The parody and contradiction of robotics science

The parody...

The contradiction...

Wild encounters

And this summarized that day's lesson of father's kangoroo to the child kangoroo, on dealing with annoying flying creatures even if you are not biologically engineered to deal with this kind of situations.

It is called improvisation...

Are we robots ourselves?

Perhaps this is not the most common question one may ask to him/herself. The original question that i posed to myself was whether we will eventually be able to build robots as we envision them today. Is such a goal really feasible, it is realistic?

Below is the definition of the word "Robot", quoted from different on-line dictionaries:

- A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer.

- A person who acts and responds in a mechanical, routine manner, usually subject to another's will; automaton.

and so on... The origin of the word "Robot" is from Czech, literally meaning "forced labor".

The above two definitions are particularly interesting. Because they both clearly suggest that one can immediately turn himself into a robot if he simply put himself at the service of an external authority-power. 

Afterwards, the degree to which somebody is more skillful and effective compared to others in doing things automatically and repeatedly, only concerns how good or bad robot he or she is. It is not so much a matter of the quality of the "forced labor" to actually be a robot. This only affects the level of responsibility that will be appointed to the voluntary human robot.

So i ask again, are we robots ourselves? I think the answer is undeniable. Human behavior tends to be identical to the very definition of robot. But is this actually truly human or not? Or better, are we still in the state of robots before having accomplished to express our pure human nature?

We are trying to build artificial robots, and still we seem not to have accomplished much of our expectations. We all however become robots whenever we give away our own will to someone else's and provide our skills to another's service.

Given the current status, it seems to me more likely that we are going towards a robotization of ourselves. Metaphorically and literally...

As of the time of this writing, the hour is late. Time for me to recharge...

MiP toy robot

Quite a toy! Wouldn't you love to see the battle and stacking mode on a human-sized robot? 

For those having crazy christmas gift ideas, check out the full description here.

Note: i don't know in which of the blog categories to put this post, but depending on how many of you will see it and share it i will look into creating an appropriate new blog category. So... you know what you have to do ;-)

Robots at their infancy

The use of robots nowadays has already "escaped" from the realm of industry and is now becoming available to the citizens. We can find today commercial robots for various uses at very low cost that come together with tele-operation interfaces designed for untrained users or other which are programmable.

Robots are also in use by the military, space exploration, civil security and fire-protection at a small scale, but it seems that their integration will proceed further in view of their advantages over humans.

This, of course, has a different meaning for each particular case, but at the basis of all we can recognize cost and responsibility.

Regarding cost, it appears as a natural consequence if a robot substitutes a human, given that both can do equally well the respective job but the robot construction and maintenance is much more cheaper. Well... at least if that does not concern your job and only if the substitution of the human by the robot means that the respective product will be cheaper for you, the consumer. 

If that's the case, what about the unlucky man/woman that will loose his/her job because of the robot? Before answering that question, consider if you prefer to pay the more expensive product/service given by the man or the less expensive product/service given by the robot. If you are a philanthropist and prefer to save the man's job, what do you think that the rest of the society will prefer? You may start to think now, that the substitution of the man is inevitable, if not necessary. You may even become positive if you think that for the construction and maintenance of the robot, other men will have to work and new jobs will be have to be created.

In any case, the relation between production cost of a robot/machine and human labor cost seems to have a well-understood basis and a long history today, as it has started some centuries now with the industrial revolution.

But the use of robots outside the factory and in particular within human society has and will have very serious new implications. Within the small, constrained boundaries of a factory, the notion of responsibility is very clear and accountability for the operation of robots is strictly within the limits of the company.

Unfortunately, we are not yet ready to understand these concepts for robots that are at the hands of consumers and in general out there in the open world (see earlier posts Beginning of a new era and Beginning of new era II). With robots being produced at a global scale and without any regulation for permission of use, anybody with good gaming skills can become a robot owner and user.

I truly do not wish that as a society we will need to realize the potential of this technology through an unfortunate event, but i fear that the freedom and lack of control for use of this technology will sooner or later lead to such an outcome.

The source of the following video is from euronews channel and is about a series of air drone flights in the surroundings of several nuclear plants around France, which are currently under investigation with no information yet about the purpose of those flights or their operators. 

Is it about naive enthousiasts that just want to draw attention and try something daring, or is there something more serious behind such actions? Whatever the answer, now is the time to see robotics from a very serious perspective before we need to pay the cost of negligence. The days of innocence will soon be over.

Beginning of new era II: Sunbathing will never be the same again

This is what happens when air drone enthusiasts "accidentally" happen to fly over unwary citizens... in France.

You are advised NOT to try this at home (i meant the sunbathing on the terrace).

Beginning of a new era: Air drone causes chaos in EURO 2016 qualifier football game between Serbia and Albania

The football game between the national teams of Serbia and Albania for the qualifier round of EURO 2016, which took place the 14th of October 2014, has been forced to be terminated just a few minutes before the end of the first half. The disruption was caused when a remotely controlled air drone entered the stadium and started to hover around carrying an Albanian flag followed by the word "AUTOCHTHONOUS" which means "indigenous", from the greek "αυτόχθονας".

The football players and the fans were stunned by the sight, until a serbian football player managed to grab the flag that was immediately after pursued by Albanian football players. The overall confusion lead to a conflict between football players of both teams, followed by the intrusion of fans in the terrain.