think that that is both doable and desirable. T & F is publishing Eve Poole’s Robot Souls later this year. Poole is a British writer and academic, and author of Capitalism’s Toxic Assumptions, Buying God, and Leadersmithing. Her thesis is that, in our quest for the most functional software, we left out the “junk,” which includes our “emotions, free will and a sense of purpose”: Our junk code consists of human emotions, our propensity for mistakes, our inclination to tell stories, our uncanny sixth sense, our capacity to cope with uncertainty, an Read More ›
“It All Comes Down to Ethics”
Robert J. Marks interviewed for recent article on "killer robots"Robert J. Marks and his book The Case for Killer Robots: Why America’s Military Needs to Continue Development of Lethal AI were mentioned in a Fortune Magazine article by Jacob Carpenter, which discussed the issue of robotic and AI-controlled weapons in police and military forces. Marks was interviewed for the article and his phrase “in the end, it comes down to the ethics” was also featured in the article’s title. The article weighs different perspectives on weaponized AI and whether this is the direction the country is headed in the future. Marks notes the parallels with the gun rights issue in the debate over weaponized robots. The issue will inevitably extend to the question of AI deploying firearms, not just Read More ›
How San Francisco’s Gun Fears Prevented Lifesaving Innovation
Killer robots in law enforcement would reduce the death toll but they are a bridge too far for many politiciansIn November, 2022, San Francisco voted to allow police to deploy killer robots. Less than a month later, the city reversed their decision. Initially, in an 8-3 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors allowed law enforcement to use robots “as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.” Sounds like reasonable policy, but protestors held up “NO KILLER ROBOTS!” signs at City Hall and the Board of Supervisors caved. This may be a case of hoplophobia, an irrational fear of firearms. So-called “killer robots” can deploy explosives to allow passage through blockaded doors or, in extreme situations, kill those who put innocent Read More ›
Is It Technically Genocide If We Kill a Planetful of Robots?
Orville Season 3, Episode 9, features an EMP-like device that could wipe out the robotic KaylonThis is the best episode of the third season, but there was still plenty to question about the ethical underpinnings. The first scene shows the Krill’s Supreme Chancellor, Teleya, forming an alliance with the Moclans, who have just been ousted from the Union. This doesn’t make any sense. The Moclans hate women. Teleya is a woman. Now, the writers do take the time to address this discrepancy, but it’s a superficial attempt, and therefore, not enough to convince the viewer that this alliance could really happen. Stop and consider who the Moclans are: They don’t just have a bias against women. They hate women. So much so that they turn every child on their planet into a man. There is Read More ›
Why Don’t Robots Have Rights? A Lawyer’s Response
Robots are hardware and software packages that lack a nature or any abilities outside of whatever their designers imagine“Free the Robots!” “Equal Rights for Robots!” Or maybe: “Set Us Robots Free!” Such future protest signs might well pop up in social media, to judge from “Why don’t robots have rights?” (Big Think, October 31, 2022) Writer Jonny Thomson worries that “ future generations will look back aghast at our behavior” when humans can “no longer exploit or mistreat advanced robots” as will presumably be the case in the 21st century. Dig into the article and get techno-whiplashed as Thomson suddenly starts talking about “the 22nd century [when robots] are our friends, colleagues, and gaming partners.” Thomson’s article considers robot rights as analogous to animal rights. The summary asserts: When discussing animal rights and welfare, we often reference two Read More ›
How Robotics Can Help Speed Up Post-Stroke Rehabilitation
Robotics can help the therapist put the partially paralysed stroke patient’s thoughts and intentions back in the driver’s seatIn the United States alone, about 795,000 people suffer strokes each year, leading to varying degrees of paralysis. Post-stroke rehabilitation has come a long way in recent decades and one area of focus is robotic-assisted rehabilitation for both the upper and the lower body. That’s partly a medical issue and an economic one. As Physiopedia explains, It is used to supplement or facilitate rehabilitation by assisting in the repetitive labor-intensive manual therapy that is normally administered by therapists. This decreases the time demands on therapists as the robotic devices can help move the patient’s limbs during exercises, thereby increasing the amount of therapy for each patient and increasing the number of patients undergoing therapy simultaneously.” Here’s a demonstration of a Read More ›
Bionic Hands? Not An Improvement on Mechanical Hooks!, Says User
Right now, says a woman born without a left hand, electronic prostheses don’t function as well as mechanical extensionsWriting in the engineering journal IEEE Spectrum, Britt H. Young looks at bionics from the perspective ofa user. Her left forearm failed to develop prenatally. She offers a number of concerns about the direction of bionics, especially the expense of bionic limbs and their difficulty of use compared to simpler prostheses: Today, the people who design prostheses tend to be well-intentioned engineers rather than amputees themselves. The fleshy stumps of the world act as repositories for these designers’ dreams of a high-tech, superhuman future. I know this because throughout my life I have been fitted with some of the most cutting-edge prosthetic devices on the market. After being born missing my left forearm, I was one of the first cohorts Read More ›
Amazon Abandons Robot Home Delivery Service
Scout is in mothballs. We are told that “the program did not completely meet its customers' needs.”Delivery folks, don’t quit your jobs yet: Oct 6 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) will stop live tests of its automated delivery robot “Amazon Scout”, a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Thursday, after the U.S. retailer realized the program did not completely meet its customers’ needs. The company is now scaling back or “reorienting” the program, and it will work with the involved employees to match them to other open roles within the organization, Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll said, adding that it was not abandoning the project altogether. Technology, “Amazon abandons live tests of Scout home delivery robot” at Reuters (October 6, 2022) Amazon insists that it is not abandoning the idea. But problems with the model Read More ›
When a Robot Commits Suicide — an Elegy for What?
What’s frustrating about Episode 1 of Orville, Season Three is that robot Isaac’s claim to personhood is not ambiguous so much as confused and contradictoryLast time, we began our review of The Orville, Season Three, by discussing the unorthodox relationship between Isaac, the ship’s token robot, and Dr. Claire Finn. The bottom line is that they were romantically involved until Isaac turned out to be a sleeper cell for his race of robots, the Kaylon, who controlled an entire planet. In a climactic moment, Isaac — because of his attachment to Dr. Finn’s son Ty — defeats his programming and saves the Orville. Unfortunately, however, in the battle between the Kaylon and the Union fleet, many Union soldiers were killed defeating the Kaylon — and most in the Orville’s crew have not forgotten it. Dr. Finn and Isaac’s relationship remains somewhat ambiguous. What feels Read More ›
As the Robot Fry Cook Takes Over the Kitchen …
… Jay Richards’ new short “Science Uprising” special dismisses philosophical claims that humans are mere “meat machines”Science Uprising released an extra feature on Tuesday, following Science Uprising 10, in which philosopher Jay Richards discusses what underlies the myths of artificial intelligence: It isn’t a superior grasp of the technology involved that drives some (Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and others) to warn that AI will achieve superiority over human beings, drive us out of work, and finally out of existence. It’s the hidden premise that humans are just “meat machines” rather than spiritual beings in a creator’s image. If that were true, of course it would follow that other, faster machines would likely overtake and replace us. David Klinghoffer, “Jay Richards: Myths, Metaphysics, and Artificial Intelligence” at Evolution News (October 4, 2022) However it plays out among Read More ›
Tesla’s Optimus is Sub-Optimal
With other robotics programs far outrunning Tesla, it can be hard to see what Elon Musk is adding to the field and why he's even tryingAs promised, Elon Musk demonstrated his prototype robot “Optimus” at the 2022 Tesla AI Day. The original plan for the robot included: Navigating the world through AutoPilot (the Tesla vehicle’s driver assistance system) Being able to perform repetitive or dangerous tasks safely Being able to be instructed using natural language instead of programming A year later, the Tesla robot has not even remotely demonstrated the ability to do any of these things with any sophistication. That’s not surprising given Elon Musk’s penchant for promising things and not delivering them, but it does drive home the point that many of Musk’s mistakes stem from his more general misconceptions about the nature of the world. Musk is great at organizing people, capital, Read More ›
Should We Love or Hate an Intelligent Robot? Or Care at All?
In Season 3 of Orville that becomes a serious questionThe Orville Season 3 was recommended to me by a reader. I recall seeing a large portion of the first season and enjoying it. I had not watched the second season until preparing for this series of reviews. Unfortunately, I must say at the outset that I found myself very disappointed in Season Three, ironically called New Horizons because it only retreads about half of Season Two. This latest season fell far short of my expectations which were based on my memories of the first season. Still, we’re going to take a look at each episode and see where the problems lie. Before beginning our review of the first episode, a little prologue is required. During the midpoint of the Read More ›
Machine Uses Live Hawk Moth Antenna for Smell Detection
Human-created sensors are not sensitive, fast, or discerning enough to identify and process smells in the danger zones for which the Smellicopter was designedWe’ve often written about electronic prostheses that link up with the human nervous system — which essentially means controlling the prosthesis by thoughts alone. A reversal is also possible, as the University of Washington demonstrated in 2020: A machine (the “Smellicopter”) used an insect’s antenna to identify and seek out smells: “Nature really blows our human-made odor sensors out of the water,” said lead author Melanie Anderson, a UW doctoral student in mechanical engineering. “By using an actual moth antenna with Smellicopter, we’re able to get the best of both worlds: the sensitivity of a biological organism on a robotic platform where we can control its motion.” Sarah McQuate, “The Smellicopter is an obstacle-avoiding drone that uses a live moth Read More ›