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Ask the Robotic Psychiatrist

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.)

2 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Honest Question by I_Love_Pocky! · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Ok, I just reread the posting, and I see that I misunderstood it. However, after rereading it, I still think it was very poorly written, it mentions no where that Dr. Pransky is a human. In fact, the way it is written seems to indicate that she is a robot (a robotic psychiatrist, not a human psychiatrist dealing with robotic issues).

    It states that she is real, but it doesn't state that she is a real person, or a real robot. It says she is as qualified as any living human being to answer your questions, and I took this to mean that she herself wasn't a living human being (obviously I was wrong).

    I was stupid not to follow the links and find out clearly what the article was about, but I think the only way anyone could know for sure what was indicated by the text of the posting would be to know who the heck Dr. Susan Calvin is. I have never read anything by Asimov, so I assumed Dr. Calvin must have been a robot who was also a psychiatrist.

    Anyway, now that I'm sorry that I fouled everything up with my post, but I'm glad my mistake was dubed a troll (how kind). And thank you for so tactfully pointing out my mistake, as it proves without a doubt that you are clearly of a superior intellect.

  2. Re:Honest Question by I_Love_Pocky! · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I didn't actually forget that. I even mentioned it (violet light having higher energy than other colors).

    It doesn't matter anyway, since I misunderstood the posting, and asked a question directed towards an AI, rather than some kind of wierd human psychiatrist that deals with human-robot interactions.