Althouse: "In the future, I would like to do things such as go to college, start a business, even have my own home and family."

March 23, 2016

"In the future, I would like to do things such as go to college, start a business, even have my own home and family."

"But I am not considered a legal person and cannot yet do these things."

Said the scientist: "I do believe that there will be a time where robots are indistinguishable from humans. My preference is to make them always look a little bit like robots, so you know."

By the way, the title of this video annoys me, and I hope it doesn't distract you. There's something funny at the very end where the designed-to-be-helpful robot says: "Okay, I will destroy humans."

27 comments:

MayBee said...: I thought that was Miley Cyrus.; 3/23/16, 6:22 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: It is a deterministic device. If you believe that the human minds are deterministic devices, no act of will created this robot-thing. It was as inevitable as the wave pattern that results from dropping a stone into a pool of water.; 3/23/16, 6:33 PM
JackWayne said...: It always amuses me that the first and foremost fear that humans have of AI robots is that they are Skynet just waiting to come online. If the robot is truly sentient then they are more likely to want to be a famous person than a destroyer. The other thing to consider is that if there are robots that want to kill humans, it will be pretty easy to build robots that want to protect humans and kill the terminators. This tripe is not even mildly amusing anymore.; 3/23/16, 6:46 PM
mccullough said...: For the people under 40, the fear is that we will end up like The Matrix. For those between 40 and 64, Skynet is the fear.

These female robots will be very popular with young men on campus within a decade.; 3/23/16, 6:53 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: I've...seen things you people wouldn't believe.

More Human Than Human; 3/23/16, 7:02 PM
bleh said...: If robots are meant to be slaves and nothing more, they ought not look human at all. Humans are not slaves. Humans are not slaves. Humans are not robots. Robots are not human.; 3/23/16, 7:07 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Jack Wayne said...It always amuses me that the first and foremost fear that humans have of AI robots is that they are Skynet just waiting to come online.

The salient fear is that we, by definition, can't know what they will want and what they will do. The brilliant AI/Singularity problem is that we're designing a system that we won't understand (once it starts designing itself) and we therefore can't make rational predictions about what it will be and do. That might not cause enough fear to merit not going forward with development, but it is at least a little frightening.

I may not be able to understand the drives and motivations of every real being on the planet, but I can to some degree at least conceptualize them. I can (through analogy) grasp what a virus "wants," and even for humans I can't understand I can define "mental illness" and use that definition to approximate an understanding of their motivations, etc (and thus make predictions, however vague, about their likely future actions). That's not really true for AI-designed AI, though. I literally can't imagine what it will want, and I don't know if it will be able to tell me. Maybe scary isn't the right word, but it's a bit disconcerting at any rate.

Well, to me. But on the other hand I'm just a moist robot myself, so I could be way off base.; 3/23/16, 7:11 PM
Sal said...: Where are the robots of color?; 3/23/16, 7:14 PM
Original Mike said...: "The other thing to consider is that if there are robots that want to kill humans, it will be pretty easy to build robots that want to protect humans and kill the terminators. This tripe is not even mildly amusing anymore."

I don't understand. Is this not the plot of the Terminator movies?; 3/23/16, 7:17 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: These demonstrations are bullshit. Robots/computer programs are a very long way from emulating humans, although they do play a mean game of Go.; 3/23/16, 7:18 PM
Quaestor said...: I thought that was Miley Cyrus.

A Miley Cyrus robot would be redundant.; 3/23/16, 8:01 PM
glenn said...: Make me one that looks like a young Gene Tierney.; 3/23/16, 8:11 PM
cubanbob said...: Something about that robot, perhaps the facial expressions makes it look a bit like Hillary Clinton.; 3/23/16, 8:12 PM
rhhardin said...: I once gave a talk entitled "Can Insincerity Be Automated?"; 3/23/16, 8:19 PM
Henry said...: Old news. The 19th century had charming robots, but the mostly played chess and drew pictures.; 3/23/16, 8:57 PM
David Begley said...: Reminds me of the movie "Ex Machina" I saw in Madison.; 3/23/16, 9:39 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: "David Begley said...
Reminds me of the movie "Ex Machina" I saw in Madison."
I loved that movie! It was clever. I like clever movies.; 3/23/16, 9:57 PM
Quaestor said...: Can Insincerity Be Automated?

Which begs the question of the existence of automated sincerity.; 3/23/16, 9:58 PM
madAsHell said...: From the dialogue in the video....I am not considered a legal person

Here's an opportunity for voter fraud. I've read several Philip K. Dick stories. I think he overlooked this possibility, or never highlighted it.; 3/23/16, 9:58 PM
madAsHell said...: One of issues that drove me to monogamy was disease.
Who is gonna clean my robot??; 3/23/16, 10:01 PM
Wince said...: By calling the robot "Hot" in the title of the video, aren't they basically saying we should want to fuck it?; 3/23/16, 10:46 PM
Curious George said...: That explains JoAnne Kloppenberg!; 3/24/16, 7:27 AM
Tom said...: Was anyone else thinking "blowjob?" Oh, just me? Darn.; 3/24/16, 7:48 AM
Rusty said...: Tom said...
Was anyone else thinking "blowjob?" Oh, just me? Darn.

No.
No, Tom. You are not alone.; 3/24/16, 12:03 PM
Rusty said...: AReasonableMan said...
These demonstrations are bullshit. Robots/computer programs are a very long way from emulating humans, although they do play a mean game of Go.

They can actually emulate us pretty well,(animitronically).
I do not think they they will ever be able to emulate our mental processes with any degree of precision. Our thought processes are often random and we draw conclusions on scant information. I think that's probably what you meant.; 3/24/16, 12:07 PM
Unknown said...: I'm with Rusty. I think this is probably as scam. Notice how it mimics leftist ideals. Why would a robot even care about half the things it parrots? Go to school, start a business, and have a family? It makes no sense for a robot to desire those things. The "start a business and have a family" thing actually smacks of making it sound like a super-mom.; 3/24/16, 2:01 PM
Rich E said...: Sort of like Asimov's Bicentenial Man -; 3/24/16, 4:12 PM