The Uncanny Valley strikes again. Really creepy-looking, and no offense against the lady that's the model, but when I saw it, I honestly thought it was a dude in a wig. I think that we need to be careful trying to unleash these almost-but-not-quite-human robots on the populace. That creepiness factor might make the more sadistic and violent elements among us get perverse pleasure in attacking the automatons. Fear often breeds violence, you know, and i can see a sick market for people building such robots expressly for the purpose of letting people maim and destroy them. in fact, that particular angle's been the topic of innumerable scifi stories over the years...
----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" <martinbaxt...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 15, 2010 4:53:55 PM Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Insert Personality: Robot Head + Human Consciousness = Someone out there... please tell me to put down the Beretta I'm pointing at my screen right now. Mind you, I fully expect that such will happen, far sooner than we think (some rich, dying billionaire out there, wanting to cheat the Grim Reaper). That could be trouble all its own. A consciousness, able to interact with the Internet directly? To quote Bill Paxton from "Aliens" -- "Game over, man." Any bad press? Gone. Any corporate takeover? Done so fast it would take days to sort it all out. If the guy likes porn? YouTube starts churning it out, whether it likes to or not. Anyone who'd like to use those ideas, feel free. Just let me know when they hit print, because I want to read them. On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 4:11 PM, Mr. Worf < hellomahog...@gmail.com > wrote: Insert Personality: Robot Head + Human Consciousness = The quest for artificial intelligence has led mankind to some pretty strange places, but the Terasem Movement has just taken it to a decidedly creepy new level. The non-profit agency is dedicated to educating the public about the necessity of extending life through cyber-consciousness. In other words, they believe that the human essence can be extended beyond life with the use of robots. They created this vaguely creepy robot called Bina48. The bot is the first privately-funded artificial intelligence robot of its type, and it’s modeled on a real woman named Bina Rothblatt. The real Bina spent many hours loading information into the head of Bina48, giving “her” a personality and the ability to converse with visitors. The above video documents Bina48′s interview with a New York Times reporter; it’s apparent that the technology can use a little refinement before we can trust it to store our consciousness after we die. But if its heartbreaking desires to have its own life, work in the garden and take over the world are any indication, we’d better start welcoming our new artificially intelligent overlords now. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvcQCJpZJH8&feature=player_embedded# ! -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
