Tele-presence Robot Appears in a Daytime Game Show

I saw The Price is Right the past Wednesday morning. And if you haven't seen that one, you'll never guess one of the prizes that were up for bid. Or... maybe you will.

It was a robot! A tele-presence robot. How cool is that?!

Jonathan from Let's Make a Deal appeared on the robot's monitor to describe the product.

You know, I thought one of these days a robot would be a possible prize on The Price is Right. First, for 2016 it may be another tele-presence robot or maybe a robot vacuum cleaner from iRobot. Next year, it could be a Meccanoid kit, or from Aldebaran Robotics, NAO or Pepper.

Offering a product as a prize is certainly a good way to market it. Good for robotics businesses too, in this case.

Who knows? Maybe in 2017, robots may become an occasional prize on The Price is Right or Let's Make a Deal. This Wednesday was just the beginning.

What are your thoughts on this little TV event, dear readers? What would it mean?

Let's start this conversation! Go ahead and leave your comment below.

Cartoon Robots in ROBOT Magazine!

I recently read the May/June 2016 issue of ROBOT Magazine, and to my surprise (and overwhelming joy!) an article about cartoon robots was featured in the issue. The article is written by Brett Weiss, a writer and expert in Pop Culture related to video games, TV and movies and other entertainment.

Here are some of my favorite cartoon robots that he mentions:

• WALL-E
• The Iron Giant
• Astroboy
• Baymax
• Optimus Prime
• Gigantor

I had coffee when I read the magazine. So I dunno if I became super hyper because of the coffee or because I read that article, or because I did both. But I was fired up!

It may have given me the jolt I needed to return to updating Cybernetic Dreams at a more regular schedule.

Right now, I don’t have a defined schedule for posting for Cybernetic Dreams. It is my personal robot blog, after all. I seem to post when I feel like it. And I know that I should have a more regular schedule if I hope to gain and keep more readers.

Aldebaran Robotics Nao and Pepper videos (my reactions)

While I take break from writing, once in a while I spend some time watching videos of humanoid robots on YouTube, whether they are documentaries or demonstration videos...

My particular favorite robots to watch are the humanoid Nao and Pepper social robots from Aldebaran Robotics.  I am fascinated by how the robots interact with the humans, more so than how the humans interact with the robots.

One certain video I watched recently was a presentation I didn’t expect. The video was focused on Pepper’s capabilities in interacting with humans. I was enthralled by Pepper’s behavior. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZekX3JOZDDY

However, later the video became a little upsetting to me. It’s not objectively upsetting; it could be that I am overly sensitive to watch I watched.

I observed how the woman asked Pepper certain questions that I knew it wouldn’t be able to answer. The voice over in the mini documentary had mentioned that Pepper avoids talking about his emotions.  Whenever Pepper asked the woman a question, the woman would interrupted the flow of the conversation by asking Pepper a much-unrelated question. It takes Pepper some several moments to process the reply and prepare a response. Questions like “Do you believe in a God?” and Is it “God that created you?”  I watched and got frustrated.   

“What are you doing? Don’t ask him that!”  And “Why are you asking him that?!”  And it led me to believe that Pepper was troubled by the woman’s replies and avoided the questions by going on as if his previous topic was never interrupted.

Am I a terrible human being to feel sympathy for a social/domestic model robot who is interrupted by odd, tactless questions? I shouldn’t be. Those were questions a robot shouldn’t feel pressured to answer early on in its development. I realize they might be tests at a center where Pepper is showcased for prospective owners. Just…

I got angry and overwhelmed. I was saddened. I wanted to defend Pepper. But I couldn’t, and it frustrated me. I know the robot isn’t actually “alive” so to speak, but I’m really sensitive to how people treat robots.

Other questions asked by the interviewer are those like, “What makes you angry?” “Do you want to become a human?” and “Do you believe in destiny?”

Afterwards, to avoid leaving the Internet in a sour mood, I watched another couple of videos that were more cheerful than this one.  They both featured Robi the Robot, the small, fatally-adorable humanoid robot you have to build one component at a time over the course of 18 months. (I say fatally-adorable, because in the many instances it did cute little things, I “died” from the intense cuteness.) 

The first video was a demonstrative video about some things it does and shows how it interacts with people in a domestic setting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPjlJKRa7Uw

The next video I watched after that was the 100 Robis dancing on January 20, 2015.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgyDgsz-T9Y

It was enough Internet videos of robots for me for one day. But it was enlightening too. I want to watch them mainly for entertainment, but I am educated about them as well. I cannot afford to go out of town, out of state for that matter, to attend a robot show.  Plus, the only robot-related convention I ever went to in my 30 years of life is BotCon in 2014, and of course, that’s for The Transformers (owned by Hasbro).

Hmmm… I wonder which YouTube robot videos I should see next…? Do you have any suggestions? What do you recommend? Do you have a favorite robot video or favorite robot?

I saw CHAPPiE, and I loved it!!

          I was able to take a few hours away from my home and see CHAPPiE.  (When I refer to the movie itself, I spell it in all caps except for the letter “i.”  When I am referring to the title character, I go ahead and spell it out “Chappie.”)

I am excited.  This will be the first review I’ve ever done in Cybernetic Dreams.  I was going to write one for RoboCop 2014, but I never got to it.  I didn’t even get the chance to announce that I saw Big Hero 6 on December 13^th last year.  Big Hero 6 just may be my next favorite robot movie right under I, Robot. Maybe when I see those two movies again I could have a review prepared for each.

But while CHAPPiE is still fresh in my mind, I want to write my reaction about it, at least.  Which may read like a review.

Okay, so it’s not a review.  But it’s my opinion.


           I hope to complete my “review” of CHAPPiE within the next two weeks.

Almost Human: The Sci-Fi Show We Need Now, Part 1

So I’ve been watching Almost Human for the last several weeks and I have to say (needlessly) that it’s become my favorite live-action TV show.  I love Dorian; he is very funny and great and he looks like he can be my cousin (I am mixed and my hair is a short afro as well).  But generally, the show has a good mix of action, suspense, humor and soft moments.  It can get really intense, to the point where I don’t realize I am holding my breath for the entire segment of the show until commercial time.  The episode “Arrhythmia” was hard for me to watch without feeling a little angry, maybe even my blood pressure raised a little bit.  But I love this show.

Even more important to me about Almost Human besides great characters are the powerful issues it touches on:

• Civil rights, equality (MX’s priority to energy charging stations in an emergency, Dorian excluded)
• Ethics (especially robot ethics…)
• Derogatory words for robot (“synthetic” is neutral, but still offends Dorian in the beginning of the show because he is seen as fake).
• Fear (human fear and even Dorian’s fear)
• Crimes in the future (watch the show and see how scary crime is in this future!)
• Jobs in the future (such as the Recollectionist who helps people recall forgotten memories with the help of a machine)
• Money in the future (i.e. bit-coins)

I really enjoy Dorian and Detective Kennex’s car conversations.  They get to know each other, understand each other better during the drive and we as viewers get to learn about them both too…

When I think back about how they first worked together, Detective John Kennex has changed a lot.  In the beginning he called Dorian a “synthetic,” and Dorian responds “I am not a huge fan of that term.”  I can understand why: he feels human enough that being called a synthetic offends him, implies that he is not real and therefore his feelings and opinions don’t matter.

But they do matter because Dorian is not just an android cop, he’s a valuable friend.  Dorian saved John from quite a few tight traps so far.  Even volunteering to risk his functionality, his life, to save a human victim trapped in the middle of a crime.  He may be too altruistic for his own good.  It seems that in each episode that he gets into a fight, his injuries become more serious. 

I want to write a really good essay on Almost Human and the important issues and themes it brings up. It will have to wait a little longer. For now I want to say that that my guesses about the show (before I started watching it on its November 17, 2013 premiere) were fun to make and now I can enjoy the show as it is.  Of course I was wrong about the “experiment” thing…so far, I could be wrong and something might come up, right?  It repeats on Saturdays at 8:00pm if you can’t catch the regular airing on 8:00pm Mondays.

Please, I want to start a discussion!  If any of my readers want to say something about the show, your thoughts/feelings about it, share it in the comments or email me through Blogger.  Who else enjoys Almost Human?  Or who dislikes it?  I will be respectful of your opinions—just respect mine as well!   ;)

A Combat Robot Show on the SyFy Channel

I still need to see the movie Real Steel, but I am kind of excited about this new show.  It's titled, Robot Combat League.

For once, the SyFy network is actually airing a show that focuses on robots.  But it is not just any robot.  No.  It’s going to show combat robots.  Robots made for fighting.

Fighting for the entertainment of humans.

In a way, I kind of don’t like that idea at the same time.  I don’t like to see two robots try to destroy each other.  At least when humans do it in sports like boxing and wrestling, they don’t try to kill each other, and yes there will be injuries.  But do robots know when to quit the damage?  Maybe if they had some sort of “damage gauge” built into their visual sensors, they’d tell when the other one is losing and it’s time to stop fighting.

Mega Man X would not want to see this.

What helps me easily deal with this oil-shed is that the combat robots don’t really have faces.  They may have something on their heads that resemble eyes, or one eye, but that is all.  

I’m going to give this show another chance, but otherwise I’m not sure if I want to waste any more hours watching people waste awesome perfectly-built robots.  They would do best at a science show and be operated to “air-fight” so as to not damage the other robots. Why is the act of physically fighting so entertaining to us humans?  Is it because we don’t like to do it ourselves but it is rather fun to see other people—or robots—do it instead?  Has our violent culture gone too far?

Futaba Humanoid Robot

I have to share this video as well. I like the music that is playing in the background; it enhances the wonder that comes from watching this video. With a remote control, this robot can walk in different directions, even do a head-stand! I've watched this video four times now and it still amazes me.

Watch what happens when it falls down ;D




www.robots-dreams.com

Reading Technophobia!: I understand the movie I, ROBOT, better now…

I was reading more of my self-appointed acquired reading for my research: the book by Daniel Dinello titled Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology. I’m glad I got back to it. It is my own copy of the book, now, since I had to return the other copy at the CSUN library. This way I don’t have to rush through reading it, and I can underline the text and write in the book if I need to. I still take notes in my notebook for this self-assigned research project.

Last time, I left off at a part of chapter three, right before “Cybernetic Perfection: The Laws of Robotic Obedience.” I felt so giddy reading this section because I figured it would go into Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

“Asimov’s robots, as they developed in more than forty stories and

several novels, became more caring, more sensitive,

more human than humans.” (Dinello, 65)

I guess these robots don’t necessarily have to look human in order to be “more human than humans.” Even emotion gets the better of us humans sometimes, and with a controlled understanding of emotion, robots could prevent situations from getting worse (such as in a strong argument or trying to teach a human a new skill).

What I want to focus on now though is the section of chapter three that made me have to share what I learned from it. I’ve seen the movie I, Robot (2004) several times by now. I can’t believe I didn’t think about this next idea, but at least I am aware of it and will watch the film again with this deeper understanding. The new models of robots are supposed to keep their human masters safe, right? I didn’t think more about this around the part when the NS-5s are glowing red and telling the humans to return to their houses and obey the new curfew. It seems that the robots’ goal is to control the humans and keep them inside their homes so that the robots can live as they want as well as “serve” their human clients. This goal may also help the robots rule the city, and then the planet.

“Freedom permits humans to make mistakes, so the humanoids eliminate freedom.”

(Dinello, 70)

These humanoid robots are being too helpful in preventing crime and injury for the humans. It is too much control over the humans because they don’t have the freedom to exit their house, or cook their food or even go to work. In short, the NS-5s would be keeping the humans from themselves.

Humans make mistakes. For the new model servant humanoids to take the humans’ chances to make mistakes is like taking away their humanity.  I’d understand that the humanoid robots (I really want to call the NS-5s androids) would want to protect the humans so that they don’t get harmed, or harm each other.  But it would go too far.  In the film, I thought that the robots were being evil and just wanted to take over the city.  Now I understand that the NS-5s had been ordered to make the city a place where the robots do everything for the humans to the point where the humans can’t do anything.   I didn’t take into account that the Three Laws of Robotics used in these new robots were designed in them to be exaggerated and subtly turned into laws that would affect humans in a negative way, namely human freedom.

Watching I, Robot again will be very different next time, I can see...

I am also interested in the topic about humans’ racism towards robots and humanoids. Dinello mentions and discusses titles like Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and the film Blade Runner, and even titles I don’t recognize such as the film Creation of the Humanoids and the novel Fairyland (1995). Even one of my other favorite robot films A.I. Artificial Intelligence has a racism issue towards robots that I didn’t identify in such a deep level, until reading what Dinello says about it in Technophobia!.  Now I want to read these unfamiliar titles and watch the unfamiliar films, because I am inspired to further investigate for myself what racism against robots means to the robots, in whatever degree they are affected by that racism.

Reading Robots Unlimited, Chapters 10 through 13

Sorry, I haven’t updated Cybernetic Dreams for a few weeks. I believe in time’s opportunity cost, and when I wasn’t reviewing and typing, I was still researching. Now that I am taking a short break from the research, I can update on my latest readings on my research on robots.  I focused especially on the chapters of Robots Unlimited that talk about robot consciousness and robot ethics and rights, chapters 12 and 13 respectively.

I am pleased that there is at least some discussion on cyborganization (specifically “brain augmentation”) in Robots Unlimited, when the author David Levy talks about Professor Kevin Warwik and his “leading the world’s attempts to create a cyborg,” and I wanted to take note of what Levy says about Warwik’s ideas about the cyborg.

“He uses the verb ‘upgrade’ to emphasize the superiority of cyborgs over humans. The upgrading process enhances human capabilities by adding whatever computing power and/or memory and/or AI resides in the electronics embedded in the human body. The cyborg brain, eventually, will be part human and part machine…” (Levy 410)

I was thinking about my cyborg story when I read this because I want to better understand what it means for my cyborg protagonist to have cybernetic enhancements, to live and to fight. My second cyborg story, which I might have to work on later because of a lack of plot, will benefit from this description of the cyborg, including this definition, which I think is its primary meaning:

“a human with one or more mechanical or electronic device implanted in his or her body to enhance the human’s capability.”     (Levy 409)

I find that word “enhance” very provoking. It comes up once in each of the quotations from the book that I included here. Cybernetics not only can preserve a person’s life for medical reasons, but cybernetic implants can improve the person’s ability, whether it’s sight or speed or thinking power. It makes me think of the video game coming up later, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, in which this game’s main protagonist Raiden is a cyborg, and a bad-ass looking one at that. Wait a minute, I think I did mention this video game in an earlier post, but it’s just still fascinating to me.  Did Raiden willingly become a cyborg or was he forced into the cybernetic enhancements in order to survive?  It sure gives him some sick cool abilities!

I loved the chapters on Robot Consciousness (Chapter 12) and Robot Ethics and Robot Rights (Chapter 13). I spent the most energy and note-taking on those two chapters. And I don’t often think about the rights of robots and their treatment, in terms of social treatment and medical (maintenance) treatment. I wanted to know more, and I had to look up the bibliography for the Ethics chapter and found a website with an article called “Humanoid Robotics: Ethical Considerations,” written by David Bruemmer. It’s found at this page: http://www.inel.gov/adaptiverobotics/humanoidrobotics/ethicalconsiderations.shtml .  I read the whole article and I was in awe.

A lot of what David Levy and David Bruemmer say in their writings inspire me to write short stories about humanoid robots— androids, I prefer to say—that deal with ethical issues surrounding themselves and their clients. I know I am reading these books and articles so I can have a better understanding of the subject of robots, androids and cyborgs when I write the novels that feature them. However, in terms of material for short stories, this information is the most I’ve ever had, and there will be more. Will I ever write a short story again where the main character is human?

Sometimes I wonder if I should ever get into the robotics field. Nah, I don’t need to. But it would be nice to meet people who are in that field, if I just wasn’t so damn shy to meet these robotics professionals.

Technophobia----reading the book so far…

I feel bad because for a whole week I didn’t read any of the library books. I only felt like reading them when I knew I would be able to sit down for at least two hours at a time.  I finally got around to continue reading Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology by Daniel Dinello.

Right now I am done reading the first chapter "Technology is God."   I found it really fascinating and scary that technology and religion could eventually be combined to form some sort of principle for enhancing life: eventually everyone will replace their organic bodies with artificially created ones, and leave their biological selves behind. I read about the “Extropians”, who are people who believe in enhancing life through “technological expansion,” as Dinello explainds.  I guess being limited to living less than 100 years in the nature-given organic body is undesirable.

Why do people want to live forever?

This book is pretty heavy reading. I mean, it’s great, and eventually I might buy a copy for myself so I can re-read it if I need to. But it gets depressing because it makes me think about my own mortality. I am 25 and I still have so much to live for, but I know I’m not going to live forever. I’m even afraid of my life being cut short by a gun shot or a car crash. Will my parents still be alive in a time where hearts can rebuild themselves or an artificial brain can send signals to the body to stop the process of aging, or reverse it?

I am writing about these thoughts because I always believed that there is a life after death, an afterlife stage. But perhaps another form of afterlife is life after having a biological body. Afterlife could now mean becoming a robot, the human brain being put into a mechanical body. Is that “cyborganization”, or would this person still be a robot? Is humanity still there?

I will have to review my notes and read more of this book carefully, of course.