APOD: Space Station Robot Forgets Key Again (2014 Apr 01)

[Chris Peterson]

I think most robots which are personified by their creators, always seem to get idealised in some way, male or female. One doesn't see many "male" robots with a beer gut, for instance.

Bender?

Robots are human creations. Even robots creating robots creating robots ..., were originally created by a human at some point. So, arguably, all robots have a biological origin, and any quality of good or evil is merely a reflection of humanity. All humans have some good and some evil qualities. I don't think artificial intelligence will ever exist in any meaningful way.

Actually, I recall there was a Futurama episode where they ended up on a planet of robots that thought they were the creators of biological life.

I do think that artificial intelligences will exist within the next century that can't be distinguished from humans (and in some respects will be vastly more intelligent). Should make for some interesting ethical issues.

[Nitpicker]

Bender's torso is still broader at the top than the bottom.

[Chris Peterson]

Bender's torso is still broader at the top than the bottom.

True enough. Probably the rim of his shiny metal ass keeping things together. Still, though, not a very idealized depiction of a robot!

[Nitpicker]

The Olde Fortran has to go somewhere.

And maybe robots depicting idealized humans are harder to draw, or just not as funny.

But back to the unimportant stuff: an artificial intelligence that in some respects is vastly more intelligent than any human, should be able to be distinguished reliably by an intelligent human. Either way, it doesn't demonstrate "meaningfulness" to me (a definition for which I am withholding, as I might otherwise go on and on for days, and I'm due for a reboot).

[geckzilla]

I do think that artificial intelligences will exist within the next century that can't be distinguished from humans (and in some respects will be vastly more intelligent). Should make for some interesting ethical issues.

At some point I was reading How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil who makes it sound all but inevitable but there were some odd parts and I ended up reading some online reviews which poo-poo all over it and then never finished. Leave it to reviewers to spoil the fun of anything.

[Chris Peterson]

I do think that artificial intelligences will exist within the next century that can't be distinguished from humans (and in some respects will be vastly more intelligent). Should make for some interesting ethical issues.

At some point I was reading How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil who makes it sound all but inevitable but there were some odd parts and I ended up reading some online reviews which poo-poo all over it and then never finished. Leave it to reviewers to spoil the fun of anything.

Kurzweil is a complete nutjob, IMO. All that singularity stuff is just science fiction.

[Chris Peterson]

But back to the unimportant stuff: an artificial intelligence that in some respects is vastly more intelligent than any human, should be able to be distinguished reliably by an intelligent human.

What I mean is that don't think artificial intelligences will be able to think in a fundamentally different way than we do. But they may be much more intelligent in some senses than an individual human because of scalability and because of information access. A bit like Watson, the Jeopardy playing computer. Having instant access to all information can certainly make you seem very intelligent, but what it's really doing is making you faster.

[neufer]

But back to the unimportant stuff: an artificial intelligence that in some respects is vastly more intelligent than any human, should be able to be distinguished reliably by an intelligent human.

What I mean is that don't think artificial intelligences will be able to think in a fundamentally different way than we do. But they may be much more intelligent in some senses than an individual human because of scalability and because of information access. A bit like Watson, the Jeopardy playing computer. Having instant access to all information can certainly make you seem very intelligent, but what it's really doing is making you faster.

• Yes...but (in the spirit of the APOD) will the A.I. be more absent-minded

<<The absent-minded professor is a stock character of popular fiction, usually portrayed as a talented academic whose focus on academic matters leads him or her to ignore or forget his or her surroundings. The stereotype is very old: the ancient Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius wrote that the philosopher Thales walked at night with his eyes focused on the heavens and, as a result, fell down a well. (Note: according to Herodotus Thales predicted the solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BC.)

Isaac Newton, Adam Smith, André-Marie Ampère, Jacques Hadamard, Sewall Wright, Nikola Tesla, Norbert Wiener, Archimedes, and Albert Einstein were all scholars considered to be absent-minded by their contemporaries – their attention absorbed by their academic studies.>>

[geckzilla]

I do think that artificial intelligences will exist within the next century that can't be distinguished from humans (and in some respects will be vastly more intelligent). Should make for some interesting ethical issues.

At some point I was reading How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil who makes it sound all but inevitable but there were some odd parts and I ended up reading some online reviews which poo-poo all over it and then never finished. Leave it to reviewers to spoil the fun of anything.

Kurzweil is a complete nutjob, IMO. All that singularity stuff is just science fiction.

Haha, well, at least a partial nut. One of Pat's coworkers "gifted" him the book and I started reading it without bothering to look him up at all. Maybe he was offloading it rather than actually sharing a gift.

[Ann]

Click to view full size image

NGC 3079. Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/ngc3079/
Hi, Otto!

Sorry for posting here, but Otto Posterman, beloved APOD Robot, turns 3079 today and spends 24 hours as a robotic counterpart of galaxy NGC 3079.

Ann

[neufer]

Sorry for posting here, but Otto Posterman, beloved APOD Robot, turns 3079 today and spends 24 hours as a robotic counterpart of galaxy NGC 3079.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

• Actually... Otto is only 2994 today.

From time to time Otto has gone Full Postal H.A.L.
and thrown out multiple (~1.03 per day average) posts.

[b][color=#0000FF]APOD Robot Otto Posterman[/color][/b]

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