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SXSW: Do Androids Dream of Being You?
Nerval's Lobster writes In 2010, Dr. Martine Rothblatt (founder of United Theraputics and Sirius Radio) decided to build a robotic clone of her partner, named Bina. In theory, this so-called "mindclone" (dubbed Bina48) can successfully mimic the flesh-and-blood Bina's speech and decision-making, thanks to a dataset (called a "mindfile") that contains all sorts of information about her mannerisms, beliefs, recollections, values, and experiences. But is software really capable of replicating a person's mind? At South by Southwest this year, Rothblatt is defending the idea of a "mindfile" and clones as a concept that not only works, but already has a "base" thanks to individuals' social networks, email, and the like. While people may have difficulty embracing something engineered to replicate their behavior, Rothblatt suggested younger generations will embrace the robots: "I think younger people will say 'My mindclone is me, too.'" Is her idea unfeasible, or is she onto something? Video from Bloomberg suggests that Bina48 still has some kinks to work out before it can pass for human.
lol I was worried I would be the only one annoyed by this story, then your comment came along and saved the day.
Seriously this is more of an art project than anything, and if you view it as an art project, it's rather cool. From a 'meaningful art' perspective, you can even take it as a sarcastic commentary on the sad state of AI research......that we haven't made much real advances in understanding how the human mind works for a long time, and that parlor tricks like Eliza are the best we can do in strong AI.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."