Journalist Charles Choi talks about work being done to make robots self-aware. Plus, we test your knowledge about some recent science in the news
| March 2, 2011 | 9
Journalist Charles Choi talks about work being done to make robots self-aware. Plus, we test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Web pages related to this episode include "Automaton, Know Thyself: Robots Become Self-Aware" and "New Challenges for Evolution Education"
[A transcript of this podcast will be posted.]
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9 Comments
Add CommentIt may be that robots will not develop consciousness until nanotechnology develops an artificial nervous system that can interact with the quantum level. You can see where this is headed...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisrobots can't identify a glass at this point. You think they can become self aware? NOT
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLol colleran..... Do you know anything about robotics and automation at all? It's one of the fastest innovating industries.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHell you go and read some other SA articles on the subject and find evidence as to the rapid sophistication of the technology. It's easily foreseeable.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=automaton-robots-become-self-aware
(Is one example).
One good thing about the collerans of this world -- they serve as a kind of cyclone alert -- they forewarn of the coming Geebus People vs. Science wars. The closer we get to Strong AI, the closer we get to being burnt at the stake while our libraries are torched.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou forgot to add geochemical cosmogenic nuclides (or you could just shorten the comment to, "It may be that robots will not develop consciousness until a bunch of scientific mumbo jumbo terminology...")
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy what definition do you define "self-aware", does any form of feedback qualify, does a rachet wrench qualify, or does ...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLike consciousness and so many other words you can define them to mean what you are pointing at and simultaniously you can define them to mean completely vague and abstract concepts.
If you define self-awareness as an obvious incremental step just above what robots can now do then of course robots will be self-aware in the near future. But is that a fair use of the word self-aware, as understoud by the average person, or even by the average scientist.
In fact, in terms of your analogy, I think the problem is equally spread out between the layman's and the scientist's use and misuse of language.
I think this comes down to one of the challenges of cognitive science. There is no real way to know what experience another being is having. We may be able to create machines with a very high level of self-awareness but we may never know if their experience of that awareness is anything like our consciousness. This may not mean much when it comes to building robots for tasks. Does it really matter how a robot feels about what they are doing as long as they are doing it? But it will matter when robots begin to ask for their rights. Then it will matter a great deal if the robot is conscious of who they are and what they want.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNice insight. Inspired.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSteve,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat a wonderful "the dog ate my homework" lead-in to the podcast. We have a local soap maker who produces "Petchouli" soap that doesn't just mask skunk odors, particularly the mercaptans that put the "punch" in pungent, but actually seems to neutralize the odor.
The robot story add credence to the hypothesis that intelligence, particularly defined as self-awareness, is an emergent property and not a fundamental one.