Having actively participated in humanoid robotics research for 6 years, and I can say that while many of us are aware of Asimov's ideas and principles (including the infamous "rules": i.e. a robot must never harm a human being) they are of (sadly!) little relevance at the moment.
Simply put, we are still hard pressed to have modern robots navigate as effectively or robustly as ants; and quite a far cry from having them act as servants. Additionally, and perhaps more tellingly, we have made surprisingly miniscule progress in learning for robots. Mimicking even a simple rat's (read: politician's) learning or sensorymotor abilities is still beyond us. This, naturally, has left us with little time, need, or incentive to contemplate how our robots could potentially be programmed to:
a) Not kill us. b) Obey us. c) Be emotionally satisfied with their existence as slaves.:)
Asimov is a visionary, no doubt, but his writing has not yet played a significant role in the _technical_ evolution of robotics, in my opinion.
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Having actively participated in humanoid robotics research for 6 years, and I can say that while many of us are aware of Asimov's ideas and principles (including the infamous "rules": i.e. a robot must never harm a human being) they are of (sadly!) little relevance at the moment.
:)
Simply put, we are still hard pressed to have modern robots navigate as effectively or robustly as ants; and quite a far cry from having them act as servants. Additionally, and perhaps more tellingly, we have made surprisingly miniscule progress in learning for robots. Mimicking even a simple rat's (read: politician's) learning or sensorymotor abilities is still beyond us. This, naturally, has left us with little time, need, or incentive to contemplate how our robots could potentially be programmed to:
a) Not kill us.
b) Obey us.
c) Be emotionally satisfied with their existence as slaves.
Asimov is a visionary, no doubt, but his writing has not yet played a significant role in the _technical_ evolution of robotics, in my opinion.