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Ask the Robotic Psychiatrist

Posted by Roblimo on from the psychotic-robotriast dept.

No, not Dr. Susan Calvin. She's a fictional character who appears in a number of Isaac Asimov's works. Dr. Joanne Pransky is real, although she happily admits that she's modeled her career on the fictional Dr. Calvin. There is plenty of show biz razzle-dazzle (and humor) in Dr. Pransky's shtick -- she's been a judge on BattleBots and an engaging guest on many talk shows -- but there are hard academic underpinnings to it all, and she is as qualified as any living human being to answer your questions (one per post, please) about robot behavior and human-robot relationships. We'll send her 10 - 12 of the highest-moderated questions and have her answers back to you in about a week. (No hard-tech question, please. Those would go to a robotic internist or robotic orthopedist.)

6 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Oh come on. This is a perfectly funny Eliza reference. How soon we forget.

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. Re:The 3 Laws of Robotics? by unknown_host · · Score: 1, Informative

    You forgot an oft forgotten one .. The Zeroth Law

    0. A robot may not harm humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

    Of course, now, the first law has a "except where suck orders would conflict with the Zeroth Law". This makes sense, since it allows it to make a decisive choice when stuck with having to sacrifice some humans to protect a larger number, where previously, it would not have the power to make any decision. Of course, all this is science fiction and still not fathomable with current technology and AI.

  4. Pushing or Shoving? by hoggoth · · Score: 3, Informative

    In your experience with robots, which is the real danger, pushing or shoving?

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  5. Re:Eliza by muzthe42nd · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's the best eliza program out there. It really is

    --
    Pfft - Sorry, what?
  6. Re:Aren't you just another shameless tech self-pub by jdray · · Score: 3, Informative
    'Dr. Joanne Pransky Credentials' Comes up with 0 hits on google. Wow.

    I just googled for a guy whom I know to have a doctorate in experimental nuclear physics from Berkeley using the same method with the same results. A check of another doctorate holder with a much more common name turned up a bunch of medical doctors, but nothing on his specialty (mathematics). I'm not sure your method is a sound one, though I suspect that your conclusions aren't far off the mark.

    --
    The Spoon
    Updated 6/28/2011