What a time to be alive!
As we sit in a self-driving Uber, using Siri to find the Autonomous Raman Machine in San Francisco while downloading the “Mitsuku Chatbot App” and “EZ Builder Mobile Robot App” we get to delve into the age old question of what is mankind’s need for robots, and why are they so fascinating?
Emotions
We’ve all got emotions, some more than others. What if robots could simulate these elaborate expressions to portray feeling and possibly connect with humans on
a deeper level. This is where the Simulative Emotional Expressive Robot comes in. Emotions
are the forefront of what makes a human, well human. Being that robots can simulate the very
thing that some of us can’t control, allows us the ability to connect with hardware in a
comfortable and realistic way.
With emotion capabilities, we can integrate robots into teaching and storytelling roles to better understand how we work. Studies have shown that trust is established when a physical attributes are mirrored to make a person feel more comfortable. In a sense, robots can animate an emotion to even go as far as to comfort others.
Dexterity
How many of you can throw a perfect spiral football or solve a rubix cube in less than a minute?
Strength is easy for some, but dexterity is where it’s at, especially when it comes to robots!
When Open Ai visited Reason earlier this year we found out a few new things involving what
robots are becoming capable of.
With something as simple as grasping your next cup of coffee from “Cafe X”, comes a new way
of manipulating objects using robots. This kind of engineering has made several breakthroughs
in various companies and small businesses that allow meticulous and tedious workflow to
receive a helping hand from our now automated friends. This may come as a shock to some
and a quantum leap for others, but as it stands right now, dexterity in robots can help humanity
get a grip on what we used to do, and pass them off to the robots!
Robots Of The Non-Killer Variety
There are several movies and television shows showcasing the vast timelines, scenarios and
outcomes that can and have “occured” in our day to day lives with robots, we know how
misconstrued this topic can be. So let’s dive into robots of the non-killer variety!
Iyad Rahwan brings into perspective how we as humans make moral decisions and how to
automate that level of morality when it comes to driverless cars. In this study Rahwan raises
questions concerning intelligent decision making using algorithmic sequences that; in the robot
world could possible translate fair and ethical action toward humans. Uber, Cruise and Comma AI are few of companies that we’ve met at Reason who are working on tackling these difficult questions and making an autonomous driving future possible!
Automation That Tugs On The Heart Strings
What kind of world would it be if we didn’t highlight the cute in automation? If you’ve ever sat
down and enjoyed the instant classic WALL-E and instantly noticed that you needed a
companion just as lovable as the clunky yet auspicious garbage disposing robot in the film, then meet Cozmo.
Cosmo is the mini version of WALL-E you can actually buy! Robots like this inspire relationships
with not just adults but children alike to engage in technology that is changing the world as we
see it. This gives us an opportunity to teach new generations about advanced science that’ll
pave our future.
Robots that make us LOL
Humor requires not only comprehension and improvisation but a social roll of the dice on our
intellectual and reasoning skills. Now, for a robot to pitch a joke or make someone laugh, now
that’s just preposterous; Or is it? A long awaited swearing module was finally developed for Boston Dynamic’s fearsome bots by Youtube user Mr. King.
Alongside the awesome swearing module, comes a creator by the name of Simone Giertz. She is a professional inventor, astronaut and “mad scientist” that builds bots for your daily life. Thing is, these robots aren’t all perfect, but then again who are we to judge! Her fun-loving and advantageous works of art make people laugh and think all at the same time.
Robot Singularity
This week, our fearless leader Elon Musk announced he will be backing a brain-computer interface company called Neurallink, bringing us a step closer toward the possibility of a Robocop / Akira-esque man-machine hybrid. “Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.” Musk believes that “it’s mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output.”
When chatting with Joe Rogan on the recent interview, Elon points out that perhaps the robot singularity is closer than we think. platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter are already like “cybernetic collectives” made up of people and machines. “We’re all plugged in like nodes on the network, like leaves on a big tree. We’re all feeding this network with our questions and answers. We’re all collectively programming the AI and Google plus all the humans that connect to it are one giant cybernetic collective. This is also true of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all these social networks.”
Reason Loves Robots
Do you love robots? Because we sure do! Come visit the best escape room in San Francisco where team building meets future technology! How will you use our robots to your advantage and escape our rooms; and how will you prepare for the inevitable robot apocalypse; there’s only one way to find out!