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Service Robots in Service by 2010
Igor Birman writes "Reuters reports that Toyota aims to sell service robots by 2010. Meanwhile, the most advanced consumer robot produced in the US appears to be the iRobot Roomba, now available in pink.
More information is available at
Robotics Trends and
NewsTarget.com"
There's everything from robotic lawnmowers to the upcoming Scooba mopbot.
Aeris Died For Your Sins.
in AI voice processing so we start having those cool robotic butlers and dishwashers (Who actually pick up your plates and sweep the floor).
I find it amazing that hardware is advancing WAY beyond software.
And a few decades down the line, no-one bothers moving from their armchair. Why bother, when you can ask your robot to go get whatever you want?
Obesity and muscle wastage, here we come *...
* Excluding America; some of them are already there.
Asimov himself actually admits to having stolen the title "I, Robot" from a previously published sci-fi story. So whoever *originally* used it is rolling over in his/her grave.
Hasn't seen RoboCleaner. It is by far more expensive, but I believe it is a superior product. Roomba can now recharge itself (the more advanced models anyway), however the RC 3000 can also empty it's load. http://www.karcher.com/RoboCleaner/robo/english/en glish.html
Max: "You mind if I drive?" Sam: "Not if you don't mind me clawing at the dash and screeching like a cheerleader."
You obviously can't make a blanket statement about that, because robots already _have_ replaced some human workers in manufacturing, for example. Now, are you likely to see humanoid robots with human like intelligence walking into your office building carrying their briefcases in the next couple of decades? No, probably not. Gradually, more and more labor will be performed by robots though. It is merely industrialization continuing-- capital displaces labor.
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Crudely Drawn Games
Thus appear the first signs of Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" (made into a movie starring Will Smith).
It's only a matter of time until the 3 laws robots must follow need to be implemented into their AI, and then they will evolve as predicted, and we're doomed.
There's a reason so many science-fiction books have become non-fiction, anything a human can imagine, will eventually happen, through the laws of probability and advancements in technology.
If human ego or greed doesn't deplete/destroy the planet, what happened in "I, Robots" will happen to us.
Prime example: I forgot what the book was, but when Dolly the sheep was first cloned, there was a whole horde of books written years or even decades earlier (maybe even more in some cases), dealing with Cloning, that have since been recategorized into non-fiction.
how is babby formed?
...joints in the right hand.... Sounds like these things could handle a firearm. "There is no spoon."
For the tin foil hat crowd, heres an interesting essay about robots taking over,...and how it starts with general services:
http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm
Until major breakthroughs happen in AI, robots like these are just toys and no more useful than the gimmicky ASIMO. Personally I think the first major advance will be in natural language processing and help us better corral all the documents out there in cyberspace; intelligent (i.e. useful) robots will probably happen much later. Sad to see the Japanese keep wasting resources on creating simulacra of their anime cartoons instead of doing useful research and development.
This reminds me of the "escort" type of robots in the movie Artifical Intelligence: AI. When people refer to automation causing job loss they seem to refer to it in the sense of low level labor or manufacturing. I feel intimate robots who would be self-cleaning (safer health-wise), unable to be impregnated, and agreeable to any act imaginable would wipe out the high and middle prostitution market for "real" people. The low end would likely still see human demand as these robots may be priced out of the market of that segment for some time.
I wonder what impact robots will have on the current legality of prostitution and various taboos like animal/child sex. Will having relations with a cyborg child be illegal or still considered unethical? What about a robot dog?
There is also to ponder the case of the spouse who seeks what some call "strange"; the burning desire to sleep with a person apart from their current partner. Would an intimate session with a robot be an acceptable substitute to both parties? Would a person be justified in feeling cheated upon if their spouse slept with a collection of wires, gears, motors, and software?
Sacré-bleu! Where is me mama?