His love is real, but he is not
Posted on February 5, 2005 @ 11:59 am
Aware of my concerns about the increasing likelihood of a robot-dominated dystopic future, Richard alerted me to this recent article from the Guardian:
Kim Jong-Hwan, the director of the ITRC-Intelligent Robot Research Centre, has developed a series of artificial chromosomes that, he says, will allow robots to feel lusty, and could eventually lead to them reproducing. He says the software, which will be installed in a robot within the next three months, will give the machines the ability to feel, reason and desire.
Kim said: “Robots will have their own personalities and emotion and — as films like I, Robot warn — that could be very dangerous for humanity. If we can provide a robot with good — soft — chromosomes, they may not be such a threat.”
Although he admits his ideas sound fantastic, Kim is no crank. In the mid-1990s, the professor launched the robot football world cup, which has since become one of the most popular means for robotics researchers to measure their progress against competitors from around the world.
Emotional robots capable of reproducing? Why don’t we just teach them ninjitsu while we’re at it? Oh, and only in Britain would the fact that a professor launched the robot football world cup be considered incontrovertible evidence that he’s not a nutcase.
Posted by Jess | Filed Under In the News |
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My primary objection here is to the use of the word lusty. Who uses that word? I’m human and I don’t even feel lusty.
Oh that, and the statement, “as films like I, Robot warn.” If that movie warned us about anything, it was that Wild, Wild West did indeed kill Will Smith’s movie career.