/ News
The Next Generation Of Robots Will Be Very Emotional, Very Social
We are entering a new era of technological connectivity. We already have ‘smart products’, ‘wearable devices’ and ‘the Internet of Things’.
Now we have robots, too.
Actually, this is not new either. Robots have been used in manufacturing for at least the last two decades, either waving their arms around as spot welders, or lumbering raw materials between assembly points.
The difference is that these new robots do not lumber. They skitter. They wink at you. They are deliberately designed, much like C3PO, to mimic our actions and register an emotional context. Whereas robots of the past worked for us, the latest versions (social robots) like Intel’s Jimmy, Softbank’s Pepper, social robot start-up Jibo–and the myriad shapes and sizes at Tokyo Toy Fair this month demonstrate they want to work with us.
More significantly, they will trigger emotions that will entice us to befriend them.
This is a dramatic shift in thinking that may take some getting used to. Or not. In fact, the device that we adapt and adopt first as passing the human gatekeeper may be the real winner.
Developers today are dissecting and sorting through the emotional actions, icons, and expressions that help us to respond and interact with fellow humans. In this way, they can utilize those winks, rolling eyes, head shakes (already familiar to iPhone users who enter the wrong password), and other non-verbal signals to help our brain get past the “robot” and to identify the wires and shell not as an inanimate object, but as a familiar and acceptable companion.
If not directly human, then all the signifiers of being human-like.
Background. The word “robot” first appeared in a 1920s play written by Czech playwright Karl Capek, the term deriving from the Czech word for “worker.” Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov used the word “robotics” twenty years later in his 1942 short story “Runabout.” Ever since, robots have enjoyed tremendous fictional status, cast as both major and minor characters in everything from “Star Wars” and “Robocop”, to “The Day The Earth Stood Still” and “Transformers.” Robots make good box office.
As usual, robots as devices are being given handy functional status. We are told they will make our lives more convenient. Even the Internet of Things has devices connecting with other devices to make our lives less complicated: they will lock our doors, adjust the thermostat and order groceries online and have them delivered to our door.
Nonsense.
Everyone conscious during the 1980s should experience some deja vu here, and remember how home computers were initially sold and marketed. We were told they were efficiency or convenience tools intended to balance the checkbook, organize grocery lists, even store family photos.
(At the same time, corporate pundits and CEOs were declaring the personal computer had no place in the home, much less in the palm of your hand.)
So let’s not be fooled again.
Fast fast fast forward. If you happened to glance at the June cover of WIRED magazine, you saw another wink at the future.
Thanks to Oculus Rift, you can now simply pop on some goggles and step into another world. But be careful. The full 3D reality the goggles immerse you in, tricks your brain into believing, and most importantly, feeling that you are standing on a ledge. Instinctively, you step backward. Until your brain confirms that you are safe.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickhanlon/2014/06/27/we-are-robot/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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